Central Spark Victoria

25/08/2026

From time to time, existing solar owners get a letter in the mail addressed to 'The Owner' from ***** Battery Group. The letter advertises a battery for $2980 and it's written in a straight forward manner such that an unwitting consumer may think this offering is more-or-less a typical choice. Only in the fine print does the letter state the pricing is for a 5 kWh battery. This is a very small battery, roughly three to five times smaller than what works best for most people. Also the battery advertised rates a mere 2.3 stars out of 5 on ProductReview .com. au. We ask ourselves why on Earth anyone would want a 2.3 star product powering their home? Then again, the letter does proudly advertise "Australia's Cheapest Battery, Guaranteed". If you were shopping even for a fridge, would you want the cheapest one available?

So, here's a question to the audience ... what items around the home would you willingly choose the cheapest available product? And what experiences have you had with such purchases?

ProductReview.com.au is a website devoted to providing consumer opinions on products, services and businesses in Australia.

11/08/2026

Solar and Battery information sessions are back!

At Wesley Hill Bakery - Grist.

1. Wednesday 26th August
2. Wednesday 2nd September
11am till 12.30

Bakery snacks provided

How much is the subsidy?
What do they cost and do you want one?
Solar panels – their differences and similarities.
Inverters – big ones or little ones?
Rebates and other government incentives.
And … anything else you want to ask.

SOLAR & BATTERY Q & AINFORMATION SESSIONS Join for updates COMMUNITY INFORMATION SESSIONS We run casual, chat-style information sessions around the area. We call them Solar & Battery Q & A. Solar panels – their differences and similarities. Inverters – big ones or little ones? Monitoring – why...

24/07/2026

How's this?
Here's some solar pricing from 2008.
A 4.2kW system costed over $51000, that's over $12000 per kW.

In 2026 we have a best available 4.2kW for $7200 (before rebates).
That's around $1700 per kW.

That's 7 x cheaper (and probably 5 x as good, in respect to manufacturing quality).

What else in life has become 7 x cheaper?

21/07/2026

Birds-eye solar.
The addition of 24 x Winaico 465W panels is at the bottom, with the original 8 x 250W panels on top.
Interesting here is how much larger, in physical terms, the new panels are, along with how powerful they are, but also this represents the scale of solar upgrades people are doing these days. Original install, around 2kW, limited by funds / rebates and encouraged with generous feed-in tariffs. People are commonly tripling or quadrupling their solar investment. Thanks Jack and Angela

01/07/2026

For some this could be a boring post about a trailer.
For solar boffins, it's photo of a genius, custom trailer. Note: vertically stacked panels to prevent torsion leading to panel micro-fractures. Side loading mandatory fall-protection equipment, with room for more equipment under the panels. All lovingly packed days prior to an installation. Between 1 and 3 of these leaving he workshop every day!

09/06/2026

Our equal favourite battery, FRANKLIN WH, has just had its capacity boosted to 15 kWh, at the same price. What a win! That's more than 10% extra capacity.

We have over 30 of these installed in the field, all working fantastically. It's a great product, very robust. Exactly what we need for sturdy grid resilience.

02/06/2026

As winter hits and the sunshine fades and the rain and fog closes in, we want you to remember to still consider solar and battery. It's been a very busy year and winter enquiries probably won't get installed until spring.

As encouragement, Central Spark will give all new enquiries a FREE PIE from Piper St Food Co, through winter. Simply present yourself to our KYNETON office with a copy of your power bill.

Happy Winter !

https://piperstfoodco.com/pages/pork-pies

25/03/2026

Over the past two decades of rapid uptake of solar in Australia, we've moved from 'saving' small amounts of energy to 'generating' large amounts of energy. This system on a designer home in Campbells Creek, Victoria, will generate 74 kWh a day (5 times the average home) to provide full large home power inc. water pumps and air-conditioning, independent of the grid, during long power outages.

05/03/2026

Central Spark Victoria is looking for a new team member to help out on a temporary/part time basis. The role would be based in our Hitchcock St office and is quite flexible. The business is growing and the role will likely become a permanent position in the future.

It involves the day to day admin of our busy local solar business. Experience with MS Office, CRMs and good IT skills are essential.
Its a pretty fun so drop me a line
[email protected]

10/02/2026

What a treat!

Al and his coffee van are parked outside Central Spark for the next period of time!

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61579001077924