During a severe weather event, please always follow any given by emergency services, your electricity network/distributor, or device manufacturer first.
This guide explains how your home battery or solar hardware responds to extreme heat and cold, why your system might act different to usual, and specific features (like Storm Watch) that you should know about.
Jump to:
→ Extreme Heat
→ Extreme Cold
→ Extreme Weather/Storm Protection Features
Extreme Heat
What happens to solar inverters?
Most solar inverters operate efficiently up to an ambient temperature of roughly 45°C.
When the temperature climbs higher (or if the actual inverter is in direct sunlight) it will automatically reduce its power output to protect its internal components.
Derating/throttling: In extreme heat conditions, the solar inverter may deliberately throttle itself. You might see a flat line on your generation graph (clipping) or a lower peak than usual.
Safety Shutdown: If internal temperatures get critically high, the inverter may shut down completely until it cools off.
What happens to batteries?
Batteries (specifically Lithium-ion batteries) have a 'Goldilocks' temperature range, usually between 15°C and 30°C.
Derating/throttling: In extreme heat (roughly over 40°C), the in-built Battery Management System (BMS) of your hardware may slow down charging or discharging rates to prevent the battery cells from overheating. If the battery unit itself gets too hot, it will stop working entirely to prevent thermal runaway (fire risk).
What should you do?
Check Ventilation: Ensure the air intakes/fans on your inverter and battery are not blocked by leaves, cobwebs, debris, or other items.
Don't Panic: If your solar output drops on a hot day, it is likely that the system is protecting itself. It will most likely resume normal operation when a cool change arrives.
SmartShift: Our automation may continue attempting to send commands to your battery and/or solar system, but your hardware has the final say on actually implementing those commands. If the battery refuses to charge for safety reasons, SmartShift cannot override that.
If you'd like to disable SmartShift, you can do so from the Amber app (tap Settings → scroll down to 'Amber SmartShift', then tap View → then switch OFF 'SmartShift Automation' at the top of this page).
Extreme Cold
What happens to batteries?
Charging Blocks: Most lithium batteries cannot charge if the internal cell temperature is below 0°C. Doing so would permanently damage the cells. As such, your devices in-built Battery Management System (BMS) may prevent your battery from charging during cold temperatures.
Reduced Power: You may notice your battery may not be able to support high-power appliances (like an induction cooktop) without grid assistance. This occurs because cold weather conditions cause the chemical reactions inside the battery to be slowed down, therefore creating lower power output.
Slower Charging: For the same reason as the point above, you may notice your battery charging slower than expected in cold weather conditions.
What should you do?
Be Patient: As the day warms up or as the battery discharges (which creates internal heat), it will eventually reach a safe/normal temperature to begin charging again.
Pre-Conditioning: Some batteries (like Tesla Powerwall) have internal heaters that will consume a small amount of grid energy to "pre-heat" the battery, so that it can charge normally.
Extreme Weather/Storm Protection Features
Some manufacturers offer specific weather-based features, designed to protect your household from grid blackouts. These features generally override SmartShift automation.
In addition to extreme heat and extreme cold, these features may also cover weather events such as cyclones, bushfires, and flooding.
For more information, please check with your device manufacturer.
If a storm mode activates your battery may exhibit unexpected behaviour, such as charging to 100% from the grid (ignoring potentially high prices) to ensure you have backup power if the grid goes down.
Tesla Powerwall Storm Watch
How it works: Tesla automatically detects severe weather alerts from the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM). If a severe weather alert is detected, the Powerwall charges to 100% and holds that energy.
SmartShift Impact: During an active Storm Watch event, SmartShift cannot discharge your battery. Once the weather event passes, the battery system returns to normal and SmartShift commands should resume.
You can enable/disable this in the Tesla app under Settings → Storm Watch.
Sigenergy Storm Watch
How it works: Sigenergy automatically detects severe weather events. If a severe weather alert is detected, your Sigenergy system will force charge the battery to 100% to prepare for a blackout and hold that energy.
SmartShift Impact: During an active Storm Watch event, SmartShift cannot discharge your battery. Once the weather event passes, the battery system returns to normal and SmartShift commands should resume.
You can enable/disable this in the mySigen app.
Enphase Storm Guard
How it works: Enphase automatically detects severe weather alerts from the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM). If a severe weather alert is detected, your Enphase system will be automatically set to Full Backup and 'Storm Alert: On' will be displayed on the Status screen of the Enphase app.
SmartShift Impact: During an active Storm Watch event, SmartShift cannot discharge your battery. Once the weather event passes, the battery system returns to normal and SmartShift commands should resume.
You can enable/disable this in the Enphase app under Menu → Settings → Profile, then tap Storm Guard.
SolarEdge Weather Guard
How it works: SolarEdge automatically detects severe weather events. If a severe weather alert is detected, your SolarEdge system will force charge the battery to 100% to prepare for a blackout and hold that energy.
You can enable/disable this in the mySolarEdge app.
Other Manufacturers (AlphaESS, Sungrow, GivEnergy, etc.)
Other manufacturers may also have an automated 'Storm Watch' feature linked to live weather data. Please check with your device manufacturer for more detail.
What to do: If you are worried about a storm and want to ensure you have reserve power, you could:
1. Use your manufacturer’s app to manually increase your Backup Reserve (sometimes called 'Min SoC', 'Backup SOC', or similar) to 100%.
2. Use the SmartShift manual controls to force charge your battery to 100%, then disable the SmartShift automation.
Manual controls are available in the Amber app → Devices → Plan → scroll down, then tap 'CONTROL MY BATTERY'
Deactivate SmartShift in the Amber app → Settings → scroll down to 'Amber SmartShift', then tap View → then switch OFF 'SmartShift Automation' at the top of this page
Important: Remember to change it back after the storm, or SmartShift won't be able to control your battery.
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