Aurora / Power-One inverters
Aurora and Power-One Inverter Repairs Perth
Power-One set up in Sydney in 2005 and sold its residential inverters under the Aurora name, which is why so many early Perth solar systems carry that badge. The company was acquired by ABB in 2013 and the solar business passed to FIMER in 2020. If you have an Aurora inverter, it is at minimum a decade old, and possibly closer to twenty years.
Common Aurora / Power-One inverter faults in Perth
Capacitor and power-stage failure
The dominant failure at this age. Electrolytic capacitors dry out, and a unit that has worked through fifteen Perth summers has had a hard thermal life.
Cooling fan failure and derating
A noisy Aurora is usually also a derating Aurora, losing output on the hottest, brightest days when it should be doing its best work.
Display and interface failure
A dead display does not mean a dead inverter. It is worth testing before condemning.
Isolation faults from aged DC cabling
Roof cabling of this vintage has had a very long time to chafe, perish or admit moisture.
What we do
The warranty position is better than most Aurora owners assume. FIMER took on ABB’s solar business and committed to honouring existing ABB warranties, and it runs an Australian support operation with an online serial-number check. That said, a genuinely Aurora-badged unit is old enough that it is usually out of any term. Our job is to test it, tell you honestly whether repair makes economic sense, and where it does not, replace it with a modern inverter sized to the array you already have rather than sell you a new system.
See all inverter repairs or read about PV system repairs.
What an ageing Aurora is actually costing you
Aurora units rarely fail cleanly. They derate first, often for a year or more, and because the system still reports as working the loss goes unnoticed. In Perth that is expensive in a specific way: under Synergy’s buyback scheme you are paid 10 cents per unit for exports between 3pm and 9pm and 2 cents outside that window, but you buy back at 32.3719 cents on the A1 tariff. Generation you quietly stop producing is replaced at the buy rate, not the sell rate, which is why a tired inverter costs several times what the missing kilowatt hours suggest.
Questions
Is anyone still supporting Aurora inverters?
The product line passed from Power-One to ABB in 2013 and to FIMER in 2020, and FIMER committed to honouring existing ABB warranties. Whether your specific unit is still in term is a serial-number question. Given the age of Aurora-badged units, most are not, but it costs nothing to check before assuming.
My Aurora has stopped completely. Repair or replace?
At this age, usually replace. A failed power stage on a fifteen-year-old inverter costs more to diagnose and source parts for than a new unit. Where the fault is a fan, a connection or the display, repair can still be worthwhile. We test first and tell you which case you are in.
Will a new inverter work with my existing panels?
Almost always. The replacement is sized and configured to the array you already have. Panels routinely outlast inverters, so replacing the inverter on a sound array is the normal outcome, not a rebuild.
Brand names, logos and product names on this page are the property of their respective owners and are shown only to identify the equipment we service. Solar Repairs is an independent repair and servicing business. We are not an authorised agent, approved service centre or reseller for any manufacturer listed here unless stated otherwise, and we make no warranty on their behalf.
Aurora / Power-One inverter playing up?
Tell us what it is doing. We will test it, find the cause, and put the fix in writing before any work starts.
