Hanchu ESS
One manufacturer for the inverter, the battery and the charger, which means one app and one number to ring when something needs looking at.
4.7 on Trustpilot
No obligation
Why people ask for Hanchu ESS by name
Most solar and battery systems are an assembly of three companies' equipment held together by an installer's goodwill. When something misbehaves at year four you get a conversation about whose fault it is. Hanchu make the hybrid inverter, the battery and a charger that all talk to each other, and that single point of responsibility is worth more than any individual specification on the datasheet.
The batteries are heated, which sounds like a detail and is not. Lithium does not like charging below about 5°C, and an unheated battery in an unheated garage in January will quietly refuse to take the cheap overnight rate you are paying for. A heated pack carries on working through a Yorkshire winter, which is when you most want it to.
We fit a lot of these and we fit them because they work and because the support is responsive. It is not the badge people arrive asking for, and it usually ends up being the one they are glad they bought.
- Inverter, battery and charger from one manufacturer, on one app
- Heated battery packs, so they still charge through a cold snap
- Hybrid inverters sized for ordinary British houses
- Zero-rated for VAT until 31 March 2027, with or without solar
We are a Hanchu ESS installer
The full Hanchu ESS range
We fit the whole Hanchu range — every inverter size, every battery capacity and the chargers that go with them. The three below are the arrangements most jobs fall into, not a list of what is available.
Roughly how the range maps onto real houses:
Solar and storage together
A new install where the panels and the battery go in at once.
- Arrangement
- Hybrid inverter and battery, one system
- Benefit
- One manufacturer, one app, one warranty conversation
- Expandable
- Add capacity later
- Grid
- G98 or G99 application made for you
Battery on an existing array
Panels already up, whoever fitted them.
- Arrangement
- AC coupled, so your inverter stays
- Works with
- Any existing inverter brand
- Tariff
- Set to your off-peak window at handover
- Note
- Often the cheapest useful upgrade to an older system
Battery with no solar at all
A house on a cheap overnight rate with no roof worth using.
- How it pays
- Fills at the night rate, runs the house by day
- Cold weather
- Heated pack keeps taking charge in winter
- VAT
- Still zero-rated, panels or no panels
- Sizing
- From your usage, not your roof
How Hanchu ESS compares
| Hanchu ESS | Tesla Powerwall | A mixed-brand system | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who makes the parts | One manufacturer, end to end | One manufacturer, end to end | Two or three |
| Cold-weather charging | Heated pack | Managed thermally | Depends entirely on the battery |
| Sizing | Modular, add later | 13.5 kWh, stack more | Whatever the parts allow |
| Whole-home backup | Available | Yes, with a gateway | Rarely |
| Who you ring at year four | Us, then one manufacturer | Us, then one manufacturer | Us, then an argument |
| Best for | Getting the most system for the money | Backup and a new install | Nothing we would specify |
The honest verdict
Why we fit a lot of them
- One manufacturer across the inverter, battery and charger, so responsibility never gets split
- Heated packs, which is the difference between a battery that works in January and one that sulks
- Modular, so the system starts at the size your usage justifies and grows with an EV or a heat pump
- Good value for the capability, which means more of the budget goes on panels
What to weigh up
- It is not a name most people arrive already knowing, and some buyers want a badge they recognise
- Whole-home backup needs specifying at the design stage, not bolted on afterwards
- A battery only pays if your tariff has a cheap window to fill it from; on a flat rate the sums are much weaker
- Like any battery, it makes no electricity, so on a house with no solar it is a tariff play and nothing else
Questions we get asked about Hanchu ESS
Who are Hanchu ESS?
A manufacturer making hybrid inverters, home batteries and EV chargers as one ecosystem, distributed and supported in the UK. We fit a lot of them, which is the honest answer to whether we rate them.
Why does a heated battery matter?
Lithium will not take a fast charge much below 5°C. An unheated pack in an unheated garage spends January quietly declining the cheap overnight rate you are paying for. A heated one carries on.
Can I add it to solar I already have?
Yes. It goes in AC coupled, so your existing inverter stays where it is whoever made it, and the battery works alongside it.
Is it any good without solar?
It works, and on an off-peak tariff it can pay, but understand what you are buying: a battery makes no electricity. All it does is let you buy at the cheap rate and use it at the expensive time. If that gap is small on your tariff, the sums are weak.
What about the warranty?
The manufacturer warranty on the equipment, which we register for you rather than leaving you a form, plus our own workmanship warranty on the installation.
Get a price for a Hanchu ESS system.
We come and look at the house, tell you whether this is the right unit for it, and put the price in writing.