All categories · August 2026

We re-sourced the catalogue against exact-product documents. 70 scores moved, most of them down.

On 1 August 2026 every criterion in the catalogue was re-checked against exact-product documentation. Estimates were replaced with sourced figures where a document exists, and withheld where none does. 70 of 122 previously published scores changed. If you bookmarked a score last week, this note is the explanation.

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The 1 August correction set

Most score movement was downward after exact-product evidence replaced estimates

Moved down57

of 122 matched records

Moved up13

of 122 matched records

Unchanged52

of 122 matched records

Chart data

Series	Value	Note
Moved down	57	of 122 matched records
Moved up	13	of 122 matched records
Unchanged	52	of 122 matched records

What the pass did

Every estimate resolved: sourced, or withheld.

Before this pass, 19% of scored criteria carried an editorial estimate, and our own rule of 31 July had begun discounting them. The pass eliminated the category: every criterion now either cites an exact-product document or is withheld and scored at the non-disclosure floor. Criterion-level source linkage rose from 54% to 81% of all scored rows, and on inverters, previously the weakest class, from 44% to 80%.

The corrections ran in both directions. One inverter's warranty term was recorded as 7 years from a launch press release while distributor listings said 2; the manufacturer's own warranty terms settled it at 5. Another manufacturer's warranty assurance was corrected downward from parts, labour and extendable to parts only, against its current warranty document. 13 products moved up. 57 moved down, which is what you would expect when launch materials, which lean optimistic, are replaced by datasheets.

The largest movement, explained

A pre-release flagship was scoring on inherited estimates. It now scores on its own record.

The AIKO G4 Infinite Ultra, announced at SNEC 2026 with commercial deliveries scheduled for later this year, previously scored 77. Much of that score rested on figures inherited from AIKO's shipping Gen-3 panels: an estimated temperature coefficient, an estimated NOCT, warranty terms carried over from products that have published theirs. This product has not yet published a datasheet, a certification record or a warranty document of its own.

The pass withheld every value without an exact-product source, and the score initially fell to 49. That first result over-corrected: it withheld company-level facts, AIKO's listed financial position, its manufacturing track record and its manufacturer-level PVEL Top Performer status, which do not vary by model and are sourced identically on AIKO's five scored sibling panels. Those were restored the same day, and the definitional fact that the product is a back-contact panel with them. The score now stands at 60.

What 60 means deserves stating plainly. It is not a judgement that the product got worse, and it is not a comparison against newer panels; nothing has superseded it. It measures how much of this exact product's specification is currently on the public record, and for a pre-release product the honest answer is: not much yet. When AIKO publishes the G4 datasheet, warranty and certifications, the withheld criteria will score on them, and on the launch claims the score has room to rise well past its old 77. The fastest route is publication, and that is the incentive the benchmark is supposed to create.

What did not change

No rubric band moved, and no product was rescored by hand.

The band tables and weights are unchanged from the 31 July versions. Every movement in this pass came from evidence, a value corrected against a document, sourced where it was estimated, or withheld where nothing supports it, with the same rules applied to every manufacturer including those stocked by the retail group disclosed on our disclosures page. A manufacturer that publishes a document we have not seen can move its score through the evidence correction route, and for pre-release products that is the whole story: publish the datasheet and the score follows.

Sourcesdataset builds and product documents

• Score movement measured between the published dataset of 31 July 2026 and the dataset of 1 August 2026, across the 122 products present in both: 70 changed, 13 up, 57 down. Catalogue total is now 147 following a separate product expansion.
• Criterion source-linkage measured from the published dataset audit rows: 54% to 81% overall, 44% to 80% for inverters. Estimated criteria: 19% to 0%.
• Fronius warranty term settled against Fronius's published warranty terms for registered inverters at or above 50 kW. SMA warranty assurance corrected against SMA's current warranty document.
• AIKO G4 Infinite Ultra: launch announcement, aikosolar.com, and the absence at recheck of an exact-product datasheet, certification record, warranty document or Australian listing, checked 1 August 2026. Company-level facts sourced as on AIKO's five scored sibling records.