Passive components for Australia from Hong Kong start with one question: which rung of the mains ladder does your equipment sit on? We parsed all 379 Walsin varistor rows. Each of the 17 parts rated 230 Vac has a 250 Vac twin and a 275 Vac twin at the same size and surge rating. Only the varistor voltage moves.
Venatech Limited, an authorised Walsin distributor in Hong Kong, holds the Walsin Technology (Walsin) parametric exports: 379 varistor rows in Walsin_MOV_ALL.xlsx, 24,026 MLCC rows in 00_ALL_MLCC_parts_combined.xlsx and 234,815 chip resistor rows. This playbook is for an Australian buyer building solar-storage, inverter or remote-site equipment who wants to know what a Hong Kong source can and cannot supply. Every part number below is real and every count is ours. Where the post states a rule or a market figure, it names the source, the document date and the day we fetched it.
What do Australian solar-storage and remote-site buyers need from a Hong Kong distributor?
Mains-rated parts, high-voltage ceramics and a documentation trail that survives a compliance review. The Clean Energy Council counted 276,011 home batteries installed in Australia in the first half of 2026, adding 8,691 MWh, so the volume of equipment that needs these parts is rising fast. The same report counted 180,878 rooftop solar systems in the half, up 35% on the year.
The figures come from the Clean Energy Council’s Rooftop Solar and Storage Report for January to June 2026, as reported by pv magazine Australia on 29 September 2026. It also reports 457,439 batteries, totalling 12.9 GWh, installed since the federal Cheaper Home Batteries Program began. We draw no conclusion about any one maker’s parts demand from those totals. Our view, labelled as ours: a battery, an inverter and a remote telemetry cabinet at a mine site share the same three passive problems, namely a mains surge path, a high-voltage ceramic and a current-sense element. This post takes the first of the three.
What does the RCM rule say, and where does it stop for a component buyer?
It says the supplier of the finished equipment applies the mark, and it names no component-level document. We read the regulator’s marking page in full on 20 October 2026: authorisation to apply the Regulatory Compliance Mark (RCM) rests with the Responsible Supplier, and Level 1, 2 and 3 electrical equipment offered for sale by registered suppliers must carry it.
| Point on the regulator’s page | What it says | What it means for a component buyer | Match / mismatch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who applies the RCM | The Responsible Supplier, once registered | The duty sits with whoever places the finished equipment on the market | Mismatch with a component claim: a distributor of capacitors is not named |
| Which equipment | Level 1, 2 and 3 electrical equipment offered for sale by registered suppliers | Your inverter or charger may fall inside; confirm the level with your compliance team | Match for the scope question only |
| Where the mark goes | Generally on the outside of the equipment, near the model identification, per AS/NZS 4417.1 | A labelling matter for the product maker | Mismatch: no part-level marking is described |
| Approval number | Certificate holders no longer need to mark it | Nothing for the component file | Mismatch: no component paperwork is named |
The page gives no date for when the marking rule took effect. It does record that the registration database was replaced by the EESS Platform in October 2024. We do not state which level your product falls in, and we do not give compliance advice. Confirm with your compliance team. What we can say is what we hold: 28 Walsin datasheets, 451 pages, and none of them is a REACH, SVHC, PFAS, ISO 9001, IATF 16949, PPAP or IMDS document, or a Declaration of Conformity. We hold no datasheet at all for varistors.
Which Walsin varistors cross a 230 Vac mains input?
Seventeen parts are rated 230 Vac, and each one steps cleanly to 250 Vac and 275 Vac. We checked every one of the 17 against its 250 Vac and 275 Vac twin: all 17 pairs share the same body size and the same peak current, and the varistor voltage moves from 360 V to 390 V to 430 V. The export holds 379 rows in four series, and we have not seen this ladder counted anywhere.
| Part | Series | Max working voltage | Varistor voltage | Peak current | Match / mismatch against a 230 Vac, 14 mm, 4,500 A incumbent |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
SR361K14D |
Standard (D) | 230 Vac | 360 V | 4,500 A | Match on size and surge, if the working voltage is right |
SR391K14D |
Standard (D) | 250 Vac | 390 V | 4,500 A | Mismatch on working and varistor voltage; surge and size match |
SR431K14D |
Standard (D) | 275 Vac | 430 V | 4,500 A | Mismatch on working and varistor voltage; surge and size match |
SR361K14E |
Super High Energy (V) | 230 Vac | 360 V | 8,000 A | Mismatch: 8,000 A against 4,500 A at the same 14 mm |
SR391K14E |
Super High Energy (V) | 250 Vac | 390 V | 8,000 A | Mismatch on three fields: working voltage, varistor voltage, surge |
The practical reading is that a buyer who needs one rung more working voltage gives up no surge current at the same size. The last letter of the part number does not tell you the series, though: D parts sit in the Standard and Industrial series, and E parts in the High Energy and Super High Energy series. Read the series column. Our posts on choosing an MOV varistor and the sub-GHz filters for Australian remote telemetry cover the neighbouring decisions. Which rung is right for your supply is a design and compliance decision. Check the top of your supply tolerance against the working-voltage rating, and qualify in your own circuit.
What do we hold in stock for the storage and inverter side?
Plenty of high-voltage ceramic, three safety capacitor lines, three current-sense lines and no varistors. We checked all 1,125 lines in our stock list as at 23 September 2026: 764 MLCC-type lines resolve to a row in the MLCC export, and 68 of them read 1,000 Vdc or above. Two of those 68 are S2 safety lines whose 5,000 Vdc figure is an impulse voltage, so 66 carry a true 1 kV to 3 kV working rating.
| Need | What we looked for | Lines held, 23 September 2026 | Example | Match / mismatch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Surge path at the AC input | Varistor product line | 0 classed as varistor | none | Mismatch: order from the factory, not from shelf |
| High-voltage ceramic | MLCC lines at 1,000 Vdc or above | 68 (66 excluding the two S2 impulse figures) | 1206B102K202 (2,000 Vdc), 1808B102K302 (3,000 Vdc) |
Match for a DC-link or snubber search; confirm the rating you need |
| Safety capacitor | S2 X1/Y2 lines | 3 | S252B222K502CT, S242B102K502CT, S252B471K502ZT |
Match for a Y-class position; check the working rating on the S2 sheet |
| Current sense | Low-ohm thick film lines | 3 | WW08WR270FTL, WW08WR390FTL, WW08WR470FTL |
Match for small-current sensing; 0805 at 1/4 W is not a battery shunt |
The stock list is a dated snapshot and moves. Our ready stock page shows what is held in Hong Kong now. The varistor gap is a classification gap in our list, not a statement about the factory range: the 379-row export is the range, and it is orderable from Walsin.
How should a buyer on a long shipping route order?
Order against a dated snapshot, in whole pack quantities, and ask for the date code before you pay. This is our view, not a sourced rule: the longer your route, the more a wrong line costs, so settle every field first. Three checks cost nothing.
First, run the line through the free cross-reference tool, which decodes 18 manufacturers’ part numbers across 800,000+ crossable parts, and read the match and mismatch columns. Second, ask for the date code and lot of the exact line, and for a certificate of conformity with the shipment. We offer lot and date-code traceability and original sealed Walsin packaging. Third, confirm the pack quantity, because the export holds none for varistors: all 379 rows have a blank packing, SPQ and MOQ field. A remote-site build, such as a telemetry cabinet far from any town, is where a missing part stops a commissioning date, so the buffer decision belongs in the BOM, not in the freight plan. We state no transit time, carrier or freight cost.
What will we not tell you about Australian import?
Anything operational. We state no duty rate, tariff code, customs procedure, GST treatment, transit time or carrier, and we hold no office, entity or stock in Australia. Our locations are Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Singapore and Jiangmen, with Chengdu in preparation. Your customs broker and your compliance team own that side.
What we can do is the cross-reference. Paste your solar-storage or telemetry line into the free cross-reference tool or load a whole BOM, and read the differences field by field. The varistor range lists the families. Confirm against both datasheets and qualify in your own circuit.
The short version
Australian solar-storage and remote-site builds need three lists: a mains surge path, a high-voltage ceramic and a current-sense element. For the surge path, 17 of 17 Walsin 230 Vac varistors have a 250 Vac and a 275 Vac twin at the same size and surge rating. The RCM rule puts its duty on the supplier of the finished equipment. In our list as at 23 September 2026, 0 lines are varistors and 68 MLCC lines read 1,000 Vdc or above.
Send us one line from your inverter, battery or telemetry BOM and we will return the Walsin parts with the differences stated. Which rung of the 230, 250, 275 Vac ladder is your design actually on?
Sources
Fetched 20 October 2026. The market and compliance statements above come from these pages; the part data comes from our own Walsin exports and stock list.
- pv magazine Australia, “Rooftop solar, home battery installs hit record highs”, reporting the Clean Energy Council Rooftop Solar and Storage Report for January to June 2026, dated 29 September 2026: https://www.pv-magazine-australia.com/2026/09/29/rooftop-solar-home-battery-installs-hit-record-highs/
- Electrical Equipment Safety System (EESS), “Marking of Electrical Equipment” (RCM), regulator page, undated: https://eess.gov.au/rcm/marking-of-electrical-equipment
Frequently asked questions
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What do Australian solar-storage and remote-site buyers need from a Hong Kong distributor?
Mains-rated parts, high-voltage ceramics and documentation that survives review. The Clean Energy Council counted 276,011 home batteries installed in the first half of 2026 (pv magazine Australia, 29 September 2026), so equipment volume is rising. We state which documents we hold and which we do not.
What does the RCM rule say for a component buyer?
The regulator’s page says the Responsible Supplier applies the RCM to Level 1, 2 and 3 electrical equipment offered for sale. It names no component-level document. The duty sits with the supplier of the finished equipment. Confirm your level with your compliance team.
Do Walsin 230 Vac varistors have a 250 Vac version at the same size?
Yes, in all 17 cases. We checked every 230 Vac part in the 379-row export: each has a 250 Vac and a 275 Vac twin with the same size and peak current, and only the varistor voltage moves, from 360 V to 390 V to 430 V.
Does the last letter of a Walsin varistor part number identify the series?
No. The suffix D appears in the Standard and Industrial series, and E in the High Energy and Super High Energy series. At 14 mm and 230 Vac, SR361K14D is 4,500 A and SR361K14E is 8,000 A. Read the series column, not the last letter.
Do you hold varistors in Hong Kong stock?
Not as at 23 September 2026. We checked all 1,125 stock lines and none is classed as a varistor, so a varistor requirement is a factory order. High-voltage ceramic is held: 68 MLCC lines read 1,000 Vdc or above, 66 excluding two impulse figures. Stock moves, so ask for the current position.
Do you state Australian duty rates or transit times?
No. We hold no Australian customs content, no office or stock in Australia, and no freight or transit data. Your customs broker and compliance team own that side. We supply parts, lot and date-code traceability and, on request, a certificate of conformity per shipment.