Examples of Products

A solar grid tied system is a system that is connected to the electricity grid and works without a battery bank , the system uses solar panels to generate electricity from sunlight and excess power is exported to the utility grid.  When the system does not generate sufficient power, power is drawn from the electricity grid. During the evening hours power is drawn from the electrical grid.

An off grid solar system is a system that is not connected to the electrical grid and works with a battery bank.

The system comprises of solar modules (panels), an inverter, a charge controller (if the inverter does not have a built in charge controller), and a battery bank.

The solar modules  collect the sun’s energy, the collected energy is sent to the inverter, the energy is converted to AC power and sent to your distribution board, the power is used to power your home. Excess energy that is not used will be stored in the battery bank. The battery bank will power your property at night or on days that are cloudy and overcast.

This hybrid solar system is a tie between an on grid and an off grid system.

You use your battery backup during standard situations when there is no sunlight, like at night or on rainy days and during emergency times, you can use power from the grid. Once your battery bank is completely charged any excess energy that your system can be sent to the grid

Lithium-ion batteries charge 10 times faster than a lead-acid battery, this means the lithium-ion batteries will charge faster during load shedding periods and will be able to sustain multiple power outages with less charging time. A lead-acid battery needs a longer charge time and wont reach full charge in shorter charging times, the lead-acid batteries wont be able to sustain multiple load shedding outages.

A lithium-ion battery reaches almost 100% charge and discharge, with in the worst scenario they, have 80% of efficiency. On the other hand, Deep-cycle lead acid batteries typically have less than 80% charge-discharge efficiency, and can range from 50% to 95%.

Lithium-ion batteries can last an average of 2,000-4,000 cycles. Lead acid batteries have an average cycle of 400-1,500.

Lithium-ion battery voltage is 100% stable while in deep-cycle lead acid batteries, the voltage will constantly drop over its discharge.

Lead-acid batteries are much cheaper then lithium-ion batteries, which are costly.

Contact us for accurate system sizing

STEP 1: How to estimate your kWh usage

1. Gather the kilowatt-hours (kWh) usage from your electricity bill.
2. You need to have 12 full months of usage to be able to look at peaks and dips in usage over a year.
3. Determine your average monthly kWh usage by adding up your kWh usage for 12 months and divide by 12 to figure out your average monthly consumption.
4. Figure your daily kWh usage. Divide by 30 to determine your daily kWh usage.
   

   STEP 2: Look Up Your Peak Sun Hours

   Average peak sun hours vary depending on your location and climate. You need to determine how may peak hours of sunlight you’ll get so you can make the most of the solar power:

   Look up your peak sun hours, through a sun hours chart to determine the number of hours per day the sun produces peak sunlight.

   STEP 3: How to estimate your system size

   Now divide the total amount of watts used per day as you figured out in step 1, by the average amount of sunlight in step 2.

   If you use 3000 watts per day in your home and the average sunlight is 8 hours, then you would divide 3000 by 8.

    This means you will need at least 375 watts of solar panels to get enough solar energy to power your entire house.