Home Renovation & Off-Grid Upgrade

Load Analysis

Ave Summer Demand: 19.3kWh/day ave
Ave Winter Demand: 36.67kWh/day ave
Demand Surge: 17.82 kVA

Objectives & Site Considerations

Tom’s property had an existing off-grid system (installed nearly a decade ago) with outdated flooded lead acid batteries, which was only providing a bare minimum of their household power. The old system had “a few issues” and required regular battery maintenance.

They had recently renovated the house and shifted more of their energy usage over to electric so it would be run off the new off grid system.

System Design

• Selectronic Inverter/Charger (15kW)
• Trina Solar 310W Solar Modules (14.88kW)
• Fronius Primo 6.0 Solar Inverters
• BAE VRLA Batteries (37.8kWh)
• Selectronic Select.Live monitoring
• Ground-Mount Solar Framing

Project Outcome

The installation schedule happened during the horrific bushfire season of 2019/2020, which caused a few delays – but the on-site installation went smoothly once the equipment did arrive.

The new battery capacity provides more than enough electricity over late summer, and Tom was looking forward to running the electric heating over winter, with their wood fire as a backup.

“The battery quantity is designed to accommodate mid-winter electricity use and comfortable indoor temperatures, with hopefully little need for a backup generator or wood fire. However, we have a larger battery rack installed, with space for a future expansion if it turns out not to be enough”

“In my case winter heating was by far the biggest concurrent system load, and biggest energy consumption, so that was the focus [for system design]”

Tom’s home was featured as a case study in Issue 152 of Renew Magazine.

Renew magazine