System Design

During your system consultation and design with Off-Grid Energy, we provide you with recommendations and information about where the system equipment is to be installed.

Following contract acceptance, we provide you with detailed infrastructure guides and plans to clearly communicate where equipment is to be installed, the requirements before installation and what Off-Grid Energy and the customer is responsible for.

All system components and sizes are chosen for many factors. Including capacity, performance, and cost. Your Load Profile information, or specific energy demand, forms the basis of all our equipment and system design recommendations.

Your equipment location is also very important when designing an appropriate system for your property.

Solar arrays should be located as close as practical to the standalone equipment enclosure. It must be capable of producing enough electricity (kWh) to replace what is used by your property on any given day – including days of poor weather.

Below are some guides to where a solar array should be installed:

• Orientated to true North if practical (slightly different from Magnetic North).
• Inclined to a high pitch – The steeper the solar array pitch the better winter performance you will receive. This reduces fuel consumption from a backup generator, while still retaining adequate power production in the summer.
• Avoid shading at all times of the year, this is especially critical in Winter when shadows are the longest.
• When solar panels are mounted on a suitable existing roof structure the need for a separate ground-mounted system; additional cable; conduit and trenching costs are removed.
• Solar panels sited on the roof of an equipment enclosure (Shed) can also assist in lowering internal operating temperatures; this helps to prolong the battery bank and equipment life.
• In some cases, it may be more economical to install more solar panels at a lower tilt angle to achieve a similar Winter performance to higher tilt angles.

Sizing your battery bank is incredibly important when designing your system. Understanding when and how much electricity (kWh) is used will determine the battery capacity required.

The inverter/charger needs to be sized to the peak power (kW) requirements of your property. If you boil the kettle, run the air conditioner, and do a load of washing simultaneously, the inverter/charger needs to be capable of delivering this power all at once.

The inverter/charger needs to be sized to the peak power (kW) requirements of your property. If you boil the kettle, run the air conditioner, and do a load of washing simultaneously, the inverter/charger needs to be capable of delivering this power all at once.

Generator sets require much careful thought and planning when it comes to their installation and operation. The generator should be installed as close as is reasonably practical and convenient to the main residence and other stand-alone equipment while giving careful consideration to the possible noise level when in use. Please note different safety regulations are applicable to permanently installed generators and portable directly supervised-use generators.

Below are some prompters as to where and how a generator is to be installed:

• Permanent or portable generator set
• Auto-starting or manual start
• Exhaust gas ducting/extraction
• Air intake, ventilation, and heat dissipation
• Noise – Many people underestimate how much nuisance the noise can be
• Storing fuel and oils safely
• Maintenance – Easy access to parts of the generator for maintenance
• Safety – Insulating hot exhaust pipes, protection of moving parts within the generator, electrical safety
• Security – Theft of generators has been known to happen
• Access – Excluding unauthorized personnel; pets and various wildlife Off-Grid System Design