The design of a solar system starts at the load: This is how much power you need per day to run your appliance or house. The smaller the load is the smaller the solar system can be, making it more cost effective to set up. For this reason we do not try to solar power standard grid fed homes as they are too energy inefficient using electric hobs and oven, electric hot water and standard refrigeration and lights. So, the first step is to make your home more energy efficient by using gas or solid fuel for cooking and hot water, replacing standard refrigeration and lights with energy efficient models (see products page) which use half the power. Other considerations are big loads like hot water heating in dish washers, running clothes dryers, and pumped septic tanks - these are large loads and can be over come by the use of a generator.

Now that the loads have been reduced we need to look at the site and what renewable resources are available for the generation of power. This can vary from a Stand Alone Solar System only, to a Hybrid System of wind and solar with generator back up, or even micro hydro if the resources are available. This is taken on a case by case basis.
In ALL cases of Stand Alone Power Systems the power generated is stored in a bank of deep cycle batteries, as a standard we aim for batteries big enough to store 5 days of energy, so even on dark and cloudy days you will still have power.

From the batteries we run a power inverter which changes the power from DC battery power to AC mains power. These come in a range of out put sizes and ratings, also they can come with built in battery chargers so you can plug your generator in and recharge you battery bank when there is not enough natural resources to cope. These can be set up to automatically start and stop the generator to minimize the manual control of the system.
We have included a power demand profile form to assist you in working out your load per day, once you have filled this form out and sent it back to us we can then suggest the best system to cope with your power requirements.

Click here to fill out an online Power demand online form>>

Click here to print and fax Power demand printable form>>