Off grid solar system means meeting all your energy needs from the sun . To make this possible, you need to install a solar power system, at the site of power consumption.
Choosing the best off grid solar system is not easy, because off-grid systems are more complicated than the grid-connected.
Installing an off grid solar system was once a fringe concept due to its large space requirements and prohibitive costs. It’s now a fairly common sight to see RVs and country cabins powered entirely by off-grid solar systems.
What is an off grid solar system?
While many people think only of solar panels when they hear “off-grid solar”, the reality is that you need to add many other components to off-grid PV system.
A complete off-grid solar system is that has all the necessary equipment to generate, store, and supply solar energy onsite. As off-grid solar systems operate without any external power source, they are also named as “standalone solar power systems”.
Unlike the grid-tied solar system, off-grid solar systems rely on batteries to provide power when the sun isn’t available.
Batteries, however, are costly — much more so than the solar panels they are paired with. The need for ample battery storage in off-grid solar systems makes them much more expensive than grid-tied solar systems.
Off-grid system types – AC or DC Power
Off-grid systems are built using either AC or DC coupled power sources. AC-coupled generation sources include solar inverters, wind turbines or backup generators (gen-sets), while DC-coupled sources include MPPT solar charge controllers.
Whether a system is AC or DC coupled is generally based on the size of the system. Most small-scale systems less than 6kW are DC coupled and use efficient MPPT solar charge controllers.
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What are the different uses of off-grid solar power?
One of the advantages of sola is its scalability, it can be separated and recombined for variety in use.
It works at all levels, from solar phone chargers, all the way up to power a factory.
Here are some of the most common applications of off-grid solar:
- Providing a charge to a portable phone or tablet charger
- Powering the appliances in an RV
- Generating electricity for small cabins
- Powering small energy-efficient homes
It’s worth noting where off-grid solar systems do NOT make sense: where there is easy access to the utility power. This covers situations where one is looking to power a home in a home in a city, suburb or town.
If that’s you, you can save much more by opting for a grid-tied or hybrid solar panel system, or even just sticking solely to grid power, depending on the economics of solar in your area.
Equipment for Off-grid solar system
Here’s a list of all the equipment required for a functioning off-grid solar system:
- Solar Panels
- Solar Charge Controller
- Off grid inverter
- Solar storage batteries
- Mounting and racking system
- Wiring
- MC4 connectors
- PV combiner box
- Breakers
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How to size your off grid solar system
Deciding on the size of the solar system, you need is an early and absolutely crucial step when it comes to installing an off-grid solar system.
It will affect the equipment, how much work the installation will involve, and, the total cost of the project. Solar setup sizes are based on the amount of power the system needs to provide.
There are two different ways to figure out the number you need, and they are based on:
- Your current usage
- Load evaluation
According to your usage to size your off grid solar system
You can use this option, if your aim is to maintain your current lifestyle as you switch from grid-tied to off-grid solar. To do this, you can simply refer to your monthly power bills to determine your electricity usage in kilowatt hours.
You can size an off-grid system, although you’d want to go a bit bigger, say 10% more, to allow for solar inefficiencies.
Basing solar setup size on load evaluation
The second option is to perform a complete load evaluation to determine how much power you’ll need.
- Calculate total electricity usage needs
Begin by listing out all the appliances you plan to use, and how many hours you’ll be using each of them. This allows you to calculate the power consumption of each appliance, as well as your total power consumption over a day.
Knowing how many kWh in a day you’ll use will allow you to size your solar panel array, as well the solar battery storage.
2. Calculate instantaneous load requirements
You’ll also have to calculate how many appliances you might run simultaneously. This will help you calculate instantaneous wattage requirements, which you need to know in order to size the inverter properly (the inverter runs the AC loads).
3. Decide on your battery storage capacity
Next, you’ll need to decide how much energy storage you want. Do you want to cover usage for just one day, or do you want to have extra backup capacity?
When it comes to solar battery backup, you want enough storage to cover at least 2-3 days.
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The advantages of off-grid solar
Become energy self-sufficient
This is the primary reason why people in blackout-prone regions are interested in off-grid solar. When connected to the grid, you are dependent on an external supplier — the utility company — for all your power.
Living off the grid and being self-sufficient feels good. For some people, this feeling feeling is worth more than saving money. Energy self-sufficiency is also a form of security. Power failures on the utility grid do not affect off-grid solar systems.
It’s good for the environment
Going off-grid reduces carbon emissions. Since most of the electricity supplied through the grid, it comes from burning fossil fuels, or power through renewable resources.
Encourages a more energy-conscious lifestyle
When you’re connected to the grid, it’s easy to be unaware of your power consumption habits — you consume electricity, pay the bill when it comes, and that’s that. It disconnects you from where the electricity is coming from and where it’s being used.
Your attitude when it comes to power changes completely when you go off-grid. In order to ensure you don’t run out of electricity, you will have to closely follow your energy generation and also re-evaluate and rationalize your energy consumption.
Often the only feasible option
When you’re seeking to power a building in a really remote location – say a hunting cabin out in the woods – there’s a good chance there’s no grid to connect to at all.
If you contact the utility for a connection, they will probably tell you that you are out of their coverage area. Alternatively, they could offer to lay the wire to connect you to the grid — but only at an astronomical cost.
The disadvantages of off-grid solar
Off-grid solar systems are expensive
A solar panel setup that supplies all the energy needs of a home tends to be very expensive.
Compared to a grid-connected solar system, an off-grid solar system requires more panels, an inverter with a higher voltage capacity, and a large amount of solar battery storage.
And since there’s no grid, you will want to purchase a gas or generator, these are very expensive to run. This also adds greater urgency when repairing faults in your off-grid system, because generators cannot work too long.
Off-grid solar is time-consuming
Making the commitment to produce enough power to meet all of your household’s needs is an extremely challenging task.
A fairly advanced understanding of how electricity works is required. Because generating power is an exact science, you will have to spend time to calculate.
Time will need to be spent ensuring you are keeping power waste at a minimum. And because power generation can be unpredictable, you will have to constantly monitor your power supply.
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