Hybrid Solar System

A standard grid-tie system feeds solar power into your building and sells the surplus back to the utility — but when the grid fails, it shuts down too, for the safety of line workers. An off-grid system has batteries and no utility connection at all.

A hybrid system sits between the two. It stays connected to the grid, but it also stores energy in a battery. That means you cut your electricity bill on ordinary days and keep the lights, the fridge and the well pump running during an outage — with no generator, no fuel, and no start-up delay.

• Through the day — the panels power your building directly and charge the battery with whatever is left over.
• In the evening — the battery takes over, so you use the power you generated instead of buying it back at peak rates.
• During an outage — the inverter disconnects from the grid and runs your building from solar and battery alone. Transfer is automatic and fast enough that most equipment never notices.
• On a dull week — the grid quietly fills any gap, so you are never left short.

The inverter size sets what you can run at once. Add up the heaviest things that must work simultaneously — an air conditioner, a well pump, a workshop compressor — and size the inverter above that, with headroom for motor start-up surge.

The battery size sets how long you run without sun. A larger battery does not power more equipment; it powers the same equipment for longer. If outages in your area last hours, the smaller battery is enough. If they last days, or if your utility charges more at peak times, the larger option earns its money back.

Not sure? Send us a list of what has to keep running, or a recent power bill, and we will confirm the size before you order. That costs nothing and it is the step most people skip.