Case Study – An Off-Grid Residence
Application:
Entirely off-grid, average size home.
Client Comment:
“I am so happy with the Aquion Battery system, it is the neatest most compact, least
maintenance array I have had, and I have been using solar off-grid for about 8 years now. The
batteries are hidden away in an underground wing of my house – no venting required!!” L.B.
6/7/2015
Equipment used:
Batteries:
4 S-Stacks for a total of 9.6 KWh
Solar System:
9 - 250 watt solar panels in 3 strings of three, each three in series and then all 3 strings parallel
into the regulator and mounted on 3 used pole frames. Fixed, but can be made to sun track.
Inverter:
Outback 48 volt 3kw inverter, plus an Outback FM-80 Regulator. The inverter was reconfigured from default settings to 36 volts Low Battery Cut Off and 45 volts Battery cut in
point. (many inverters can only be adjusted down to 40 volts, which is ok.)
System Design:
The system has no large isolating switch as are typically used on high amperage battery
systems, but instead, 8x (2x4) simple 20 amp Clipsal circuit MCB4-120 breakers (4.5 kA) wired
together and interconnected (breakers are DC compatible). There is a backup generator with a
30 amp breaker.
Other energy savings measures:
All cooking and water boiling in the house is done with gas. There are 2 large LPG gas bottles.
One bottle lasts more than a year, and costs $120, the hot water is from 20 evacuated tubes on
the roof and stored in an off peak type tank in the house, no electrical or gas back up.
Cold water is from a tank up the hill, gravity fed, creating close to domestic pressure, rain runoff from large shed.
Pictures
The house is built into a hill. It uses Aquion Batteries and is entirely off-grid
4 Aquion S20 Batteries for a total of 9.4 KWh. A very elegant and uncomplicated installation.