Grid connect system solution
Solar
On-grid, grid-tie, or grid-connected solar systems are by far the most common and widely used by homes and businesses in the world
Products for sale with every install
Grid connect system solution
These systems consist of solar panels that generate DC electricity on your roof and solar inverters that convert this DC electricity to AC for your house. The panels produce electricity via a process called the photovoltaic (PV) effect. Hence, solar installations are also called PV systems. The entire system is connected to the public electricity grid.
This lets you export excess solar power that you generate during the day to the electricity grid. For this, you will get paid a feed-in tariff (FiT) or credits for the energy you export by your energy retailer. At night, when your panels are not producing electricity, you will use the electricity provided by the grid as normal. We always recommend our customers negotiate with their energy retailer and shop around for the feed-in tariff.
Doing this can have a significant impact on how quickly you make your money back through your solar installation.
The size of your solar system is ultimately limited only by your roof size and budget. However, it is best to design a system tailored to your energy consumption. For smaller houses with 2–3 inhabitants, a 3–5 kW system will suffice. The discrepancy in size relates to the roof's positioning. Some roofs will provide you with enough energy using a 3 kW system. Others, which are not angled optimally, for example, will require a larger system for the same energy output.
Houses consisting of 3-6 people—a family, for example—might want to go for a solar system between 5 kW and 7 kW to cover most of their energy consumption. Solar systems above 7 kW are suited to households containing more than six people or households that consume a particularly high amount of electricity. This would also be the entry-level size for a commercial solar system.
Not all roofs are created equal. Some are better suited to a solar array than others. For roofs that are slightly shaded, there is a solution, though. We can install micro-inverter systems that replace the standard inverter entirely or DC optimisers that retain the standard inverter. These microinverters and optimizers attach to each solar panel individually. This way, if one solar panel receives shade or becomes dirty, it does not impact the productivity of the entire system. These systems do have the downside of costing around 20%–30% more.
Our go-to brand for inverters is Fronius. These Austrian-designed and engineered inverters are a very reputable brand. Fronius produces quality products that are also engineered in such a way that installation and maintenance costs are minimised. This superior quality does come at a cost, but as inverters are the single most important and vulnerable part of your photovoltaic system, it pays to not cut corners. It is for this reason that, while we provide our customers with other options, we do not work with lower-grade inverters. The microinverters we use are made by Enphase, which is also widely recognised as being the best on the market today.
The brands we extensively use for panels are Jinko, Trina and REC solar. The first two are standard all around panels that strike a nice balance between price and quality. REC's are our top-of-the-line offer. They are more efficient, have a longer lifespan, and come with longer warranties. If you would like a more detailed overview of our top picks from all three brands, please use their official datasheets: Jinko, Trina, and REC Solar.
The final piece of your solar puzzle is your system’s monitoring capabilities. All inverters we use in our solar systems provide detailed monitoring capabilities. This can be done through either their apps or online. This way, there is no need to be home to check the performance of a system. Monitoring a system is important to know if it is working optimally and, secondly, to tweak your power usage to best fit your solar energy production. This gives you the most savings and results in more money in the bank.
