Townsville Off Grid Solar
True North Solar is one of North Queensland's longest and most trusted Off Grid Solar company.
An Off Grid Solar System is a fully self sufficient solar power plant. It is a standalone system consisting of Solar Panels, Solar Inverters, Battery Inverters, Solar Regulators, Batteries and backup generators.
Every component is as important as each other and care must be taken in sizing all parts of the system. The key for getting the system design right is communication, not only do we need to get the load profile correct, we want to look into the future to see requirements you might need down the track.
We have Off Grid Solar Systems all over regional Queensland from Townsville, Charters Towers, Ingham, Croydon, Hughenden, Richmond and Mt Isa. As well as some special projects on Mining sites were one off special needs are required.
'Off Grid Solar ads a number of layers of complexity to normal solar systems, so its essential to go with someone that has experience and someone you can see yourself dealing with over a long period of time. As the business owner of True North Solar and KDP Electrical for 20 years, I personally have accreditation in Electrical, Solar, Batteries and Off grid Solar. So I am personally onsite during construction, commissioning and hand over process.' Kash Partridge
When embarking on your Off Grid Solar journey, drop us an email or give us a call.
Below are a couple of Off grid Solar system examples, from a tiny home and container office to a large ground mount cattle property.
Generally off grid solar systems will have a generator as backup for times of low solar production or peak load periods.
The brains of an Off Grid Solar System is managed by the controller. The Australian made Selectronic is a world leader in Off Grid Controllers and they are exported all over the world. The Selectronic controller manages the charging of the batteries, starting and stopping of the generator and monitors all data.
With smaller Off grid system in boats, caravans and small homes they tend to be DC coupled solar system. The Solar panels are connected to Solar regulators that then charge the battery bank, 12, 24 or 48V DC. The power is then extracted out of the battery bank via a DC battery inverter or Controller. This Controller converters the DC to 240V 50Hz AC power that we can then use in our home.
Larger off grid systems use AC coupled solar. The solar panels are wired the same as a conventional home they go back to a grid inverter, this inverter changes the high dc voltage to grid matching 240V 50Hz AC power. Although these inverters can create 240V AC power they don't have the ability to power loads nor charge batteries. This is where the Selectronic Controller comes in. The Selectronic Off Grid Controller manipulates the grid inverter to facilitate the charging of the batteries and to power the loads.
While there are still times when AGM Gel or lead acid batteries are used, it is increasingly more common to see Lithium Batteries. PowerPlus and GenZ are two great Australian brands that offer high quality Lithium battery storage. They great thing with these is that they are modular and can be draw down much lower. You can easily scale up to create larger battery storage. These batteries also come with longer warranties up to 10 years.
Some online sites offer 'pre wired' or 'pre configured' off grid solutions. This never works out well for the end user. You must make sure you are dealing with a reputable CEC accredited Off Grid Solar designer and Installer.