Off grid
Off grid solar installers for regional Victoria.
Trentham Energy designs and installs complete standalone power systems: Victron inverters and chargers, lithium storage and a generator for the darkest weeks. For bush blocks, new builds with a six figure connection quote, SWER properties and older systems that have stopped keeping up.
Who it suits
A block the grid never reached, a connection quote that makes a standalone system the better buy, a SWER line you would rather not depend on, or a lead acid system from the 2000s on its last legs.
How we size it
On the worst week of a Central Victorian winter, not the best day of summer. June gives under two sun hours a day here, so June sizes the array and summer overflows.
Where we go
All of regional Victoria. Most of our off grid work is within an hour of Trentham, but off grid is the work we travel for, from the Western District to the High Country.
How it works
Four steps from a block to a powered home.
- 1
Size it
Use the sizing tool or send us your loads. You get a first array, battery and inverter size in five minutes, free, no login.
- 2
Site visit
We walk the block: shading, where the array goes, cable runs to the shed and the house, the generator spot, access for the truck.
- 3
Design and quote
A design on your real loads and the winter sun at your site, a fixed quote, and the honest conversation about what a heat pump or a workshop adds.
- 4
Install and commission
Our own crew installs, commissions and hands over the monitoring. We keep watching the system from Trentham after we leave.
Equipment we use
Victron, lithium, and a generator that hardly runs.
Every off grid system we build is on Victron Energy inverters and chargers, because every part is replaceable on its own, the monitoring is the best there is, and we can see the system from Trentham. Storage is lithium, with PowerPlus Energy modules where the design allows. The generator is sized to run the house and charge the battery at the same time, so it runs for hours, not days.
- Victron MultiPlus-II inverter chargers and SmartSolar MPPT charge controllers
- Cerbo GX monitoring with VRM, read by us as well as you
- PowerPlus Energy lithium storage
- Generator auto start on a programmed state of charge
Load and energy control
The smart half of off grid power.
An off grid system is not just panels and a battery, it is control. We fit home automation and smart switching so the big loads work with the sun instead of against the battery.
It is the difference between a system you have to think about and one that quietly runs itself.
- Hot water, bore and pressure pumps timed into the solar window automatically
- Non essential circuits shed themselves before they can flatten the battery
- The whole system, solar, storage, loads and generator, visible from your phone
Sun first scheduling
Big loads wait for the solar window, not the other way round.
Automatic load shedding
Smart switches drop the non essentials when storage runs low.
One app for the lot
Generation, battery and every controlled circuit in one view.
Set up by the designers
Control is designed in with the system, not bolted on after.
Where we work
All of regional Victoria, from a shed in Trentham.
Shed 2/5 Station St, Trentham VIC 3458. Our off grid work runs from the Macedon Ranges and the goldfields west to the Western District, north to the Loddon and the Murray, and up into the High Country around Mansfield.
- Trentham
- Daylesford
- Hepburn Springs
- Kyneton
- Woodend
- Macedon
- Gisborne
- Castlemaine
- Malmsbury
- Lancefield
- Romsey
- Blackwood
- Glenlyon
- Lyonville
- Bullarto
- Newbury
- Tylden
- Ballan
- Bacchus Marsh
- Ballarat
- Creswick
- Clunes
- Maryborough
- Bendigo
Questions people ask
Straight answers, in a few lines each.
Every answer is printed here in full. Ask us anything the list misses.
- Can I go off grid in Victoria legally?
- Yes. There is no rule that a Victorian home must connect to the grid. The system still needs a licensed electrician, a Certificate of Electrical Safety and an inspection, exactly like grid work. Councils may ask for the design at the planning stage of a new build.
- What happens on a week of cloud?
- The battery carries the first one or two nights, then the generator starts itself when the battery reaches the state of charge we set, runs for a few hours to recharge, and stops. A well sized system in Central Victoria needs it a handful of times a winter.
- Can I run a heat pump off grid?
- Yes, and most of our customers do, for hot water and for heating. It is the biggest load in a Trentham winter, so it changes the array and battery size. The sizing tool lets you add it and see the difference.
- Does the sizing tool give a real quote?
- No. It gives the array, battery, inverter and generator size for the loads you pick, the way we would size them. The quote comes after a site visit, because shading, cable runs and access move the price.
- How long do off grid batteries last?
- Lithium batteries are rated for thousands of cycles. Sized to one or two nights of autonomy they cycle gently, which is what makes them last, and the warranty terms are on each battery's own page. Lead acid banks from older systems typically fail between five and eight years.
- Do I need a generator?
- Not always, and the tool lets you size without one. Most of our customers keep a generator for the darkest fortnight of winter because it is far cheaper than the extra battery that would cover the same days. Sized properly it runs for hours a year, not weeks.
Tell us about the property.
Where it is, what is on it, and what you need to run. We will tell you honestly whether standalone power stacks up and what it would take.