Questions
Every off grid question we get asked, answered straight.
From quotes, site visits and the phone. Each answer is a few lines, printed in full, and links to the page that goes deeper.
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.
Do I still need an electrical inspection?
Yes. An off grid system is prescribed electrical work in Victoria, so it is installed by a licensed electrician, certified with a Certificate of Electrical Safety and inspected by a licensed electrical inspector before it is energised. Energy Safe Victoria oversees all of it. We arrange the certificate and the inspection as part of the job.
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.
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.
How much does it cost to maintain?
Very little in a normal year. The generator is serviced on its run hours, like a car, and a well sized system gives it a few dozen hours a winter. Lithium batteries need no maintenance. Panels want a clean if the dust or the birds get to them. We watch the monitoring from Trentham and recommend a look over the system once a year.
Can I add to the system later?
Yes, if it is designed for it. Victron systems grow in steps: more panels on another charge controller, more battery modules, a second inverter in parallel. We size the cabling, the board and the enclosure for the final system so each stage is an addition, not a rebuild. Tell us what might come later and we design the headroom in.
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.
What size generator do I need?
Big enough to run the house and charge the battery at the same time. Our rule is about 1.25 times the inverter rating, so an 8 kW inverter pairs with a 10 kVA generator. It starts itself on a battery state of charge we set and stops when the bank is full.
How long does an install take?
Most installs are a few days on site once the equipment is on hand. The design, the paperwork and ordering the battery and inverters take longer than the install itself, so allow several weeks from go ahead to switch on, and longer when a ground mount array needs footings and a trench.
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.
Is an off grid system eligible for rebates?
Partly. Solar Victoria's solar panel rebate is open to off grid homes that meet its other criteria, and the federal small scale certificates apply to the panels. The Victorian battery rebate requires a grid connection, so it does not apply to an off grid battery.
What is a SAPS and can I get one?
A standalone power system the distributor owns and runs in place of the wire. Powercor and AusNet offer them to a small number of existing customers at the end of long rural lines where that is cheaper for the network, at no extra cost to the customer. Most people do not qualify and build their own.
Can my grid connected solar become an off grid system?
Usually not as it stands. Most grid inverters shut down when the grid does and cannot run a house on their own. The panels can often be reused on an off grid rated system with a battery and a generator. Many customers keep the connection and add a hybrid battery for outages instead.
Can I stay connected and still have backup?
Yes. A hybrid system such as Sigenergy keeps the grid, charges from the sun and carries the house through outages and the extreme fire days when lines are switched off. It is the right answer where the line is already at the boundary.
Does the sizing tool work outside Victoria?
The sun figures are Victorian. Pick Somewhere else and it uses the Central Victoria baseline, which is conservative for most of mainland Australia.
Ask the one the list missed.
Send us the question with your address and what you want to run. You will hear back from the team that designs the systems.