How often do you think you'll use your off grid system? Are you building a seasonal camper? Are you full timing in a van? Do you need a robust fully off grid system for your remote cabin? The strategies below use your energy usage information to dictate how to setup your solar panels, as well as how extensive to build your battery bank.

Economical / Seasonal Use

This use strategy is built for slimmer budgets, seasonal use, and off grid systems that do not have a lot of demand. Using this setting will build a battery bank that only stores power for your night time appliances, while building a solar array that will collect at least 100% of your energy demands.

Medium Use and Scalability

Are you spending a lot of time traveling or off grid? Not sure where life will take you within a year? This use strategy is great for your general energy demands, while leaving room for future growth. This setting will build your battery bank to maintain 100% of your energy needs and collect 125% of your daily usage via the solar array.

Full Time Use and Sustainability

This setting is for our true blue off gridders! If you're planning on building a life off the grid, this is the way to go. Choose this option if you're building a tiny home, cabin, or any off grid commercial dwelling. This option is built to never run out of power; the system builder will construct your battery and solar array to maintain 135% of your energy needs.

How well would you like to fine tune your solar system? How conservative would you like to estimate your power needs? In this section of the System Builder, we give you the opportunity to really tweak into specifics. Not interested? Your use strategy has already elected defaults for you previously. Read more below.

Total Use Watts

This is a read only field. Using the information you've elected, we've summed up the total amount of watt hours you need to offset to build a sustainable solar system. A little confused? Take a look at our Finding Out My Needs tutorial, and get caught up!

Hours In A Day

his handy feature allows you to adjust the amount of sunlight within a given day. Very handy when trying to forecast for shorter days in the winter, or longer days during the summer. Adjusting the number of hours per day will affect the size of both your battery and solar array!

Battery Sustainability

How much capacity should your batteries store for your daily usage? A half day usage? One or two days? Using this feature will allow you to ramp up (or down) your battery array size. For example, if you'd like to store energy for two days without the help of the sun, you will bring this figure to 200%.

Solar Sustainability

How big should we build out your solar array? Electing 100% would be saying your solar panels collect 100% of your daily needs. But be careful - you'll always want to collect a bit more than you use, to consistently top off your batteries on low sun days.

Use this Wizard to help build your solar array. From here you can tweak and tune the solar panel(s) and controller(s) specs to your preferences. The System Builder will do the rest of the work based on your preexisting settings and preferences. If you're confused about what you're doing, go ahead and check our Solar You Ready? (pun intended) tutorial to get caught up. Feature descriptions below.

Wiring Strategy

Use this switch to toggle between Series and Parallel wiring strategies. If your energy needs are modest and you're working smaller projects like camper vans, RV's or travel trailers, we would highly recommend using the parallel setting. Low demand off grid systems almost always use a parallel wiring strategy. If you are planning a off grid system for a homestead, tiny home, or larger dwelling, you will most likely use a series writing strategy, due to the power demand.

Controller Voltage

Here is the nitty gritty. Are you planning on using a high or low voltage controller? If you are building a mobile off grid system, we would suggest either 12, 24, or a 48 volt system. Based on how much energy you are looking to collect respectively. Systems with higher demands such as off grid dwellings, tiny homes, cabins, should pick 120, 240, or 400 watt systems.

Controller Amps

By now you should have an idea of which Solar Controller you are wanting to work with. Each solar controller has a maximum amps rating, to keep your controller from producing too much heat. This rating will need to be put in here.

Panel Voltage & Amps

How many solar panels can your budget and space afford? If you haven't done that leg work, we'd suggest you take a look at our Solar You Ready? (pun intended) tutorial, to figure out how to size your solar array. Once you've decided which panel you'd like to use, type in the voltage and amps to your solar panel in the field provided. Our System Builder will show you how many you'll need, based on your preferences.

Solar Array Specifications

This is a great way to tell how versatile the system you have built is so far. Read more below about each metric, and get a better idea of how your new system will serve you!

Number Of Panels Per Cluster

This metric tells you approximately how many solar panels (based on the specs you given about the solar panel) you should combine within each solar controller. It has taken your max controller amps, and voltage into consideration, as well as your wiring strategy. Group your solar panels in this fashion for maximum efficiency!

Number Of Clusters Needed

This number tells you how many groups of solar panels you will need to complete your solar array. Because each group is managed by a single solar controller, this number is also congruent to the number of solar controllers needed to manage your solar power collection. Use this number to estimate your budget for solar controllers.

Cluster Amps

This is a quick reference to the amount of amps being generated within a solar cluster. Use this number to make sure your solar controller amp tolerances have not been exceeded. This figure is great to insure you are within safety measures of your controller's manufacture guidelines.

Cluster Voltage

Like the cluster amps, this is a reference to the voltage being generated within a solar cluster. This calculation is great for making sure your voltage levels are within limits of your current solar controller.

Sustainability Estimates

How sustainable is your solar system against your current power demands? The calculations below are a great way to estimate how sustainable your current setup is. Take a look below for better detail.

Battery Bank Recharge Hours

If your battery bank were to go completely empty, how long would it take for your solar panels to charge it back to full? This metric is great for predicting this question, giving you an hourly estimate of what that would look like. Don't worry - our calculations also include your current daily power consumption as well.

Use Recovery Hours

How long would it take for your solar panels to replenish an entire day's worth of power usage? This metric takes a look at your power usage and then calculates the amount of hours it would take to replenish your usage.

Sustainability

This percentage metric is a great overview of the entire system, compared to your power demands. For example, 100% sustainability would represent a solar system that is generating 100% of your daily demand, and nothing else. In a different example, 180% would be a solar system generating 80% above your current elected demand - which would give you a safety measure on cloudy or high power use days. A good rule of thumb is to keep your sustainability numbers above 110%.