When I wrote this post last month, I mentioned that we were getting a battery system for our solar panels.
Well, the installation was completed on Tuesday afternoon and since then all of our electricity consumption has been independent of the grid.
As well as the battery system we also have more panels.
This is the cabinet which holds the batteries.
Inside, it looks like this.
The interesting thing about the system which we have is that it is a hybrid system. In fact, we really have 2 banks of solar panels – the original ones which we have had for 5 years remain connected to the grid and any power generated is fed back to the grid with a monetary return to us. The only things that we have connected to this system are the oven and a single outdoor power point.
Everything else is powered by the solar panels of other system during the day and at night by the excess which is stored in the batteries.
This also means that we can power our home from the batteries (except for the oven) during any periods of power outage.
Following the completion of the battery installation on Tuesday, we have had four brilliant, sunny days. The screen shot below shows our generation and use and tells the story clearly and simply.
This shows the last month and each bar is one day. The yellow bar shows the solar generation, the green line is power exported to the grid, the red line is our consumption and the black bar is power drawn from the grid. The last 4 days are since the battery system has been operational. Our solar generation is higher (we now have more panels), 100% of what we generated from the grid-connected panels was exported to the grid and most importantly, we have not used any power from the grid.
I know that every day will not be clear and sunny nor will we have as many hours of daylight as we are getting at the moment as we head towards the summer solstice. However, we are confident that we will continue to be able to supply our power needs independently of the grid.
There are numerous new technologies available for battery storage systems so it would pay to very carefully consider your circumstances before rushing into a decision like this. However, if you live in Australia and are interested in more details about our system please email me and I can get some information for you.
organised castle 
i had thought about doing the solar thing with the power company but thought it was a was of money as we still were without power in a power blackout, so i think i will wait til i can afford to go totally off the grid
good on you for getting there yourselves, your system looks very good, i like how there is a cabinet for the battery storage now.
thanx for sharing
Thanks, Selina. It is a lot of money to invest and you need to be sure that the set-up is the best for your personal circumstances. It is best not to rush into decisions like this.
Awesome work you and your husband are doing, would love some more info on your panels and battery system.
our neighbours are completely off grid and also have a wind turbine!
Kind regards Lynda Delaney
Lynda, can you please send me an email to muddyfairy at gmail dot com (no spaces) and I will email some info to you.
We have often wondered about a wind turbine but not sure that we would need one now.
That looks great. I wonder if there are many companies providing the battery storage. I must look into it. Thanks for sharing and making it easier to understand. I hope it works out really well for you.