Tru Blu Solar Co is a results driven and customer focused company. Whether you want to get rid of your electricity bill, provide yourself with a reliable back-up power supply or complete the home energy efficiency cycle we have got you covered. Our careful and detailed planning and installation is second to none and we are able to deliver a professional service, an aesthetically pleasing finish and, tick all the boxes to achieve your intended outcomes! There is no stone left unturned in our site investigations and professional advice. No matter how technical or complicated your questions are we have the answers. Want to know about auto start generators? Perhaps, virtual power plants? No? What about peak shaving or load shedding? Maybe you had a question regarding how your electric vehicle works within this system? Our team is well versed and will be able to assist with your enquiry. Give us a call to get the conversations started!
Here we will briefly outline some of the key criteria for you to be thinking about when you are looking at purchasing a battery for your home. We discuss how to size your battery system, where to install your battery and how the home will be powered during a blackout. If your solar battery company does not discuss these three key criteria with you throughout the quote you should instantly red flag that.
As a matter of fact it is reasonably easy to size a battery storage system. First things first is to check the usage from the grid. How much electricity per day are you using from the grid. It should be roughly the same on most days but there will be some variance. You want to find your average daily grid usage and use that as a guide for the size of battery you install. Then most importantly, check to make sure your existing solar is exporting enough energy to the grid per day on average to fill the intended battery system. Tru Blu Solar Co customers can easily do this by going into their monitoring portal and viewing monthly exported power data. If you have enough power being exported into the grid per day (in each month of the year) to fill your battery then that’s a win! If not, we can consider additional solar panels for your site. If you don’t already have solar than we can design a complete turnkey solution.
Starting with the ideal case scenario: you want to install your battery as close to your main switchboard as possible and out of direct sunlight. The ideal installation situation is when the main switchboard is attached to the outside wall of your garage and the battery gets installed adjacent to the main switchboard but inside the garage. Furthermore, the battery should be mounted on a fireproof surface such as a brick wall. There are ways around this to stay in compliance with AS/NZS 5139 but we will not go into that detail here as it is far too detailed. The further away your battery goes from the main switchboard the more labour and materials costs involved for the installation. Also, you need to think about how the battery is going to be mounted. Sometimes wall mounting is easy if you have a nice brick wall. However, not all homes have this option and alternative solutions are required. Alternative mounting solutions (other than directly wall hung) can add some minor costs to the installation. Lastly, you need to keep in mind that if your battery is installed in an area that vehicular traffic can access such as a garage or driveway, then a bollard for mechanical protection will most likely be required.
The short answer is yes! A solar battery system will keep the lights on during a blackout. There are some limitations though. You need to ensure that you purchase a battery that has this capability. Tru Blu Solar Co does not install any battery without it. Furthermore, most battery energy systems will only come with a 32A single phase backup supply. Keep in mind that most houses have a 63A single phase supply so at most you’ll only be able to have half the circuits in the house on the backup supply. This is even more of a limitation for three phase properties. Generally we advise that you put all the lights on and one or two power circuits on your backup supply. We ideally select the power circuit that is connected to your modem so your internet stays on. Whole home backup can be achieved for 1, 2 & 3 phase properties but again this comes at a cost. Backup supply is a luxury, solar storage is economically viable. There are battery storage solutions for three phase properties but these come at a cost. Sometimes it is recommended to use a single phase solution on a three phase property for economical reasons.
