Can Solar Power Heat Your Home All Winter? Our Experience and Data Revealed

We get lots of questions about our off grid solar power setup. These range from things like how many panels and batteries we have to how are we coping running a heat pump off grid in the winter.

People are curious about how the whole thing works, what it’s like to live off grid and ultimately is it worth it. So that’s what we’re going to talk about in this video as well as showing some of the stats and data about our usage over the last four years.

Going off grid was something we did initially through necessity but it’s turned into an experiment to see what it takes to be responsible for generating all of our own power and what it’s like to live like that. Hopefully this video goes some way to explaining those things.

Learn more about our AC coupled vs DC coupled system in this solar update video

Solar Shop in Portugal is where we bought all the equipment from. Ask for Pedro and mention that we recommended them!

Current system overview

Let’s start with a quick rundown of the system as it stands todaya:

• 5.3kW of solar panels (two strings of 6x400W and 6x 485W in series, ground mounted, south facing)
• 6kW PV inverter in the shed behind me
• 21.4kWh of battery storage
• 2x 5kVA inverters running in parallel – 8kW continuous power output (18kW peak)

Timeline of system upgrades

January 2021

We purchased our initial off grid system which consisted of:

• 2.4kW of panels (6x 400W)
• 1x 5kVA inverter
• 9.6kWh of batteries

This was all installed in the shed on the deck whilst we lived in a tent

Cost €6250

October 2021

We added a small petrol powered generator to help recharge batteries during bad weather

Cost €500

June 2023

As our house renovation progressed we needed more power including a range cooker with induction stove as well as an air source heat pump for hot water and UFH. We moved all the kit to the house and upgraded to the following:

• 5.3kW of panels
• We added the FIMER and switched from a DC coupled system to an AC coupled system
• 2x 5kVA inverters
• 14.4kWh of batteries

Cost €7500

Dec 2024

To more comfortably cope with lower light levels and bad weather over the winter, we added a further 7kWh of batteries and a 5kW diesel generator. Unfortunately this generator broke down with just 30hrs of run time and has been at the repair shop for the last month. Fortunately, we still have our original petrol generator which we’ve only used a couple of times since the Pramac one died in March.

Cost €3800

Approx. total to date: €18000