Grid Connected or Off Grid?

Whether to go grid connected or off grid is an important and surprisingly involved decision. In a nutshell, unless you’re able to generate and store all the power you need then you’ll probably have to stay grid connected – here’s the pros and con of both:

Grid Connected. In this scenario your renewable energy system (Solar PV and / or Wind Turbine) will be directly connected to the National Grid via your consumer unit. The advantage of this system is that while you are generating you get to use your own electricity and feed any surplus back to the National Grid. You get paid on what you generate (not what you feed back) so that gives you the double advantage of being paid for generation, then using this electricity yourself and therefore not importing electricity, hence reducing your bill. Of course, when you’re not generating enough for your needs the National Grid is there as your back-up. A grid connected solution is by far the cheapest and normally the best option in most situations. The big downside of grid connected is if you experience a mains failure then your system also needs to shutdown. During a mains power cut your renewable energy system has to turnoff for safety reasons. So, no mains power = no power at all.

Off Grid. In this scenario your renewable energy system (Solar PV and / or Wind Turbine) is not connected to the National Grid. Instead your power is fed to a battery bank for storage. This energy store is then connected to an inverter which is connected to the load (your house, outbuildings or whatever). This provides a totally off grid solution and is ideal in remote areas or areas of poor National Grid reliability. In order to ensure a reliable supply your renewable energy system will need to be bigger than a grid connected system and you will also need a back-up supply such as a generator. The advantage is that you are fully in control of your own energy and have no reliance on the National Grid. The downside is that you won’t get paid for your energy (assuming that you have no National Grid connection at all) and your system will be more expensive (batteries, larger system etc.).

Naturalwatt also offer a hybrid solution. We have developed a system that combines the advantages of both grid connected and off grid into one system. The key advantages of our hybrid system is that you will get paid for everything you generate, you can draw power from the National Grid when necessary and you will also have power during a power cut! This system may cost a little more (depending on the size of your energy store etc.), however, it does represent the most comprehensive solution and is the best renewable energy / energy security system you can buy.

Naturalwatt have very strong technical skills and we are able to custom design a solution to meet your specific requirements. We also specialise in remote monitoring of your system so that you can keep an eye on what's actually happening by using any web browser.

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