Off-grid homes and properties: from a heated pool at Myocum to 200 kWh in WA

Myocum, Byron Shire: a large off-grid home with a heated pool, air conditioning and an EV charger

• 24 kW of Winaico solar
• 2 x Victron Quattro 10 kVA inverter-chargers (20 kVA), with a Fronius 8.2 kW AC-coupled inverter and a Victron RS 450/200 MPPT charge controller
• 20 x MPS 5.1 kWh lithium iron phosphate batteries, 102 kWh of storage
• PowerMaster generator with a Kubota diesel engine, auto-start
• Installed 2023

A family at Myocum, in the hinterland between Mullumbimby and Byron Bay, who had already stepped back from most services: they grow their own vegetables and run their own animals, compost, and live on rainwater. Power was the last piece. They went off-grid for resilience and for control over their own supply, and they wanted to keep the modern niceties while doing it: a large home, a heated pool, air conditioning and an electric car.

That's a serious load, so it's a serious system. The 24 kW array feeds the battery bank two ways, through the Fronius inverter on the AC side and through the Victron RS 450/200 on the DC side, which gives both capacity and redundancy. Two Victron Quattro 10 kVA inverter-chargers run the house, with 102 kWh of Australian-made MPS storage carrying it through the night and through cloudy runs. The PowerMaster generator is wired to start itself only when the batteries genuinely need it, so it's a backstop rather than a habit.

Installed in 2023, the system runs everything: the air conditioners, the pool and pool heater, the EV charger, the lot. The clients are happy and love the independence. It's monitored through Victron VRM, so we see what they see and can support it from the workshop at Fernvale, about 40 minutes away.

Balingup, WA: 200 kWh three-phase off-grid property

• 45 kVA three-phase Victron inverter system
• 20 kW Fronius AC-coupled solar plus 30 kW DC-coupled solar, 50 kW total
• 200 kWh MPS lithium iron phosphate battery bank

Commercial-scale off-grid power running an entire property on three-phase supply, day and night, with no grid connection at all. The battery bank is sized to carry the property through a run of cloudy winter days in the south-west, and the two solar arrays, one AC-coupled through Fronius and one DC-coupled through Victron charge controllers, give redundancy as well as capacity. We designed, built, commissioned and now remotely monitor the system from the Tweed.

Pilbara, WA: remote station power

• 37 kW Winaico ground-mount array on Clenergy structure
• 20 kVA Victron inverter system with 10 kW Fronius AC-coupled, 30 kW total output
• 60 kWh MPS battery storage

Fully off-grid power delivered in one of the most remote corners of the country, engineered for Pilbara heat and total self-sufficiency. Panel, battery and inverter choices were all made for sustained 45-degree days, and the system is monitored through Victron VRM so we can support it from 4,000 kilometres away.

Tweed and Northern Rivers hinterland: full-time homes and weekenders

Closer to home, the bulk of our off-grid work is residential: properties in the hills behind Uki and Tyalgum, up the valleys behind Mullumbimby, around Nimbin and The Channon and out towards Kyogle, where the Essential Energy connection quote runs into the tens of thousands or the only supply is a SWER line that drops every storm. A typical full-time home system is 10 to 15 kW of Winaico solar, a Victron MultiPlus or Quattro inverter-charger, 20 to 40 kWh of MPS or XESS storage and an auto-start generator for the worst week of winter, in the $40,000 to $70,000 range. Weekenders and cabins start around $25,000. For sites with no shed to put the gear in there is the RAPTOR transportable solar skid, a fold-out 10.9 kW system with 90 kWh of storage on its own base.

What these jobs have in common

• Sized from a load audit, not a package: pumps, fridges, workshop, air conditioning, the lot.
• Victron inverter-chargers and charge controllers, the off-grid industry standard, endlessly configurable and supported for decades.
• Australian-made MPS lithium iron phosphate batteries on serious systems, XESS on smaller ones.
• Generator integration set up to run a few hours a month, not every evening.
• Remote monitoring through Victron VRM, so most faults are diagnosed before anyone drives out.
• Installed by our own licensed electricians, to AS/NZS 4509 stand-alone power standards and AS/NZS 5139 for the batteries.