Solar

Off-grid solar for a homestead is a sizing problem: how much energy you need each day, how many panels generate that energy, how big a battery stores enough to ride through cloudy days, what kind of inverter converts it to AC, how long critical loads run on battery, and what the whole thing costs. The tools walk through these in order.

1. Audit your daily load

Start with what you actually need to run. The daily load calculator takes a list of devices with their wattage and runtime hours and sums daily Wh. Most homestead-scale setups end up between 1-5 kWh/day; a small cabin with LED lights and a 12V fridge runs closer to 1 kWh, a more comfortable setup with a chest freezer and well pump runs 3-5 kWh.

Be honest in this step. Aspirational load estimates produce undersized systems that don't actually run what you want them to.

2. Size the panel array

The solar array calculator takes your daily Wh, your location's peak-sun-hours, and the array efficiency derate (panel losses, wiring losses, charge-controller losses) and tells you the array wattage required. Most temperate locations have 4-5 peak sun hours summer average and 2-3 in winter. Size for the worst month you need full capacity in, not the annual average.

3. Size the battery bank

The battery bank calculator takes daily Wh, days of autonomy (how many cloudy days you ride through), and chemistry (LiFePO4, AGM, flooded) and outputs nameplate kWh required. LiFePO4 supports 80% depth of discharge and lasts 3000+ cycles; AGM supports 50% and lasts 500-800 cycles; flooded lead-acid is cheapest per kWh but needs maintenance. The math accounts for chemistry-specific DoD.

4. Size the inverter

The inverter sizing calculator takes your peak simultaneous AC load (not daily, but the watts you'll be drawing all at once) and outputs the continuous and surge ratings you need. Common mistakes: under-sizing the surge rating (a fridge compressor pulling 3× nameplate at startup), or over-sizing the continuous rating and burning extra idle-watts.

5. Check pump runtime

If you're powering an aquaponics pump or other always-on equipment, the battery runtime calculator tells you how long the battery bank will run that load when the sun isn't shining. Useful for sizing autonomy days correctly.

6. Cost it out

The system cost calculator itemizes panels, batteries, inverter, charge controller, mounting, wiring, and optional install labor into a total cost plus payback estimate. Solar pays back on grid offset at 5-10 years in most markets; faster if you're using it to avoid a generator. Pure backup-only systems don't financially pay back but are insurance against outages.

7. Total daily reality

If the math says you need 8 kW of panels, 30 kWh of battery, and a 5 kW inverter to run your homestead, that's a $15-25k system. Not undoable, but worth knowing before you start ordering parts.