The owner, Cliff McDonald has a Tesla at home and said that he knew that he was interested in lithium-ion batteries. He had done some research and found that Tesla Power Walls were not rated for off-the-grid use as they need to be equalized through a connection to the power grid. This led him to Blue Planet Energy’s Blue Ion lithium-ion solar batteries. The McDonald’s selected Innovacion Solar to build their system and do their installation. On the roof of the garage were 12 – 435W SunPower panels producing a total of 5,220 watts for use to power the main house.

The main panels lead to a 48V Outback Radian Series inverter with a Mates3 controller box and an Outback Charge controller. This allows the system to be remotely monitored from anywhere in the world. The Inverter and charge controller manage the conversion of the solar power, the charging of the batteries and the automatic start of the Kohler propane 20 KW generator, should it be needed due to lack of sun.

The generator also starts automatically once per week to equalize the charge in the four 2 kW Blue Ion batteries housed in the special battery management cabinet. This 8 kW system is designed to meet the needs of this 4 bedroom home that includes mini-split air conditioners in the bedrooms. The owners recognize that 8 kW of power storage is not enough to run all of the air conditioners overnight.