A hybrid solar system is a small orchestra: panels, battery, grid and inverter, playing different parts at different times of day. Pick a scenario below and watch how the energy moves — including what happens the moment the grid fails.
A hybrid inverter is constantly choosing where each watt comes from. The order never changes — and it's the whole reason the economics work:
If the sun is shining, your loads run on it directly. Once the system is paid for, the next solar watt costs nothing extra — and every one used is a grid watt not bought.
When solar falls short — clouds, evening — the battery covers the gap with sunshine it stored earlier. Still your own energy, still beating the tariff.
Only when solar and battery can't carry the load does the inverter draw from the grid — the most expensive source, used as the backup, not the default.
This is also why sizing matters so much. An undersized array leans on priority 3 every evening. An oversized one wastes capital. The right system spends most of its life on priorities 1 and 2 — which is exactly what we engineer for.
The inverter sits between four worlds: DC from your panels and battery, AC from the grid, and your distribution board — which we split into essential and non-essential circuits. That split is what keeps the important things running during an outage without needing a battery the size of a bakkie.
The one rule to remember: essential loads are always fed through the inverter — they never see raw grid. Non-essential loads sit on the grid side of the main DB: the grid feeds them directly whenever solar surplus is short, and the inverter can only reach them by exporting surplus onto that bus. In an outage the inverter islands in milliseconds, the essentials carry on, and everything on the grid bus waits for Eskom.
How much energy you use per day sets the array size. We work from your bills and, where useful, a metered load profile — not a guess.
The biggest simultaneous draw sets the inverter size. Kettle + geyser + oven at 6pm is a very different problem from the same energy spread over a day.
What must survive an outage? That split sizes the backup side of the system — and keeps the battery budget honest.
How many hours should the battery carry the essentials? Two hours of load shedding and a full night off-grid are different batteries.
Orientation, pitch, shading and available area decide what the site can actually yield — especially in winter, which is what we size for.
EV? Borehole? Workshop? We size the DC bus and cabling so tomorrow's loads are an add-on, not a redesign.
Optional upgrade · Solaire Intelligence
Add Solaire Intelligence and this diagram isn't a cartoon. It's your live dashboard.
The optional Solaire Intelligence upgrade shows you these exact flows on your own system, in real time — and automates the big loads to follow the sun. That's the difference between owning solar and actually using it.
Opens instantly · No sign-up
Take your monthly bill to the calculator, build a plant, and watch the payback derive itself — no details required, no phone call.