Technology
We choose equipment by what it has to do.
A wall of manufacturer logos tells you nothing about whether a system will work. What matters is which component does which job, and why one was picked over another for your site.
Control and inversion
What converts, coordinates and protects?
- Victron Energy
- Fronius
The inverter and charger is the part of the system that decides how everything else behaves. It manages the transfer between grid and battery, sets charge behaviour and determines what happens the moment the supply fails.
It is also the component you are least likely to replace, so compatibility and long support life matter more here than anywhere else in the system.
What we weigh up
- Continuous rating against the loads that must run together
- Transfer behaviour and whether connected equipment tolerates it
- Three-phase capability where the supply requires it
- Whether the platform can be extended rather than replaced
Storage
How much energy is held, and for how many cycles?
- Freedom Won
- Hubble
- BYD
- SolarMD
Batteries are usually the largest single cost and the component with the clearest end of life. The important figures are usable capacity rather than nominal, the continuous discharge rating and the warranted cycle count.
Communication between the battery and the inverter matters as much as the chemistry. A battery that reports its state properly is one the system can look after.
What we weigh up
- Usable capacity rather than nominal capacity
- Continuous and peak discharge rating
- Warranted cycles and the conditions attached to them
- Whether the battery communicates properly with the inverter
Generation
What produces energy, and how does it behave on this roof?
- JA Solar
- Longi
- Axitec
Module choice matters less than most buyers expect and mounting matters more. On the West Coast, wind loading, salt exposure and fixing method deserve more attention than a small difference in panel efficiency.
Array layout is where real yield is won or lost. Orientation, pitch, shading and string arrangement shape the production curve across the day and the year.
What we weigh up
- Roof structure, pitch and available planes
- Shading through the day and across the seasons
- Wind loading and coastal corrosion resistance
- String arrangement and its effect on the production curve
Monitoring and control
How do you know what the system is doing?
- Victron Cerbo GX
- Node-RED
- MQTT
- ESPHome
System management hardware gathers what the inverter, chargers and battery report and makes it legible, on site and remotely.
On top of that we build local control logic where there is something worth controlling. It runs on the site rather than in a service somewhere, so it keeps working when the connection does not.
What we weigh up
- What is recorded, where it is held and who can see it
- What must keep working without an internet connection
- Whether alerts reach someone who can act on them
- How much complexity the site genuinely needs
How we choose
Four rules that outrank a datasheet.
Interoperability before brand loyalty
Components that communicate properly produce a system that can be managed. Components that merely coexist produce a collection of parts.
Support life over specification sheets
We favour equipment we can still obtain, update and get parts for in five years, over a marginally better figure on a datasheet today.
Repairable and inspectable
Equipment that can be opened, tested and serviced keeps a system economic to own. Sealed and undocumented equipment does not.
Suited to a coastal site
Salt air is unforgiving. Enclosure ratings, fixing materials and mounting detail carry more weight here than they would inland.
Credentials
What each one actually covers.
A logo on a website is not a credential. These are the programmes we work within, described in plain terms.
- PV GreenCard
- A quality-assurance programme for photovoltaic installations, run in South Africa to record that an installation was carried out to a defined standard.
- PV GreenCard is supplementary to the electrical Certificate of Compliance required by law. It does not replace one.
- Victron Energy
- Bay Solar works extensively with the Victron platform across residential and commercial installations, including three-phase configurations.
- Current installer programme status is confirmed with the vendor rather than claimed from an old badge.
- Fronius
- Fronius inverters are used where AC-coupled generation suits the site, including alongside Victron equipment on larger installations.
- Current partner programme status is confirmed with the vendor.
- Freedom Won
- Freedom Won lithium storage is used on residential and commercial systems, including multi-battery commercial installations.
- Listed in the vendor installer portal. Exact programme wording is confirmed with the vendor.
Next step
Want to know what we would specify?
Equipment choice follows from the assessment. Once we understand the site, we can explain exactly what we would fit and why.