Frequently Asked Questions
General
Email us at info@gridfree.store, message us on Facebook or our on-site livechat, or call 09 218 5533 for any questions.
You can also visit us at our office+warehouse at:
C4/27 Smales Road, East Tamaki, Auckland. (Book an appointment here)
Credit card, EFTPOS, bank transfer, and cash are all accepted.
QCard offers Long Term Financing Options that can be used for our solar kits, with interest-free terms of 6, 12, 18, or 24 months. Learn more about signing up for QCard Finance here.
We accept other 3rd party finance such as Squirrel and Gem Visa to purchase kits. We can also help with WINZ quotes.
We don't do any form of sales or promotions on our kits - instead, we offer the best price we can year round so you never have to worry about missing out.
Shipping times vary depending on location and how rural the address is, but is typically at least 3 business days. You will receive a tracking link when your order ships that will give you an indication, and our freight company will be in touch to confirm delivery on the day.
As we don't provide installation, we can't confirm how much installation will be. We have a list of electricians across the country who are familiar with installing our kits. You can also find your own electrician if need be as the instructions are very easy to pass over, and we're happy to support them. Prices vary depending on the kit and whether you do any of the work, so it's best to contact them directly for a quote.
We operate out of East Tamaki, Auckland. Get in touch if you’d like to come chat and see the products in person, and we can set up a time for you to visit.
Most of it can be wired up yourself if you feel comfortable doing it, as it is ELV and not prescribed electrical work. If you plan to wire the inverter into a switchboard, or you will be installing a hybrid inverter, you will need an electrician as its 240V AC. If you do not feel comfortable with any part of the wiring, please engage an electrician.
Yes, but be mindful: if you purchased GEL batteries, they need a top-up charge everything 3 months to keep them in good condition. This can be done with a regular 12V battery charger (like you'd used for a car battery) to charge them individually.
The rest of the kit requires no maintenance when in storage. Make sure everything is kept weather tight and not attacked by pests.
Products + Kits
All our products have the required certification and compliance to be sold in New Zealand, and these documents can be supplied with purchase.
Our solar panels have a 12 year limited product warranty and 25 linear performance warranty. Our Lead Acid and Lead Carbon batteries have a 3 year limited product warranty (based on 50% depth of discharge). Our Lithium batteries have a 5 year warranty. Our inverters and hybrid inverters have a 1 year product warranty, and charge controllers have a 2 year product warranty. You can find individual warranty information on the product pages.
We include TW 400W+ PERC Mono panels with all our kits, because they're the most efficient panels in New Zealand for off-grid use. These panels feature up to 21% conversion efficiency, severe weather resilience, and excellent low-light performance.
What kit do I need?
To get an idea of what you'll need, check out the "What can this kit run?" section on each kit page. You can also contact us for advice.
To work out more clearly what kit you’ll need, start by calculating your expected daily usage of all your appliances in Wh - you can find load calculators online. Then take this figure and find a kit that will produce the appropriate Wh for your lifestyle.
The Wh production of each kit changes over the course of the year due to changing sunlight hours. In the peak of summer most places of New Zealand get between 6-8 sunlight hours, and in winter you get less sunlight hours normally between 3-4. This means you may need to adjust your usage to conserve energy over the year, or get a larger kit to keep up during winter. In the details of each kit you will find an indication of what you can run on that kit, but as a guide, here are the approximate Wh productions of each kit over the year, based on 7 and 3 sunlight hours: (these do not account for extended periods of no sun)
Weekend Warrior: In ideal summer conditions this kit can produce over 4,830Wh per day, and during winter about 2,070Wh.
Tiny House: In ideal summer conditions this kit can produce over 9,240Wh per day, and during winter about 3,960Wh.
Bach Kit: In ideal summer conditions this kit can produce over 9,660Wh per day, and during winter about 4,140Wh.
Freedom Kit: In ideal summer conditions this kit can produce over 19,320Wh per day, and during winter about 8,280Wh.
Lifestyle Kit: In ideal summer conditions this kit can produce over 28,980Wh per day, and during winter about 12,420Wh.
All of our kits have some room for expansion, with the Bach and larger kits being easiest to expand. You can read more abouthow kits can be expanded here, or on their individual pages.
The Growatt hybrid inverters we use support remote monitoring through their own app, to set this up there will need to be a Wi-Fi access point near the inverter that it can connect to.
Usage
What you can run varies from kit to kit, and is affected by the efficiency of your appliances and how you use them. In the details of each kit, we’ve indicated common items that can be run on them. The easiest way to work out what youcanrun is to work out what youwantto run, how much power you’ll need for those items, and find a kit that can maintain your usage. If you're willing to be conservative with your power usage for a few days a year, you can make significant savings in your set up.Learn more here.
Use the wattage output of your panel and multiply by the number of panels you’re running. Then multiply by the average sunlight hours in NZ (4 hours). This will vary across the year.
For example:
If you run 4 x 335W panels, it's a 1340W array.
1340 x 4 = 5360, so over four hours you’ll produce 5360Wh.
You want to make sure they are mounted somewhere that will get as much of a full day's sun (with no shadows being cast across them) as possible. Mounting facing north and with an angle of 30-45 degrees is the optimal. However, as long as there will not be any trees or other buildings casting a shadow across the panels for the entire day, then it's not critical to be facing north.
If you choose a kit with a hybrid inverter, it is possible to connect a generator. To enable autostart,you will need an inverter generator with two-wire autostart compatibility.
Our kits are not to be used for vital or life supporting systems. In the event that you identify a fault with any component, it will need to be returned to us for testing, and a replacement unit will only be supplied when we confirm a fault covered by warranty.
We recommend using gas for cooking and heating applications, where possible, as these are high consumption appliances and will drain batteries heavily. Learn more here.
It depends on your daily consumption, to calculate this take 50% of your battery capacity and divide that by your daily consumption.
For example:
9.6kwh * 0.5 = 4.8kwh
4.8kwh / 1.5kwh (Daily consumption) = 3.2 days
The lifespan of our Gel batteries is typically 3-5 years, but if treated well, and not discharged heavily can last over 7 years.
The lifespan of our Lithium batteries is typically 10-12 years, but if treated well, and not discharged heavily can last over 15 years.
Our Deep cycle Gel batteries are completely maintenance-free.
Do remember to trickle charge the batteries every 3 months if you’re not going to be using them.
As the kits are ELV (extra low voltage under 120vdc) they don't require earthing. If you would like to earth the system (if you are in a high lightning area for example), you will need to employ an electrician to do so, as an improperly earthed system may be dangerous.