People who are thinking about installing photovoltaics often have a dilemma about which type of installation to choose. In this case, it is necessary to take into account the type of building, its adaptability, and energy requirements.  Therefore, it is worth taking a closer look at all groups of photovoltaic installations to find out which one will be most suitable.  

We can divide photovoltaic installations into 4 groups: 

This is the simplest and most common type of installation. In this case, the inverter synchronizes with the public power grid (Grid) and works exclusively in cooperation with it. This is the cheapest option, in which the surplus stored energy can be sold to the power company. The disadvantage of this solution may be possible outages or failures of the power grid that prevent the installation from working.

A power-independent installation that we can install anywhere. Unlike on-gird, surplus energy is used to charge batteries, so we can use it in the future. This type works mainly for locations for which the cost of connecting to the grid is too high. Examples include street lamps, ship decks, or summer houses. The disadvantage of this system is the risk of running out of battery power supply.

This is an installation containing batteries synchronized with the power grid. In this case, we produce electricity that we use when needed, and any excess or shortage is buffered by the batteries.  

The operation of this type of installation can be easily illustrated by the following diagrams

Where the output of the panels (marked in yellow) is higher than the consumption (green) - the battery charges. If consumption is higher than production, we use previously stored energy. Unfortunately, by the fact that the system is synchronized with the grid, possible power outages cause the photovoltaics to shut down and power to the house to be turned off. The most common systems of this type in Poland are based on a Huawei inverter, which has a battery input as standard. 

These are the types of installations that combine the greatest advantages of all systems: 

On-grid - any amount of energy from the public grid, makes you never run out of electricity.  

Grid-tie - we use our own energy and have 100% savings from it regardless of the state of the law for most of the year. 

Off-grid - we are independent of the power industry and don't have to worry about maintenance work, breakdowns and increases.  

The hybrid system operates in two modes: 

1. Grid-tie - when grid power is present. 

2. EPS - i.e. emergency power supply when there is an outage or grid shutdown. 

Note that hybrids have some disadvantages: