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Can I Run My House Off-Grid? Load Calculator

Tick the appliances you actually want to run, and watch your daily energy use, peak load and a ballpark solar-plus-battery size update live — before you talk to anyone.

Defaults assume a typical off-grid US home — ~4.5 peak sun hours, $ pricing, 240V dryer/range further down.

Defaults assume a typical off-grid European home — ~3.2 peak sun hours (PVGIS-style), € pricing, 230V kettle further down.

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150W is compressor running wattage, not a 24h draw — compressor duty cycle ≈ 8h/day equivalent, which is what the hours field defaults to.

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Pump motors surge hard on start-up — roughly 3× running watts for a second or two. That spike is folded into the surge estimate below, not into daily kWh.

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240V split-phase appliances need a split-phase/NEMA-aware inverter or transfer setup — not every off-grid inverter supports this natively.

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230V single-phase is standard European off-grid wiring — no split-phase inverter needed.

Can you run this off-grid?

Daily energy use

0 kWh/day

Peak running load

0 W

Estimated surge

0 W

Ballpark solar array

0 kW

Ballpark battery bank

0 kWh usable

How this is calculated

Every appliance you tick contributes watts × hours run per day to the total — the energy math a battery bank actually has to hold. Untick anything you wouldn't run off-grid; the defaults above are typical values, not your house.

Peak running load is the sum of running watts for everything ticked — the continuous rating your inverter needs to clear if it all ran at once. Estimated surge adds the start-up spike of your single biggest motor on top (compressors and pumps commonly pull 2–3× running watts for a second or two) — not every motor's surge added together, since motors essentially never start in unison. Same rule generator and inverter sizing guides use.

The ballpark array divides daily kWh by your peak sun hours and a roughly 78% system-efficiency figure, which folds in inverter, charge-controller, wiring and battery round-trip losses. The ballpark battery bank multiplies daily kWh by two days of stored autonomy and divides by an 80% usable depth-of-discharge — a common sizing rule for LiFePO4 off-grid banks.

  • Fridges, freezers, well pumps and mini-splits cycle on and off — the hours/day defaults already approximate typical duty cycles, not continuous run time.
  • Peak sun hours is the single biggest lever on array size — swap in your own location's number (PVGIS for Europe, NREL for the US) for a tighter estimate.
  • These are planning-stage numbers, not a system design. An installer sizes the real thing from a load study and a look at your roof or site.

Ready for panel counts and a parts-level battery spec? Run these numbers through the Off-Grid Solar Sizing Calculator.

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The next step

Size the backup circuit first

Run your loads through the free calculators, then take the result to the gear lists — makers linked direct, no forms, no sales calls.

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Gear that fits these numbers

Solar Electrical & Monitoring

The balance-of-system parts that decide whether an array performs. Linked direct to the makers — take your result with you.

Victron Energy

SmartShunt & MPPT charge controllers

Bluetooth battery monitoring and charge control the off-grid trade actually installs.

Renogy

Panels, charge controllers & kits

The entry point for DIY off-grid — matched panel/controller/battery kits.

Rich Solar

Rigid panels & combiner boxes

Workhorse 100–200W rigid panels and the combiner hardware between array and controller.

The full Solar Electrical & Monitoring list

Go deeper: 12 Best States to Live Off-Grid in 2026 · Where Europeans Really Go Off-Grid (9 Countries Ranked)