Free tool

Off-grid system planner

One set of answers, one coherent plan: the solar, battery, inverter, and generator that fit each other, the heat load and the fuel it takes, the water you use and where it comes from (well, spring, rain, or hauled), and what it all costs. Save it, share it, come back as you build.

Start with your location

Enter a ZIP and the sun, rainfall, and climate below fill in from 30-year records. Or set them yourself.

1. Household and building

2. Heat, hot water, cooking

3. What runs on electricity

Lights, phones, laptop, and Wi-Fi are always included. Check what else you will run. Heat, hot water, cooking, and the water source above and below are added automatically when they use electricity.

4. Power choices

5. Water

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Wiring diagram

How this plan wires together

A one-line diagram drawn from the plan above: strings, fuses, wire gauges, bus bars, bank, inverter, and generator, with the ratings sized to the numbers you chose. Change anything in the planner and it redraws. Print it or download the SVG; it is a planning drawing to take to your electrician or inspector, not a substitute for local code.

Why one plan instead of twenty calculators

Every off-grid system leans on the others. A heat pump adds to the solar load; a deep well pump decides the inverter and the generator, and hauled water decides how often you drive; the climate that sets your heating fuel, wood, pellets, propane, or a heat pump, also sets your winter sun, which sizes the array. Run them separately and the pieces quietly disagree. This planner takes one set of answers and works them through together, with the same assumptions the individual calculators use, so the numbers fit each other. Click "details" on any line to open that calculator and tune it.

How to use it well

Start with your ZIP so the sun, rain, and climate are real rather than guessed. Be honest about loads: the difference between a plan that works in January and one that does not is usually a freezer or a well pump someone forgot. Save the plan and come back to it as you build; each saved version gets its own link, so you can compare a lean first phase with the full build.

These are planning numbers with the same caveats as every tool here: conservative, rounded, and meant to get you to a real quote and a real design, not to replace them.