A house that runs without a grid connection.

Who this is for

• Remote and rural properties where the nearest connection point is far enough away that the DNO quote runs to five or six figures
• Barn conversions and new builds waiting on a connection that will not arrive for months, or at all
• Existing homes choosing to disconnect, usually after looking hard at standing charges and deciding the supply is not earning its keep
• Holiday lets and second homes with seasonal, unpredictable use

What an off-grid house actually needs

Four things, and getting the balance between them right is the whole job.

Element	What it does, and how we size it
Solar	The cheapest energy you will ever generate, but seasonal. In Northumberland an array produces perhaps eight times as much in June as in December, so it cannot be sized on annual average alone.
Battery	Carries you overnight and through poor weather. The number that matters is days of autonomy — how long you can run with no generation at all.
Generator	The winter answer, and the insurance policy. Sized to charge the battery hard and run the house at the same time, not to idle.
Control	The part people forget. What starts the engine, at what state of charge, for how long, and when it decides not to bother.

Wind, where the site suits it

A small turbine is worth considering on exposed sites, and it has one genuine advantage over solar: it produces most in winter, exactly when solar produces least. That complementarity can cut generator run hours substantially.

It is not right everywhere. Turbines need real wind — not "it feels breezy up here" — planning permission, and a tolerance for moving parts and maintenance. We will tell you honestly whether your site justifies one.

Heat is the harder half

Electricity off-grid is a solved problem. Heat is where off-grid houses come unstuck, because heating a house electrically from a battery is expensive in kWh terms.

Options that work:

• A heat pump plus a well-insulated building, run hard when the sun is out and the battery is full
• Wood or biomass for the depths of winter, which many rural properties have access to anyway
• Combined heat and power, where the generator you already need for electricity gives you its waste heat as well — see combined heat and power

Getting the fabric right first is almost always cheaper than generating your way out of a draughty building.

Staying connected, but barely

Worth saying: full disconnection is not always the right answer. Keeping a small supply and running almost everything from your own generation gives you a backstop for very little. Cutting the connection entirely saves the standing charge but removes any fallback.

If you are considering disconnection we will model both, with your actual consumption, and show you the difference over ten years rather than one.

What it involves

1. A site visit and a load assessment. What you run, when, and what starts up. We meter where the answer is not obvious.
2. A design with the winter case modelled. Generation, storage, generator run hours, and what happens in a bad fortnight.
3. A written specification you can compare against anyone else's.
4. Installation, mechanical and electrical, to BS 7671, with certification and building control notification handled.
5. Commissioning under load, and a handover that includes what to do when something goes wrong.