3.2 kW Solar System with 8 kWh Battery
The entry-level load-shedding kit: 3.3 kWp of PV, 8.04 kWh of LiFePO4 and a 3.6 kW hybrid — sized for a fridge, lights, WiFi and fans through the night.
- PV array
- 3.3 kWp
- 6 x 550 W
- Battery
- 8.04 kWh
- 7.24 kWh usable
- Inverter
- 3.2 kW
- 3.6 kW / 24 V hybrid inverter
- Daily output (South Africa)
- 13.6 kWh
- South Africa, 5.5 kWh/m2/day
This is the smallest kit we build as a complete, tested package, and the one most households in load-shedding markets actually need. Six 550 W modules give 3.3 kWp on the roof; a single 8.04 kWh LiFePO4 pack sits on the wall; a 3.6 kW hybrid inverter ties the two together and decides, every few milliseconds, whether power goes to the house, into the battery, or back to the grid.
The configuration is taken from a quotation we issued in November 2026 for a three-bedroom home with a 0.75 kW borehole pump. Nothing on this page is theoretical: the bill of materials below is what shipped, the topology is the single-line diagram the installer worked from, and the yield table uses the same irradiance assumptions we use in customer proposals. If your load profile looks different, the same platform scales up to the 5 kW and 6 kW kits without changing the mounting or the DC cabling.
What's in the kit
The bill of materials below is what ships, not a wish list. Anything marked configurable is fixed at order confirmation against your grid, your generator and your load list.
| Item | Specification | Qty |
|---|---|---|
| PV modules | 550 W monocrystalline half-cell, 182 mm, 25-year performance warranty. Smaller DLXN-M10 50-230 W modules are available for outbuildings or a separate off-grid circuit. module range · DLXN-M10-230W | 6 x 550 W |
| Hybrid inverter Configurable | 3.6 kW / 24 V hybrid inverter, 2 x MPPT, 80 A charger. Inverter is deliberately left configurable: the same array works with a 3.6 kW/24 V hybrid (cheapest entry), a 5 kW/48 V hybrid (if you take the F5100 pair), or a grid-tie only inverter if you have no battery requirement. Tell us the grid situation and we ship the matching unit. | 1 |
| Battery | DLXN-F2314 — 8.04 kWh LiFePO4, 25.6 V / 314 Ah, 6,000-8,000 cycles, built-in BMS. For a 48 V build (recommended if you expect to grow past 4 kW later), substitute 2 x DLXN-F5100 5.12 kWh packs for 10.24 kWh on a 51.2 V bus. DLXN-F5100 | 1 |
| Mounting | Mounting: 6 x adjustable-tilt roof hooks and rails, or 2 ground-mount frames if the roof is asbestos or thatch. Cyclone/wind rating is stated per order because it changes the anchor spec. | 1 |
| DC side / AC side | Balance of system: 1 x 2-string DC combiner with 32 A DC breakers and Type 2 surge protection, 4 mm² PV cable with MC4 connectors, 1 x 6-way AC distribution board with RCD, plus a WiFi/4G monitoring dongle. | 1 |
| Monitoring | WiFi + 4G dongle, Modbus TCP for third-party EMS, 5-year data retention on the DLXN-IOT platform. | 1 |
How it connects
One array, one inverter, one battery bank, and three possible AC sources. The drawing below is the flow an installer works from; the numbered steps are the order the work actually happens in on site.
Arrows show power flow. The inverter decides every few milliseconds whether the array feeds the loads, charges the battery, exports, or blends all three.
- 1
Mount and earth the array
Rails first, then modules, then a continuous earth bond across every frame. 6 modules at 550 W is 3,300 Wp of DC; the frames must be bonded to the same earth bar as the inverter or the surge protection has nothing to divert into.
- 2
Wire the strings to the combiner
6 x 550 W monocrystalline half-cell, 3S2P (3 in series per string, 2 strings in parallel). Each string lands on its own fused or breaker-protected input in the DC combiner, with a Type 2 surge arrester on the DC bus. Check polarity with a meter before the first MC4 click — reversed strings are the most common cause of a dead MPPT on commissioning day.
- 3
Run DC to the inverter MPPT inputs
One string per MPPT input — 2 trackers used, Voc about 150 V at STC, Isc about 14 A per string. Keep the DC run as short as the building allows; every extra 10 m of 6 mm2 cable costs roughly 0.3% of yield.
- 4
Set the battery on its own breaker
The DLXN-F2314 (8.04 kWh, 25.6 V / 314 Ah) connects to the inverter DC bus through its own DC breaker and a pre-charge resistor. Neutral, earth and the battery negative are kept separate; the BMS CAN lead is landed on the inverter comms port and the protocol selected in the menu before the first charge.
- 5
Build the AC side
Inverter AC out feeds a distribution board with an RCD, one breaker per circuit, and a surge arrestor. Grid and generator each get their own input with a changeover, so the inverter can be told which source is present rather than guessing.
- 6
Configure, then load test
Set battery type to lithium, capacity to 8.04 kWh, charge current to the value in the commissioning sheet, and export limit to the site rule (zero-export for prepaid meters). Then apply a known load — a 2 kW kettle is the usual choice — and confirm the inverter holds frequency and voltage while the array is curtailed.
- 7
Hand over the labels and the diagram
Every breaker gets a label, the single-line diagram goes inside the DB door, and the monitoring account is transferred to the owner. This is what an inspector asks for, and it is what the next technician needs two years later.
How much it generates
Daily yield is calculated as 3.3 kWp x irradiance x 0.75 system efficiency. The efficiency factor is not a marketing number: it bundles inverter conversion, DC and AC cable losses, soiling, mismatch and temperature derating at roughly 35 degrees cell temperature.
| Market | Irradiance (kWh/m2/day) | Daily (kWh) | Monthly (kWh) | Yearly (kWh) | What that covers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| South Africa | 5.5 | 13.6 | 408 | 4,964 | about 1.1 kWh/day of self-consumption, or roughly 20% of a 20 kWh/day household |
| Nigeria | 5 | 12.4 | 372 | 4,526 | about 1 kWh/day of self-consumption, or roughly 19% of a 20 kWh/day household |
| Philippines | 4.5 | 11.1 | 333 | 4,052 | about 0.9 kWh/day of self-consumption, or roughly 17% of a 20 kWh/day household |
Estimates, not guarantees. Real output moves with tilt, azimuth, shading, soiling and season; a site survey typically shifts these figures by 10-15% either way. Peak-sun-hours data is long-term average, so a good month can beat the table by 20% and a bad one can miss it by 25%.
Usable battery
7.24 kWh
at 90% depth of discharge
Night autonomy at 400 W
18.1 h
excluding air conditioning
Storage per kWp
2.4 kWh/kWp
about 2 kWh/kWp suits daily cycling
How to read the table
The three markets are the ones we ship to most, and the differences are real: Johannesburg gets about 5.5 peak sun hours a year-round, Lagos about 5.0 with a rainy-season dip in June, Manila about 4.5 with a pronounced wet season from June to October. A system sized on the annual average will under-perform in Manila in August and over-perform in March — that is normal, and it is why the battery is sized on the evening load rather than on the daily average.
What it solves
Three load profiles this kit actually gets ordered for. The numbers come from our own commissioning sheets, not from a catalogue.
A load-shedding evening, stage 4 to 6
Base load of a fridge cycling at 150 W, six LED lights (54 W), the router (12 W), two fans (90 W) and a TV (80 W) totals roughly 390 W. With 7.24 kWh usable at 90% depth of discharge, that is around 18 hours of continuous supply — in practice 8 to 12 hours covers a full evening outage plus the morning peak, and the array refills the pack by early afternoon the next day.
A tuckshop that cannot close
One chest freezer (250 W, duty-cycled to about 40%), LED strip lighting, a card machine and a phone-charging bar draw under 200 W average. The kit runs the freezer through a four-hour outage without thawing stock, and the 3.3 kWp array still has headroom to run a small air conditioner during trading hours when the grid is on.
A farm cottage with a borehole
A 0.75 kW borehole pump running four hours a day needs 3 kWh — comfortably inside the daily yield, and scheduled for 10:00-14:00 so it runs on direct PV rather than cycling the battery. The same window can run a 1.1 kW workshop tool or a washing machine, one at a time.
Where this kit is installed
Irradiance assumptions differ by market and so does the kit: South African buyers usually need the inverter to accept a generator input for stage 6 days, Nigerian buyers care about surge tolerance for borehole pumps and ageing compressors, and Philippine buyers need the mounting rated for typhoon-season wind loads. All three are covered by the same hardware with different anchoring and firmware settings.
Indicative EXW cost
Ex-works Shenzhen, USD, per kit. The inverter is quoted separately because it is the one line that changes with your grid and generator; everything else below is fixed hardware.
| Item | Specification | Indicative range |
|---|---|---|
| 3,300 Wp of PV modules | 6 x 550 W mono half-cell | USD 561 - 759 |
| Battery, 8.04 kWh | DLXN-F2314, LiFePO4, 25.6 V / 314 Ah | USD 764 - 1,045 |
| Mounting, cabling, combiners, AC board | Rails, clamps, DC/AC cable, SPD, DB | USD 140 - 200 |
| Hybrid inverter | 3.6 kW / 24 V hybrid inverter, 2 x MPPT, 80 A charger | Quoted separately — specification depends on grid and generator |
| Kit total, EXW, excluding inverter | Panels + battery + balance of system | USD 1,465 - 2,004 |
Indicative EXW only — final installed price is quoted by your local installer after freight, duty, labour and commissioning. Module pricing is based on USD 0.17-0.23/Wp and battery on USD 95-130/kWh at the time of writing; both move with cell and wafer prices, so confirm before you budget.
Upgrade path
Upgrade path: add two more 550 W modules (to 4.4 kWp) on the same 3.6 kW inverter if your daytime load grows; add a second F2314 in parallel for 16.08 kWh if your night load grows. Both are field-retrofits — no inverter swap until you pass 4.4 kWp.
Hardware in this kit
Every line above maps to a catalogue page with a datasheet:
Frequently asked questions
How much does a 3kw solar system cost?
On an EXW basis the hardware in this kit breaks down as 3.3 kWp of modules at USD 0.17-0.23/Wp (USD 561-759), an 8.04 kWh LiFePO4 battery at USD 95-130/kWh (USD 764-1,045) and USD 140-200 for mounting, DC/AC cabling and the distribution board — about USD 1,465-2,004 before the inverter, which is quoted separately against your grid and generator requirements. Installed cost is always higher and always local: duties, freight, labour and CoC sign-off are set by your installer, who issues the final figure.
How many kWh does a 3.2kW system produce per day?
At 5.5 kWh/m2/day (South Africa) the 3.3 kWp array yields about 13.6 kWh/day; at 5.0 (Nigeria) about 12.4 kWh/day; at 4.5 (Philippines) about 11.1 kWh/day. All three use a 0.75 system efficiency factor that already accounts for inverter losses, cable losses, soiling and temperature derating. Monthly output lands between 333 and 408 kWh. These are estimates, not guarantees — a shade survey and a tilt decision move the number by 10-15%.
Can a 3.2 kW kit run an air conditioner?
One 1.2 kW (12,000 BTU) inverter split unit can run during daylight, because the array is producing 2-3 kW at that time. It cannot run overnight on the battery for long: 1.2 kW for eight hours is 9.6 kWh, more than the 7.24 kWh usable in the pack. If night-time cooling is the requirement, move to the 5 kW + 15 kWh or 6 kW + 10 kWh kit.
What battery chemistry is used, and can it be expanded?
LiFePO4 (LFP) with a 25.6 V / 314 Ah configuration, 6,000-8,000 cycles at 80% depth of discharge, integrated BMS with CAN/RS485 to the inverter, and a steel enclosure rated for indoor or covered outdoor mounting. A second identical pack can be paralleled in the field to reach 16.08 kWh without changing the inverter.
Ask about this configuration
Send us your load list, the port you ship to and whether a generator stays on site. We reply with a configuration, a drawing and an EXW quotation — usually within one business day.
- ✉ dlxn@dlxnsolar.com
- Contact details and offices
- Factory: Shenzhen, China · Ports: Shenzhen / Ningbo / Shanghai
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