Designed and manufactured in New Zealand

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Cuts to retail buy-back rates have prompted us to find new ways to increase solar self-consumption through hot water heating rather than exporting to the grid.

The Paladin solar power charge controller redirects surplus solar energy into a hot water cylinder, to increase the amount of generation used on-site.

Why export power at 7 to 8 cents, then have to buy it back at 28 cents?

       The charge controller aims to "significantly" increase customers own solar power generation from the industry average of 50-60% (UK research) to nearly 100%.


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How does it work?

Responsive & Interactive

Monitoring the grid up to 3,600 times a second the charge controller is extremely accurate and picks up passing clouds and the back-and forth movements of a vacuum cleaner, and reacts accordingly varying the power to the hot water cylinder.

Cleaner Graphics

The charge controller has a four line display for reporting, but information is just to inform the user how much power is being and has been diverted, the temperature of the cylinder, and current performance.


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ABC News (Australia) Feature on Paladin Solar Power Diverter
Check out this independent review of Paladin conducted by Australian TV on September 2017.

Wider Scope

The charge controller is “inverter-agnostic”  - it will work with any existing grid-connected photovoltaic system.
Ideally the solar PV should be slightly larger than the maximum diverted power (house dependant), or else the excess power will be exported.

Ready to control other devices

The base model can also control under floor heating, spa pool heaters, and storage heaters. Electric Vehicle Charging has been in use since 2015 and is compatible with the Enel JuiceBox.
In early 2021 a new demand response module will be released that allows variable heat-pump control (heating and cooling) using the DRED standard mandated for New Zealand and Australia.
Electric Hot Water heating is typically 7kWh per day in a NZ home, and makes up 27% of an average NZ home's electricity consumption. By managing the temperature, the hot water cylinder can be used like a huge battery.  The minimum temperature is 40C at the bottom, and the cylinder can increase to 73C.  Paladin manages the minimum temperature so you don't get cold showers, and manages Legionnaires protection.


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Examples of Paladin in Action

Site 1, residential: See the consumption drop as the solar production increases from 9am.  The odd high consumption items (induction cooktop, kettle, hair dryer etc) means there is a little consumption every hour when the solar production is insufficient - but the is no export to the grid.

Before & After Paladin Installation

Here is a typical installation demonstrating how Paladin works in the real world.
Site 2, holiday home: Consumption drops to zero as solar production increases. The evening peak is heating and off-peak Electric Vehicle charging. Consumption drops top zero and there is no power exported.