How much grid power are you using today? We need a starting number.
If you only know the bill in IQD, ask your bill for the kWh on it — it's usually listed.
Tell us what's in your home. We'll break down where your kWh are actually going.
Ranked by kWh saved per year. Toggle the ones you'd consider doing.
Compare your current splits against a central evaporative cooler, or a hybrid of both.
4 room ACs, fixed-speed, 11–14 yrs old
1× industrial unit, ducted to all rooms
Cooler for living areas, 2 splits kept for bedrooms
Adjust the cooler specs to match what you'd actually buy. The math updates live across all stages.
Pick which AC units should keep running (typically bedroom ACs for sleeping). The cooler replaces the unchecked ones. Kept ACs run at ~30% of original usage.
The kWh savings are real, but the comfort and operational tradeoffs are also real. Tick each to confirm you understand.
By optimizing first, you'd need 43% less solar to hit the same coverage — smaller panels, less roof, less spend.
Size your PV system to cover the load you've already optimized down. Less load = smaller, cheaper system.
This is the realistic version — solar can only cover loads happening during the day. Green = solar covered daytime use. Blue = battery covered some evening/night use. Red = grid pulled for evening + night (because solar's not producing). Gold = daytime surplus that's wasted unless you have net metering.
Solar only works while the sun is up. This is what a typical day in your house actually looks like with your current setup.
Optimizing first lets you buy less solar for the same coverage.
Battery is optional for Erbil — the grid is reliable. It's mainly about brief-outage backup and capturing daytime surplus.
Be honest with yourself: at this PV size, battery saves you only ~10–25 kWh/month off your grid bill. The real value is backup capability and resilience, not bill reduction. Bigger isn't always better here — Erbil's grid reliability means diminishing returns kick in fast.
A battery can only store what your solar produces in surplus. If solar barely covers your daytime load, the battery starves no matter how big it is.
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Useful only if your PV produces large daily surplus. Costs scale roughly linearly — about $400–600 per kWh installed in Iraq.
The 1.5 kW essential-load assumption breaks down like this. Tune to your priorities.
| Load | Power (W) | Amps | Keep on? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Refrigerator | 150 | 0.7 A | Yes |
| Freezer | 180 | 0.8 A | Yes |
| Lights (LED, ~6 fixtures) | 60 | 0.3 A | Yes |
| Ceiling fans (3) | 270 | 1.2 A | Yes |
| Router + modem | 30 | 0.1 A | Yes |
| TV + receiver | 60 | 0.3 A | Optional |
| One inverter split AC (1.5 ton) | 900 | 4.1 A | Brief use only |
| Water pump (350W, ~5 min/hr) | 30 avg | 0.1 avg | Yes |
| Total essential continuous | ~720 W | ~3.3 A | |
| With AC running | ~1,620 W | ~7.4 A |
The grid-bill impact is modest — the real value is the backup. In Erbil where outages are brief, this often justifies the cost on its own.
Your full grid-reduction plan, from baseline to net grid import.
Same chart as Stage 4, with the battery contribution overlaid in blue — the small slice taken off the grid-import bar each month.
| PV capacity | — |
|---|---|
| Panels | — |
| Roof area used | — |
| Inverter | — |
| Battery | — |
| Annual production | — |
|---|---|
| Annual grid import | — |
| Monthly grid avg | — |
| Peak AC output | — |
| Backup duration | — |
A one-line spec to send when you ask for quotes.