Our Own Off-Grid Office: 100 kW of Solar, 376kWh Storage, and a Living Laboratory
- Mar 4
- 3 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
At Wright-Way we don’t just sell off-grid systems, WE LIVE ON ONE! Our headquarters is a fully off-grid facility that powers a 6,000-square-foot office, a 3,500-square-foot home, 2 warehouses, multiple RVs, and the company Tesla. It is one of the largest and most diverse commercial-scale off-grid solar installations in East Texas, and it serves as our daily proving ground.
The Numbers
We currently run approximately 100 kW of solar. That is more solar than nearly every off-grid customer we have ever installed, including some very large residential systems. Battery storage sits in the upper tier of what we typically install (most of our big off-grid clients land between 350–500 kWh). The system is sized to handle real commercial-level loads while remaining completely independent of the utility, all with minimal need of the 100kW generator.
A Living Showcase of Solar Technology
Because this is our own facility, we have intentionally filled it with almost every type of solar equipment we install for customers:
Multiple array styles: sleek patio structures, basic carports, and higher-end bifacial carports
Different orientations: south, east, and west
Solar thermal systems – Off grid water heating at its finest
Both brand-new high-efficiency panels and some of the original 1st pallet of panels we installed around 2009 (now approaching 20 years old and still producing)
A wide range of inverters: Sol-Ark hybrids, Enphase microinverters, SMA micros and string inverters, Fronius string inverters, and our latest upgrade EG4 Electronics.
Roughly half of our solar is AC-coupled. This modern approach lets grid-tie-style inverters work seamlessly with our battery-based system. AC-coupling at this scale is still relatively uncommon, and it gives us firsthand experience with the complexity and advantages we later bring to customer projects. Our batteries are also typically full before Lunch!
We even use part of the system as a working laboratory. Our Solar Testing/Training Lab currently runs controlled experiments on all parts and styles of solar equipment (Inverters, Batteries, Generator Etc.) A testing protocol we use when diagnosing or validating issues for clients and/or warranties.
Why We Built It This Way
Living on the system every day forces us to solve the same problems our customers face: seasonal production changes, large variable loads, maintenance, monitoring, and long-term reliability. When we recommend a design, an inverter brand, a battery architecture, or specific design approach, it is because we have already run it hard on our own property.
The metal roofing we use also doubles as a simple but effective thermal strategy — galvanized surfaces reflect a tremendous amount of heat, reducing cooling loads the same way we advise customers to do.
Why This Matters for East Texas Property Owners
When you hire Wright-Way, you are not hiring a company that only designs systems on paper. You are hiring a team that comes to work every day in a fully off-grid office powered by the same technology we install for you. We have already made the mistakes, learned the lessons, and proven the equipment in real East Texas conditions for almost 20 years.
Want to see what real-world off-grid performance looks like? Contact us.
We are happy to talk about our own system, the good, the challenging, and everything we have learned running 100 kW of solar and a 376kWh battery bank day in and day out.