When you start getting solar quotes, you’ll quickly run into three terms — grid-tied, hybrid, and off-grid — often used as if you should already know the difference. They describe the three fundamentally different ways a solar system can relate to the national grid, and the choice between them shapes your cost, your backup options, and your whole experience of owning solar. For most New Zealand homes the right answer is straightforward, but it’s worth understanding why, so here’s each one in plain terms.
Grid-tied — the default for most homes
A grid-tied system works hand in hand with the national grid. Your panels power your home first, any surplus is exported to the grid for a buy-back credit, and whenever your solar isn’t enough — at night, or on a dull day — you simply draw from the grid as normal. There’s no battery. You stay fully connected, and the grid acts as both your infinite backup and your “store” for surplus power.
- It’s the cheapest and simplest option, with the fewest components.
- It gives the best payback for most homes, because there’s no expensive battery to recover.
- The one catch: in a power cut, a standard grid-tied system automatically shuts off for the safety of line workers. So despite having panels on the roof, you get no backup power during an outage. This surprises people, and it’s the main reason some add a battery.
For the large majority of grid-connected New Zealand homes, this is the right starting point.
Hybrid — grid-tied, plus a battery
A hybrid system is a grid-tied system with a battery added, run by a “hybrid” inverter that can manage both. Your surplus daytime solar charges the battery instead of all being exported, and you draw on that stored power in the evening. Many hybrid setups can also keep essential circuits running during a blackout.
- It lifts self-consumption — typically from 30–50% up to 70–90% — because the evening usage that used to come from the grid now comes from your own stored sunshine.
- It can provide backup during outages (depending on how it’s configured), which a plain grid-tied system can’t.
- It costs more and lengthens payback. The battery is a big spend, so you’re partly buying resilience and evening independence rather than pure financial return.
Hybrid makes sense if you want backup power, you’re out during the day (so you’d otherwise export most of your solar cheaply), or you value running the evening on your own power — especially as time-of-use pricing spreads.
Off-grid — no grid connection at all
An off-grid system cuts the cord entirely: there’s no grid connection, so the system has to supply 100% of your power, all year round, on its own. That means a large battery bank to carry you through nights and cloudy spells, usually a backup generator for the worst stretches of winter, and careful sizing so you never run short.
- It suits remote properties — a bach, a lifestyle block, a new build — where connecting to the grid is very expensive or simply not possible.
- It’s the most expensive option, because you must size for the worst week of the year, not the average, with enough storage and generation to never run out.
- It’s rarely the right call if you already have a grid connection. Staying grid-tied (or hybrid) is almost always cheaper and more reliable than deliberately disconnecting.
The deciding question for off-grid usually isn’t preference — it’s whether a grid connection is available and affordable in the first place.
The short answer
For most people the decision tree is simple:
- On the grid? Start with grid-tied. It’s cheapest and pays back best.
- Want evening value or outage backup? Go hybrid (grid-tied plus a battery).
- No practical grid connection? Off-grid is your option, and it needs careful, generous sizing.
The mistake to avoid is being sold an expensive off-grid or large-battery setup when a simple grid-tied system would serve you better and for less. Match the architecture to your actual situation — your grid connection, your need for backup, and your daily usage — rather than to the most impressive-sounding option.
Get a free assessment and we’ll recommend the right type for your situation.
Sources: EECA — solar for homes; self-consumption ranges and outage behaviour per industry guidance (2026). Figures vary by home.