On-grid vs off-grid vs hybrid solar: which one fits your home?

An on-grid solar system is connected to your DISCOM’s grid and has no battery: whatever you don’t use goes to the grid through a net meter, and the system switches off when the grid fails. An off-grid system runs on its own with batteries and no grid connection. A hybrid system is connected to the grid and also has a battery, so it can sell surplus power and keep the lights on during a cut.

Most city homes with a steady supply are best served by on-grid. Hybrid is worth paying for when cuts are frequent. Off-grid is for places the grid does not reach or barely works.

On-grid vs off-grid vs hybrid solar

How an on-grid system works

Panels feed an on-grid inverter, which turns their DC output into AC for your home. During the day your appliances use solar first. Any surplus flows to the grid through a two-way net meter, and at night you draw from the grid as usual. Your bill is worked out on the difference.

The catch is a safety rule. When the grid fails, an on-grid inverter must disconnect within a fraction of a second so it cannot push power into lines that linemen think are dead. That means a bright sunny day with a power cut still leaves you without power. If your area has cuts of a few minutes a month, that hardly matters. If it has two hours a day, it does.

How a hybrid system works

A hybrid inverter does three jobs: it powers the home from the panels, charges a battery, and exports surplus to the grid. When the grid goes, it disconnects from the grid like any on-grid inverter but keeps a chosen set of circuits running from the battery and the panels. Those are usually lights, fans, the fridge, Wi-Fi and a TV. Heavy loads such as an AC or geyser are normally left off the backup circuit, or the battery would empty within an hour or two.

Hybrid systems qualify for PM Surya Ghar. The subsidy is worked out on the panel capacity only, so a 3 kW hybrid gets the same ₹78,000 as a 3 kW on-grid system and the battery is paid in full by you.

How an off-grid system works

An off-grid system stores the day’s solar in batteries and runs the home from them, with no connection to the DISCOM. Small systems use a 12 V or 24 V battery bank; from about 3 kW upward installers move to 48 V, which keeps currents and cable sizes down. The charge controller matters: MPPT controllers harvest 10 to 30% more energy than the cheaper PWM type and are worth it on anything bigger than a single small panel.

Off-grid installations are not eligible for the PM Surya Ghar subsidy, and with no net meter, every unit you cannot store on a sunny afternoon is wasted. That is why off-grid usually costs more per useful unit than either of the other two. It earns its place on farms, in remote homes and where the grid is missing for long stretches every day. For farm pumps, look at PM-KUSUM instead, which subsidises standalone solar pumps.

What a 3 kW system costs in each type

The difference between on-grid and hybrid is almost entirely the battery and the costlier inverter. A 5 kWh lithium battery adds about ₹1.5 to ₹2 lakh, and a hybrid inverter costs ₹30,000 to ₹50,000 more than an on-grid one of the same size. See the full on-grid breakdown on 3 kW solar system price.

Lithium or tubular battery?

Tubular batteries are cheaper to buy but you will replace them two or three times over the life of the panels, and they lose a lot of capacity in north Indian summers. For a hybrid or off-grid system you will keep for many years, lithium usually works out cheaper per unit stored. Compare models on compare solar batteries.

How long a 5 kWh battery runs your home

A 5 kWh lithium battery gives about 4.2 kWh you can actually use once the safe depth of discharge and inverter losses are taken off. A typical backup load of four ceiling fans, six LED lights, a fridge, a 32-inch TV and a Wi-Fi router draws about 500 W, so the battery lasts around 8 hours. Switch the fans to BLDC and the load falls to about 320 W, stretching it to about 13 hours. An inverter AC on the same battery would last about two hours.

Work it out for your own appliances with the inverter battery backup calculator, or add up your load first with the home load calculator.

Which one should you choose?

• Steady grid, cuts rare: on-grid. It is the cheapest per unit and gets the full subsidy. Net metering already works like free storage.
• Cuts of an hour or more most days: hybrid with a battery sized for your essentials, not the whole house.
• Cuts now and then, but you may want backup later: on-grid panels with a hybrid-ready inverter. Swapping inverters later costs more than buying the right one now.
• No grid, or supply only a few hours a day: off-grid, sized to your daily units with a few cloudy days in hand.
• You live in Kerala: larger new home systems must now include some battery storage under the 2026 rules, so check the current KSEB requirement before choosing.

Whichever you pick, the subsidy only applies to DCR panels. See DCR vs non-DCR solar panels and the PM Surya Ghar subsidy guide.

Frequently asked questions