Single-Phase vs Three-Phase Solar: Which Does Your Property Need?
Every property is wired one of two ways: single-phase or three-phase. It’s not a choice you make when buying solar — it’s determined by your existing electrical supply, and it has a real effect on what size inverter you can install and what you can run.
What’s the difference?
Single-phase supply delivers power down one live wire and is standard for most homes. Three-phase supply delivers power down three separate live wires, evenly balanced, and is standard for larger properties, farms and commercial or industrial sites. You can’t simply “upgrade” from one to the other without your municipality or Eskom changing your electrical connection.
Why it matters for solar
Single-phase inverters generally top out in the 12–18kW range before you need to parallel multiple units. Three-phase inverters are built to feed all three legs of a heavier supply at once, and are the only correct choice for equipment that specifically requires three-phase power — borehole pumps, certain workshop machinery, larger compressors, lifts and commercial refrigeration plant.
Fitting a single-phase system to a three-phase property (or vice versa) doesn’t just underperform — it can leave whole circuits unpowered during an outage, because a single-phase inverter can only ever feed the one phase it’s wired to.
How to tell which you have
Your municipal or Eskom bill will usually state it, or you can check your distribution board — three-phase boards have three separate main breakers (often red, white and blue phase markings) instead of one. If you’re not sure, we’ll confirm it during your free site assessment before we spec anything.
Which systems are which
Our range covers both: single-phase systems for homes and smaller properties, and dedicated three-phase kits from 20kW up to our 40kW flagship for farms, workshops and commercial sites running heavier equipment. Get in touch with your supply type and we’ll point you at the right tier.