What comes in an Ape Solar kit

Every Ape Solar kit is the same skeleton wearing different gear. Open the box and you find a main unit (an inverter, or the mini-split itself), solar panels, ground-mount racking, the electrical, and the connectors that tie it all together. The kits built for backup or off-grid living add batteries. A few things are missing on purpose, and we will get to why.

Here is the anatomy, in the order you meet it.

The main unit

This is the part the whole kit is built around. In most of our kits it is an inverter, the box that turns DC power from the panels and battery into the AC power your outlets speak. The Whole-Home Backup kit runs on the EG4 FlexBOSS21. Critical Load Backup uses the FlexBOSS18. The Off-Grid System runs on the EG4 12000XP V2, and the Shed & Cabin Kit uses the little 6000XP.

Two kits break the pattern. The Solar Minisplit Kit has no inverter at all, because the EG4 Hybrid Solar mini-split takes DC straight from the panels through its own input. The unit is the main unit. And the RV Solar Kit is built around a Victron MultiPlus-II, an inverter and charger in one box, sized for 12V life on wheels.

The Whole-Home Backup kit adds one more piece of power electronics: the GridBOSS, a 200A interconnect that sits at your meter and hands the whole house over to battery power when the grid drops. It is also what makes a system battery-ready, so storage can bolt on later without a new inverter. The Critical Load kit skips it and backs up a chosen set of circuits through a subpanel instead.

The batteries, where the kit has them

Backup only works if there is somewhere to put the power. The Whole-Home Backup kit comes in three tiers of wallmount batteries: 16kWh, 32kWh, or 48kWh, which is one, two, or three batteries on the wall. Critical Load Backup ships with one 16kWh battery. The Off-Grid System comes with 32 or 48kWh, because off-grid nights are long. The Shed & Cabin Kit gets a single LifePower4, 5.1kWh of 48V storage that sits on a shelf.

These batteries want a conditioned space, a garage or a utility room, out of the open weather. Outdoor versions exist, so ask if you do not have the room.

The Solar Minisplit Kit has no battery. It runs when the sun does, which is exactly when you want the cooling anyway.

The panels, and why the count moves

Every kit has a target array size. The mini-split kits get theirs from the unit's BTU rating. The system kits set a minimum wattage. The panel count is then the smallest number of your chosen panel that clears the target.

That is why the count changes when you pick a different panel. The default in every kit is a 395W Canadian Solar, and each kit's picker lists the alternatives it can take, up to a 650W panel on the bigger systems. Choose the 650W panel and you need fewer of them to hit the same array size, which also trims the racking underneath. Fewer panels, fewer frames, fewer anchors. The kit page recomputes all of it when you click.

The racking

Our kits ground-mount on IntegraRack: IR-30 ballast frames that hold each panel at angle, anchored to the soil with EarthScrew ground anchors. The math is simple. One frame per panel, plus one extra frame per row, and two anchors per frame. A single row of six panels takes seven frames and fourteen anchors, and the kit page counts that out for you.

One thing worth knowing: IntegraRack is a complete system on its own. It bonds the panels and the frame itself, so there is no separate grounding hardware to buy. If you want the array on a roof instead of the ground, that is a different racking system entirely (IronRidge), and we quote it separately rather than mixing parts.

The electrical

This is the plumbing between the panels, the battery, and the unit. Every kit ships PV wire as a pre-cut set, a 100 foot black and red pair of 10 AWG solar wire (the small kits use a 50 foot set). Kits with batteries include short, thick 2/0 cable sets that carry battery power to the inverter, plus a conduit box per battery to keep the wiring run tidy. Multi-battery banks add a parallel cable kit between each pair of batteries.

Every kit also includes a DC disconnect, a switch that sits between the array and the unit so the panel side can be shut off for service. Kits with bigger arrays carry one disconnect per two strings.

The connectors

MC4 connectors are the weatherproof plugs solar wire uses, and the count follows one rule: four per string of panels. A string is a set of panels wired in a line so their power arrives on one pair of wires. One string, four connectors. Three strings, twelve. The kit page does this arithmetic too.

The six kits at a glance

Prices live on each kit page and in the system builder, where you can swap parts and watch the total move.

What is not in the box, and why

An honest kit list includes the things you will buy elsewhere. Here are ours.

Breakers and the AC-side wire to your electrical panel are picked at install, by your electrician, because they have to match your panel and your run. A breaker that is right for one house is wrong for the next, so shipping one in the box would be a guess. Same story for the critical-loads subpanel in the Critical Load Backup kit: it has to match your home's panel brand, so it comes from the electrician doing the work.

The generator is not in the Off-Grid System. The ChargeVerter is the hookup that lets a generator top up the battery bank through a long stretch of gray weather. Which generator you run beside it is your call, and plenty of off-gridders already own one.

RV roof attachment hardware varies too much by rig to package. Z-brackets, VHB tape, rails, it depends on your roof, so you source brackets that match it. And on the smallest kits, the AC wire from the inverter to a shed panel is ordinary hardware-store wire, cheaper down the street than shipped from us.

A quick word on safety: naming these parts is education, and that is where this guide stops. The AC side of any kit, the service connection, and anything inside a breaker panel is work for a licensed electrician, with your local building department having the final say. In the Florida panhandle, a licensed partner contractor does the install and Ape Solar runs the project. That whole arrangement lives on the Pro Install page.

What Ape Solar would check first

Before we point anyone at a kit, we look at three things. First, what you actually want to run, because the loads pick the kit. A fridge and some lights is a Critical Load job; a whole house through a hurricane outage wants the bigger battery bank. Second, where the array will sit. These kits assume open ground; a roof changes the racking and the quote. Third, your electrical panel, since the AC-side parts your electrician supplies have to match it. If you are still sizing the whole idea, the estimate is the two-minute starting point, and the shop has every part à la carte.

Questions we get

Can I pick a different panel than the default?

Yes. Every kit page has a panel picker, and the kit recomputes the panel count, frames, and anchors for whichever one you choose. Higher-wattage panels mean fewer of everything.

Can I add more battery later?

On the Whole-Home Backup, yes. The system is built to take more wallmount batteries without a new inverter or controller. That is half the point of the GridBOSS.

Is there an install guide in the box?

Every kit ships with the Ape Solar step-by-step install guide, written for the exact parts in that kit.

What if I want the panels on my roof?

Ask us for an IronRidge racking quote. The kits ship IntegraRack ground mount, and the two systems do not share parts, so we swap the racking rather than mix it.

Do I need an electrician?

For the AC side, yes. Breakers, the wire to your panel, and the service connection belong to a licensed electrician, and your local building department has the final say. The DC side, panels to inverter, is where a handy DIYer earns the savings.

Ready to see the real numbers for your build? Build a system and watch the parts list assemble itself.