Every wire is sized on purpose.
From your EB bill to switch-on, here is how an Altus plant is designed, built and watched, step by step. Tap any part of the plant above.
Five stages
01
Assessment and design
3–4 days- A satellite picture of the site, each roof drawn with three clicks, and the cable runs measured.
- Your EB bills read in our office: daytime units, peak, contracted demand and transformer.
- The plant sized and designed in the Altus app, every check run, and an offer with the P90 units.
02
Procurement and site readiness
8–10 days- Parts ordered from the approved price, each due on site the day its stage starts.
- DC and AC boxes built in our workshop for this plant’s strings and inverters.
- Drawings issued and signed by N Padmanabhan.
03
Permits and utility
2–3 weeks- TNPDCL net metering for homes, net feed-in for businesses.
- CEIG approval for plants above 10 kW.
- The PM Surya Ghar subsidy for eligible homes. We file the day your design is approved.
04
Installation
3–4 days for a home · 3–5 weeks for a plant- Structure, then panels, then DC cabling and DC boxes.
- Inverters and AC boxes, then the runs to your boards, earthing and the lightning arrester.
- Testing against the design before switch-on.
05
Inspection, switch-on and 25 years after
5–8 days, then every day- Inspection by TNPDCL, and by CEIG above 10 kW, then switch-on.
- Altus Monitor: generation by day, week, month and year, with fault alerts to our team.
- The P90 guarantee and our 25-year workmanship warranty.
The checks
The factory shed above, as the Altus app checked it.
Sixteen checks on every design. A plant isn’t priced until each one passes or has a written reason.
- String voltage, coldest morning
- 1,013 of 1,100 V
- Panels to inverter
- 1.25
- DC cable drop, 6 mm² copper
- 0.66%
- AC breaker for the inverter’s 66.9 A
- MCCB 80 A
- AC cable to the LT panel, 25 mm² aluminium
- 1.29% drop
- Lightning arrester reach
- 37 m, whole roof
- Earth pits, DC + AC
- 2 + 3
- All checks
- 16 of 16 pass
What goes into an Altus plant
Chosen for the plant, not for the catalogue.
Every part is picked against your roof, your supply and its datasheet, and named in your offer.
PanelsGlass-to-glass bifacial panels from Indian makers, designed from the latest Indian datasheet. DCR panels for homes where the subsidy makes them cheaper.
InvertersString inverters from makers with service and spares in India: one make on a plant, sized at 1.25 to 1.30 panels to inverter, mounted beside the panels.
MountingAluminium rails bonded to sheet roofs; galvanised steel frames on terraces and land, low or raised to keep the space below usable.
DC and AC boxesMade in our own workshop for each plant’s strings and inverters, with surge protection and the breakers its currents call for.
CablesSized above every breaker’s rating and within its voltage drop, with the AC run going straight to your nearest LT panel.
Earthing and lightningEarth pits worked out from the fault current and your soil, and an arrester whose reach covers every panel.