Here in British Columbia we are blessed with hundreds of thousands of acres of pristine wilderness full of lakes, rivers, wildlife, and secluded spots perfect for your dream getaway cabin in the woods. And while early settlers had to rely on wood to stay warm and oil to light the lamps, there is a new option in town: solar power.
Off-grid solar power is the ideal option for those looking to power their remotely-located cabin, cottage or home or for those who have chosen a beautiful cliff-side view or another location that BC Hydro is unable to access or able to – at an enormous cost.
So how does off-grid solar power work?
Photovoltaic panels, more commonly known and referred to as solar panels, generate DC energy and feed the power into batteries located within your home, through charge controllers. Your cabin or home then draws the power from the batteries through an inverted that feeds into the house with the AC power that we are used to in our city homes. A back-up generator continues to provide power when solar power is no longer sufficient or when the batteries need to be toped up. For instance, if you have a bunch of really cloudy days (the solar panels still produce power however it’s a bit less than full sun days) or if you have a heavy usage day, the generator kicks on to top up the batteries. Note that for very small systems that run only a few lights and some phone charges for example, no backup generator is needed.
The image below shows a common off-grid solar system set-up.
How big or small the solar power system is, depends entirely on your unique needs – whether enough is needed to simply power things up for the weekends, you’re planning on spending entire summers at the cabin and need the whole place running, or you need enough to power your full-time off-grid dream home.
Whatever your exact requirements, we can help you determine what is needed and ensure that your transition to solar is as easy as flipping a switch.
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