On Solar power
On Solar power

Originally Published: 2020-12-26

Going off grid entails using a lot of skills you may not already possess. In my case I owned the land for 5 years before moving onto it as it needed to be cleared of dead tress from the great ice storm of 1997. This gave me some time to learn some skills but it was not enough between working a day job, clearing land on the weekend and being with my family.

Over the course of this endeavour I met two people who became true knowledge helpers. I have changed my neigbour’s name for his privacy, they are:

  • Bill, my neighbour. A retired firefighter, who seems to know a lot about everything especially when it comes to building, clearing, cutting trees, creating usable wood on his home sawmill amongst his many other talents.
  • Mike, owner of Solar Tech Canada. http://www.solartechcanada.net who knows more about solar “stuff” than I can ever imagine. Without his help I would be “powerless” (pun intended – sorry) to switch my lights on.

About Bill:

I met Bill about two days before I legally owned the property, right from the word go he was happy to help. Over the years his building skills and knowledge has been invaluable and credit him with the only reason that some of the structures I built are still standing. Our first project he helped me with was a deck for my trailer. I put a small trailer on the property to live in for the weekends while I cleared the land. My wife and I wanted a deck, my solution was laying five pallets on the ground and screwing them together.

It was obvious that wasn’t going to work for chairs, a BBQ etc. That is when Bill decided to help me build a deck, all I needed to do was buy 2 X 10’s which was an expense I hadn’t counted on. Upon returning to the suburbs that week a neighbour was ripping up his old deck and the 2 X 10 X 12’s were in great shape, it was just the deck boards that were shot. I loaded all the 2 X 10’s into my trailer and off I went. To get it done quickly I just started screwing the 12 foot sections together directly on the ground. When Bill came over he noted that my design wasn’t really going to work well, and my wife suggested we do it the right way, using Bill’s design.

So I ripped my work apart, and started putting bases in, levelled sections and by the end of the weekend with Bill’s help it was ready for deck boards. I said I would buy those and bring them out the following weekend, he said, “Hold off, I’ll see what I can find”. I did and the next weekend I came out to find a fully finished deck, with one inch solid cedar deck boards and trim glowing in that freshly cut golden colour that cedar has! As I mentioned above Bill has a saw mill and milled all the boards himself from a project tree that he had cut down. Imagine a beautiful cedar deck that cost nothing more than some labour. I had to move the deck and next spring it will be the base for our gardening operations and it is still as strong as ever.

Over the years I have helped Bill limb trees, pull them in with a “Skidder Winch”, snow plow and feed his animals when he had to be away and other lesser skilled tasks. You need friends and neighbours you can’t do and know all yourself.

About Mike:

I had started out using 60 watt panels and a couple of batteries with a generator when I first bought the property. My family wanted to do things like watch TV, charge cell phones and other things so my little charger quickly failed to meet up to those demands.

I then found on Kijji 6 225 watt panels. I added a charge controller, a few more batteries and a cheap inverter and the basic needs were met. Like most attempts at doing just the minimum required it to would fail to meet our needs in only a few years later.

I met Mike, when I placed an order for $1500 worth of stuff several years back. I knew what I wanted, as the cheap charge controller had burnt out. I had connected the 6 panels in two sets of parallel panels using a 40 volt controller. One super bright sunny day and it was exceeded and that was that. I placed my order by phone for a few new panels a 80 volt charge controller and some other stuff. Mike had agreed to stay open an extra hour so I could make the drive in time. [Side Note: Parallel vs. Series and types of charge controllers will all be the subjects of separate blogs].

Upon arriving cash in hand, Mike said he found what I had ordered to be odd. We chatted for a few minutes about my excitement to go “off-grid” and he asked me to draw my system as he thought 6 X 225 watt panels should be ample for weekend use. I did, and he said he saw my issue. He drew a redesigned set up and told me I needed two MPPT controllers not all the other stuff. He then further told me that if the solution didn’t work I could bring back the two controllers and get the other stuff.

I left with he two MPPT controllers in hand, spending only $800 not the $1500 I had intended to spend. He was right, the next day I installed them and the batteries charged at a rate I had never seen, there was so much power that we even had enough to switch the fridge in the camper from propane to electric during the daylight!

Over the years, I have told Mike my next solar problems and he has always provided the solution, reaching a point today where I have 24 panels and 18 deep cell batteries and him telling me I have one of the bigger off grid systems he knows of. As I mentioned earlier I have learned from the mistake of doing everything to the “minimum” and now head towards the other extreme whenever possible. Having a friend like Mike, with his knowledge has made my lifestyle possible. Find people like Mike with the knowledge and skills to fill in the blanks where your knowledge is weak.

By Barry