Solar Electric:

If you are looking for a primary or back-up power system that is clean, quite and automated, solar photo voltaics and batteries can meet most of your demands. For  more reliability in the winter months you would want to add a generator hard wired into the system (See Uninterrupted Power Systems).  If you are looking to set-up a business off-grid that uses high electrical demands we do not recommend solar. A larger microhydro system would be more suited to meet the load demands of a machine shop or many compressor motors.

Ideally if you have an existing local business and want to incorporate renewable energy technology we would recommend you use solar on your roof top connected in with the utility power system. See Grid-Tied Solar.

Smart Meters will enable variable electrical rate charges depending on the time of day. Solar usually coincides with the work day and the hours of peak consumption, thus solar can offset your demand during peak power times when you would be paying the most for the electricity.

Solar Thermal (heat and hot water):

The sun can be harvested most economically with solar thermal, but the application needs to harvest that heat energy when you need it because you either use the heat or it dissipates in storage. If you are building a new house and you want to do things differently you could build a large “heat sink”, but for most of you solar thermal will meet much of your hot water needs 7-11 months of the year if sized properly and depending on where you live.

We do not recommend solar thermal for heating buildings in the Kootenays of BC or NW Montana, or northern Idaho. Not enough sun or day length to pay for the cost of the hardware in the months when you need to heat the most. Other areas east of the continental divide, Great Basin, East of the Cascades and perhaps in the Okanogan there is more solar gain potential in winter months.

Most of our solar products come with 10-25year factory warranties and an expected service life of 20-50 years.

Contact Us to discuss your business or institutional energy needs. We will help power your solutions.