Services to assist you harness Solar Energy for Electricity Generation or Hot Water Heating

Net Metering Projects

• We no longer offer complete turnkey installations, however we still offer these services:
• Site analysis to determine suitability, and type of equipment required
• Consulting services for DIY PV systems installations. This can range from planning and answering questions to visiting your site and showing you how to do specific steps.
• Existing PV system service
• Economic analysis of net metering PV systems
• Panel placement CAD drawings if roof mounted
• System DC wiring plan CAD drawings
• Work with an Architect to design custom mounting to integrate into a house or garden structure
• We can supply you a complete kit of the Panels, Inverters and roof top racking systems at a very attractive cost to our DIY customers. (Our offering of DIY consulting services are independent of your choice to buy any components through us.)
• Help with completing connection request to your local hydro
• Single Line Drawing of your system to meet the ESA's requirement for labeling.
• We repair Deger dual axis tracking systems electronic control problems.

Off-Grid Projects

We can provide consulting planning and design services for a DIY off-grid project. We can meet with your architect and builder to help optimize your plans for a new building to prepare it for an off grid solar power system.

Part of our consulting service can include expert advice on different heating systems and their compatibility with off grid power, and DHW (Domestic Hot Water) heating that is compatible with off grid homes.

Please visit our off-grid page for details.

Buy One Hour Of Expert Advice

We frequently get phone calls where the caller asks to pick our brains about an off grid solar system they are considering. Since this is such a popular request, we now offer the following consulting service to meet this need. This is how this works:

You call us and tell us you wish to have a discussion about an off-grid system. We offer to provide an hour's telephone consultation, in exchange for a pre-payment of one hour of our time + HST by an e-mail transfer. When we receive your e-mail transfer, we call you back and discuss all of the topics that you are concerned about, or if you prefer we offer a one hour course on the issues that are relevant to an off grid system. Part of this service can include expert advice on different heating systems and their compatibility with off grid power, and DHW (Domestic Hot Water) heating that is compatible with off grid homes.

Please visit our off-grid page for details.

Solar Hot Water Heating

• We service Enerworks systems for hot water heating using either vacuum tube collectors or flat plate collectors. This is for both the residential DHW or hydronic heating market and for commercial applications. We can provide some limited service for other brands of thermal DHW.
• We sell top quality Ontario made solar pool heaters as a DIY kit.

Shade Analysis Measurements

• Measurements using Solar Pathfinder to determine impact of shading on solar projects, both to determine amount of energy that could be captured
• Locate the best location to position solar collectors to avoid unwanted shade
• Shade analysis for architectural planning and landscape designing
  

Site Survey Details

This is the most important first step. Our results will answer the following questions:

• It this site suitable for a solar installation? (If not, we will tell you not to proceed if your site is marginal)
• How big an installation can I install
• How much power will it generate each year
• How big will it be?
• Exactly which direction does my roof face
• What type of panels and inverters would be appropriate
• Will I have issues with shade?
• Which shade sources will cause problems and which ones can I solve.
• Where should the inverters be mounted
• What other electrical items are required and where will they be mounted
• Where do I mount the panels? We provide a CAD drawing of a recommended layout
• How the panels should be attached to my existing roof
• How and where do we hook up to the power grid.

In addition:

• If you wish to have a turnkey installation, we produce a report that describes your site with all of the details so that multiple companies can read this and so bidding to the same requirement.
• We measure your roof and its structure, so a Structural Engineer can review it for suitability. These measurements also allow us to design the racking and number of attachment points so that it meets the wind and snow loads and so we could provide a letter to municipal authorities that the racking confirms to the manufacturer's Canadian design rules and meets building code standards.
• We gather enough information to build a site specific kit of parts if you wish to install it yourself. We also are then able to answer site specific questions during installation.
• We can generate a projected pay-back period, and earnings from the system. This will help with financing.
• When both ground mounting and roof mounting options exist, calculate and compare the revenue and rate of return for both options.
• We charge $350 + tax for this service. Of you buy a complete DIY kit from use, and decide to have us provide the installation as well, the price of the site survey will be deducted from you cost, and so it will be free.

A key part of our visit is to use our Solar Pathfinder to measure the shade that occurs, considering the path of the sun for all hours and for each month of the year. This allows us to determine how much less than the ideal amount would be generated due to the shading. Using it we can also show you which objects are causing shading.

If you need help completing your local Hydro's applications, we can do this for you for an extra fee for our time.

Service for Existing Solar Electric Systems

We do service for existing PV grid tie systems. However we encourage you to contact the original installation company first as they are probably closer to your location. If the original company is no longer in business then you may wish to contact us. Primary most of our service calls are for Deger trackers.

If you are located more than 1/2 hour away from Almonte ON, we will probably be charging a fee for our traveling time. Thuis will be aranged at the time that we book an appointment.