Many of our customers have cottages, some are used throughout the winter, some are left to their own devices. Both cases present a challenge when there is an off-grid electrical system: Panels get covered in snow, and therefore don't contribute to charging the batteries. At the same time, the Achilles heel of lead-acid batteries [...]
By: Rob Beckers We sell a lot of batteries, and for the longest time I've been wanting to write a comprehensive article about how to take care of them. What has been lacking is the time to do so. Therefore, and for the time being, I'm recycling a post I wrote for a forum [...]
Before solar panels became interesting for people that are on the grid, there were only 36-cell ones for charging 12 Volt batteries (and if you had a 24V battery you'd need two panels in series, to make 72 cells). With 36 cells the panel runs at about 18 Volt, and when it gets [...]
Cottage owners are faced with a number of choices when it comes to the expensive batteries of their off-grid power system: Take them home and put them on a trickle charger? Leave them at the cottage? If the latter, should they be disconnected? Or not? Batteries are expensive items and you want to get [...]
Confused about kilo-Watt versus kilo-Watt-hours? When even electricians talk about "kilo-Watts" when they actually meant "kilo-Watt-hours" it shows that a little education is in order. Being able to differentiate between power ("kilo-Watt" or kW) and energy ("kilo-Watt-hours" or kWh) will help you make better decisions about your system. Yesterday I was talking to a [...]
Showing a further level of incompetence to an already grossly incompetent organization, the IESO (formerly the OPA or Ontario Power Authority) once again showed they have learned nothing from their previous mistakes: They again, without warning, closed the Ontario MicroFIT program from new applications. In doing so they, once again, put all the Ontario solar [...]
The new site has been up for a few hours now! I feel a little like a new parent (Yes, I know how that feels, there are a few little ones running around the house). The big difference is of course that a new baby can't be made over, you get what you get, while [...]
After a several months of very hard work I am very proud to finally show our new Web site to the world! The underlying idea and design is to make it as easy as possible for everyone to quickly find the products they are looking for. To that point there are a number of navigation [...]
