This past week Marie and I picked up all the parts for the new cabin solar system from a company here in Montreal and spent the weekend installing it. Hardest part was man-handling the four foot panel onto the roof and attaching it onto the frame I had already installed but we managed with the help of a friend. The system includes two AGM Gel batteries, 1000 watt inverter for 110 current, charge controller, and the 220 watt solar panel. We now will be able to use our lights, fans, DVD and monitor and any other electrical appliance we might need when we go up for a weekend or longer. My Honda genny has been very reliable for recharging small batteries and running my power tools and will continue to do so, and we will still use propane for cooking and heating - this as well has proved reliable and fairly inexpensive. Our long term plan is to live there while the house is being built and, with some tweaking if necessary, this system will enable us to do that. If everything goes well, solar power will eventually be powering our house. As you can see from the photos the weather was gorgeous, sunny and warm in the 60s and we had a fantastic weekend on the mountain. Most of that unexpected and way to early fall snow was gone except for a bit where the sun never reached, but it was warm enough that we didnt even need the heater at night!
8am, Saturday morning, making breakfast
Marie enjoying bacon and eggs for breakfast
Saturday morning, Marie checking my work to the solar panel
Cabin roof and solar panel, looking nw
Cables from solar panel thru house leading to batteries
Finished results!
It seemed like a long time coming but, after deciding we would remain off the grid, going solar was the logical choice, especially with the high cost of bringing in power poles to our house and cabin. As well, and more important, it leaves us with a good feeling : this energy source is abundant and renewable and is one of the most environmentally friendly sources of power available today, next to wind power. We plan on having a small carbon footprint and feel we have taken the first step! gws
