Looking for solar panel installers | GTAMotorcycle.com

Looking for solar panel installers

fastar1

fastar1

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Anyone have experience with or know of a reputable rooftop solar panel installer in the GTA? I won't be doing any installing myself, this is for a condo. Also not interested in battery storage at this point, will just consume the juice as it's produced as much as possible.

Before I commit I want to make sure it's going to pay off so my thinking right now is to get hourly consumption over the year and compare it to hourly irradiance over the same time period, and find the optimal amount of panels that could be used to maximize savings. An installer who's willing to help work out those details would be very welcome.
 
A friend owns Sentinel Solar (and also rides a power cruiser). They are worth a call. Depending on the project size they may help you directly or refer you to an installer.
 
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Riceburner said:
Keep us informed as to the numbers. Would be interested to know what the break even point is.
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Apparently for residential customers the big advantage is you switch from time of use pricing back to a single rate per kwh. Depending on your use pattern this alone can drop your bill.
 
My biggest issue is that I think that they look like $#!+. And a co-worker that looked into it was talking about the b/e point being too far gone.
I would however be interested if there was a way to put some panels on my shed. Buy not sure how much power a 10x8 grid would provide.
Sub'd for the info.

sent from my Purple LGG4 on the GTAM app
 
question...any thoughts on living under/in close proximity to the electromagnetic (?) field that would be created by the panels with respect to long term health issues?
liking the 'solar shed' thingy...at least use it keep the moto batteries charged...only an issue if sleeping in the shed...which only happens if the dogs won't let me into their house...
 
stevie t said:
question...any thoughts on living under/in close proximity to the electromagnetic (?) field that would be created by the panels with respect to long term health issues?
liking the 'solar shed' thingy...at least use it keep the moto batteries charged...only an issue if sleeping in the shed...which only happens if the dogs won't let me into their house...
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Panels generate DC (and not a giant amount of power), any field would be inconsequentially small. The 100KW transmitters on the CN tower probably expose you to more radiation than a residential solar system.

A single full sized panel is ridiculously oversized for keeping batteries charged, 2 sqft or so keeps a battery charged in my uncovered boat with an automatic bilge pump. If your goal is battery charging, just wait for a sale and buy a system from canadian tire that comes with the panel and charge controller.

The problem with a ridiculously small system is if you want to take advantage of grid tie in and the rate structure, you still need an inverter, electrical work etc. Those costs do not vary much whether you are installing 1 panel or 20.
 
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I know you've mentioned not interested in battery storage, but for others following this thread...

I've been following a guy on Instagram who is in the midst of installing three Tesla PowerWall 2 systems in a house. Pretty cool set up. It has a number of capabilities, Basically your house runs on battery during peak hours, and low wattage trickle charges over night when the rates are lower. It can also act as a backup power source for when the power fails. You can even go one step further and hook up your batteries to solar power so they recharge for free and go off the grid. Amazing!


Tesla is killing it folks. amazing tech....


https://www.tesla.com/en_CA/powerwall
 
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Riceburner said:
but what sort of costs for the tech vs cost of power from the grid?
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Lots more right now. And disconnection is not even possible for many. I know Enbridge charges you a monthly fee (something like $20) to not have gas connected in areas where service is available. I am sure electricity will follow the same approach if it doesn't already. Even with Aunt Kathy's ridiculous spending, it will be a long time before it becomes cheaper to generate everything yourself then buy it from a huge plant.

Sentinel also sells their version of the powerwall. They have installed many in remote locations where grid power is not available.

The much cheaper version of the system Sunny describes is installing enough panels to deal with your daytime loads (quite feasible depending on roof size/orientation) and buy power to cover off-peak and high load times.
 
Thanks for the reference, will surely give Sentinel a call. Right now I'm trying to get some info on whether there's payback if we produce more than we can use for a given period. The one place we got a quote from basically gave us a bad sales pitch that assumed that all the power we produced was worth $0.14 per kWh whether we used it or not. But we only pay nine or ten cents to buy it ourselves!

Will keep yas posted.
 
Riceburner said:
but what sort of costs for the tech vs cost of power from the grid?
Click to expand...

If you have dough lying around, it makes sense, because you will come on the top after x years .... x depends how good or bad your location is. small roof badly oriented, means high cost for panels and large battery stack ... plus if you have to borrow money on top of it ... forget it. There are programs which will finance the panels, but you have to sign-off a contract to send the power back to the grid, not to your batteries .....

Anyway, the costs (panels and batteries, not so much for the labor as that will be coming up I am sure ...) will be coming down, but solar will not be for everyone, even then ....
 
Joe Bass said:
My biggest issue is that I think that they look like $#!+. And a co-worker that looked into it was talking about the b/e point being too far gone.
I would however be interested if there was a way to put some panels on my shed. Buy not sure how much power a 10x8 grid would provide.
Sub'd for the info.

sent from my Purple LGG4 on the GTAM app
Click to expand...
My shed has a 40w panel on the roof. It powers a nightlight, interior lights & a boombox radio. It runs off a used car battery. As time goes by I will add to the circuit & use power to light the main house in an emergency.
 
Just to update my situation, the board decided there's no value in installing solar panels at the moment. I'm not sure that's 100% correct but I believe the benefit would be so marginal that it's not worth my free time to pursue it.
 
I presume you are in condo townhouse? Not sure how you were trying to go about it. Was this a board effort, or did you rather approach them as individual that you are interested to throw some panels on the roof, which you don't technically own?
 
Exactly. The board wanted to put up panels a long time ago when the feed in tariff was stupid. Never completely let go of the idea until now.
 
I asked about this a couple of AGM's ago. I was curious to make it a small project of mine. The board said that they would most likely allow it, as long as I would take responsibility for the roof, if there's was a repair needed due to installation of my solar panels. The biggest issue though, in my case, is the orientation of the roof and surrounding plant objects in its immediate proximity. In another words, I could cover my small roof in panels and it would yield on average an energy amount which is really not worth to play with. Even if I have money sitting and idling ....
 
The roof is common elements, pretty sure we'd never allow a unit owner to do their own roof. There isn't really a "their roof" to speak of, legally. We each own a small percentage of all the roofs.

I'd be very surprised if your board allowed it if you had followed through.
 
Well, they said they would, but I'd have to sign some sort of memorandum of understanding. At least, that's what was said back then.

I don't think roof is exactly a common element, since nobody else can use the roof above my head, but I get your point.
 
mxs said:
I don't think roof is exactly a common element, since nobody else can use the roof above my head, but I get your point.
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Common element is not necessarily related to use, it's related to who is responsible for it (basically who pays). Some condos make even make private terraces "common element exclusive use" so they can control what gets placed on them.
 
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