Professional Solar Panel Installers in Kelowna, BC

Absolutely! Ground mounted solar is very effective for larger systems, it has the advantage that you can set it up with the ideal angle and orientation, as well as avoid shade from trees or roof obstructions.

Grid-tie solar require an active grid to connect to, so if there is no grid, they have to shut down. It is a safety law required by all international electrical codes. If a technician works on your wiring or on the grid upstream of your home, there is a risk they may be electrocuted if this was allowed. If you had a battery backup system, it would produce the grid required for the grid-tie solar to remain on during an outage. It would also control the solar if the grid is off and not allow any power to feed into the grid, thus satisfying the safety concerns and keeping your solar running.

Lithium batteries win hands down for an off-grid system. Lithium have about a 5% energy loss round trip compared to lead acids of about 30%, meaning you get 25% more energy from your solar that you charge and discharge from your battery bank with lithium. Partial charging is what severely shortens the life of lead acids. Lithium does not have this problem. Most lithium batteries carry a 10 year guarantee in most cases as well as a smaller form factor, no gasses and closed loop communication with most quality inverters allowing accurate monitoring of your expensive battery asset.

Absolutely! Clay or cement roof tiles are the normal roof tiles in other popular solar countries around the world. There are special brackets that are used to to connect to the roof structure under the tiles. Tiled roof solar installations usually take a bit longer and may cost a little bit more than normal solar installations. It is also highly likely that while working on a tiled roof, some of the existing roof tiles will break, so it is imperative that you have some spare roof tiles available for us to replace any broken tiles.

In most cases the answer is No. Because in British Columbia, Canada we can feed all our excess solar power into the grid for 100% credit, a battery's only added benefit is to keep your essential loads on during a power outage. Therefore, for most residential and commercial systems a battery is not required and not recommended.