Solar Electric Off-grid & Grid-tied Houses

To build or retrofit your home for a solar electric system, follow Ottawa Solar Power's Step-by-Step Guide

An off-grid home is able to operate completely independently of public electrical utilities such as Ontario’s Hydro One. An off-grid solar electric home can be either, "autonomous" or "hybrid". Autonomous homes rely soley on solar power to generate electricity while hybrids supplement solar power with other sources such as wind, micro-hydro, and fuel-fired generators. In most cases an off-grid home will require a generator for backup.

Whether from choice or necessity, living off-grid is a life-style that may not be for everyone. Although this autonomous way of life has many benefits it requires a serious committment to energy conservation. At present, and in the short-term, living in an off-grid house will be more expensive in terms of cost and effort than living in a comparable home tied to the electrical grid. When designing an off-grid system, the first question you ask is: “How much power do I need?”

A grid-tied home combines the comfort and economy of a regular electrical connection with the environmental advantages and independence of a solar electric system. Grid-tied systems are designed to feed directly into your main electric box to reduce your use of electricity from the grid. If your solar system is producing more electricity than you are using, the system will even feed power back to the grid. Hydro One offers net metering which means that with the help of solar power, your electric meter spins backwards, reducing your monthly bill. When designing a system for a grid-tied home the first question is: “How much can I afford to spend?

Both off-grid and grid-tied systems use PV Panels to convert sunshine to direct current (DC) electricity. Both types of system require inverters to change DC into AC (Alternating Current) electricity which is used in your home. Additional hardware is required for off-grid setups: a charger and batteries to store the electricity you generate for nighttime use and during periods of cloudy weather. Ottawa Solar Power has experience in the design and installation of both off-grid and grid-tie systems.