Does Your Rural Property Have Access To Electricity?

If you are looking at buying property in the country to build a new custom home one thing that most people don't consider is if their is access to electricity.

That's right access to electricity. 

In rural Ontario there are still some places that do not have easy access to the electricity grid.

In fact as more and more land gets bought up for people to live on people are being forced to look at less desirable places. These places have many problems from excess ground water to conservation protected lands, these things restrict building or can outright ban it. 

These things are all easily found out when doing your do diligence from looking at maps and talking to municipal building departments, what you won't find is if there is electricity available.

Now the easiest way to tell if there is electricity at the road is to look for power lines and poles. Now even if you don't see power lines and poles there is a chance that the power is buried underground, but in rural Ontario almost nowhere do they actually put the power underground. That usually only happens in a more settled area with denser populations.

To find out where the nearest power supply is you will need to drive in every direction from the property until you can find the nearest electrical poles. This will help you identify how far the power will have to be extended.

Doing this is called a line extension. 

A line extension is not free and in a lot of cases the cost is very high. You have to pay for the entire line extension project even if you are putting it past other properties that will benefit from you extending the electrical grid. 

That's right the electrical supplier is under no obligation to help cover the costs of bringing you power. Its entirely on your shoulders.

How do you find the costs out? You have to call the electrical supplier and engage them in a line extension layout. This will cost you money, they will then be able to give you an accurate cost estimate on how much the poles will cost and also how much the tree cutting will cost also.

What do you do about it?

Well before you start the planning and building process you need to engage a general contractor and hire him to build your custom home. Your general contractor can then get you the costing for the electricity and advise you if you should pay for the installation of it or look into other alternatives.

What are the alternatives?

Well one alternative is to sell the property and move on to a property that doesn't require a line extension for you to have electricity. But a lot of people don't have that option.

The other alternative is to go off the grid with solar and or wind.

There are pro's and con's to going off the grid. I won't get into them here, but having an off the grid house is not as simple as most people believe it to be. 

They most reliable source of energy is to be hooked to the power grid.

So when you start looking for that perfect place in the country to build your dream custom home stop and look around for the electricity supply, if you have doubts then call a contractor, it might just save you more money then the cost of the electricity.

Rob

Village Builders Inc. 

Use Solar As Your Backup Generator

Are you worried about losing power at your house, thinking about installing a back up generator?

I have another option that could be almost the same price and give you the back up power that you were thinking about, solar panels.

That's right you can now use solar panels as a backup generator, not only use it as a back up generator but have the solar panels feed the grid while its waiting for the power to fail.

Why would you feed the grid with power? Because the electrical company will pay you for the power you make, that's right the power company will pay you for the power that is made by the system. When the power fails and there is no grid to feed then you either turn a manual switch for the power to be transferred to the house or you have an automatic switch that is triggered that will push power to the house.

This system is called a dual system, the one difference between a normal feed the grid system is that you require a bank of batteries for the solar panels to fill so that when the power does fail there is something for the house to draw on to power it.

Depending on the size of the system will depend on how much of the electrical in the house you will be able to run, but even a small system will run the essentials to help you survive the power outage.

In a long power outage you would have to closely manage your power usage but every morning when the sun came out the batteries would start to be re-charged giving you more hours of power usage.

Even though most people would not be able to install a solar system large enough to power their entire house they would have enough power the essentials every day and throughout most or all of the night. Also it wouldn't matter how long the power was actually out for, the system would keep regenerating itself everyday and you wouldn't have to worry about running out of gas, diesel or propane.

In a world where climate change is making it more and more difficult to predict the weather and how we seem to be experiencing larger and larger storms think how nice it would be to know that you would never have to worry about living without the basic amount of power that you require to survive. Power to run your water pump so that you could flush the toilet and drinking water, run medical equipment if needed, sewage pumps, refrigerators, freezers,a  tv so that you could see the news, the oven to cook certain things, coffee maker, lights at night and your security system.

Having back up power where you didn't have to rely on the grid is almost an essential thing, the cost of solar has come down and now's the time to start relying on it.

Rob Abbott
Village Builders Inc.

Do photovoltaic panels convert 100% of the sun's energy into electricity?

Q:

Do photovoltaic panels convert 100% of the sun's energy into electricity?

A:

No they do not. In fact, the most efficient PV panels convert only about 20% of the solar energy they collect into usable AC electricity. That may not seem like a lot, but it is enough to generate more than 300 watts of electricity per 20-square-foot panel.

Solar panels actually work better in colder climates; they are the most effective in the winter time when there is snow on the ground and the temperatures are lower.

Ontario's Solar FIT Program

The average solar collector is a 10KW Solar P.V. System that costs between $60,000 and 80,000 installed. The Ontario Government pays the owner of the system a higher price for the power produced than what you are paying for the same electricity from Ontario Hydro.  Most people look at installing a solar system as an investment; the return on your investment comes over the 20 year Government of Ontario contract that you sign to feed the electricity grid.
This year the Government approved only 50,000 KW of systems for the Fit program.  I believe that amount has already been allocated at the time of writing this article.

 This is an excerpt from a newsletter that is distributed to all former, current and future clients of Village Builders Inc.  If you would like to receive this newsletter feel free to email me at www.robabbott@villagebuilders.ca

Rob Abbott
Operations Manager
Village Builders Inc

Not Your Grandpa's Solar energy

Not Your Grandpa's Solar

After a 40-year hiatus, solar energy is cool again. But for those who remember bulky aluminum frames awkwardly balanced on the roof, the current look, use, performance, and value of today's solar energy systems has changed dramatically.

As a professional remodeling contractor, we keep a sharp eye on products and systems that are getting the public's attention so we can intelligently advise our homeowner clients about their validity and proper use.
Today's solar energy systems -- for both domestic hot water and electricity -- have made significant strides that, in the right circumstances, can reduce a homeowner's monthly energy bills.

The first thing to remember is that solar energy systems are most effective and only worth the investment if you add them to a house that's been designed and built or remodeled to sizably reduce its energy consumption. No solar panel or thermal collector will offset the ills of a poorly-insulated, drafty house, and it is a waste of time and money to consider it.

Also, solar panels work best if they face south/southwest and are in full daylight; any shading from trees or adjacent buildings (more so than clouds) render them far less efficient at converting enough solar energy to offset their cost. That's one of the first things we consider when a homeowner asks us about adding solar to their existing home.

The good news about solar is that today's photovoltaic or "PV" panels (for electricity) and thermal collectors (for hot water) are more efficient at capturing and converting the sun's energy while minimizing their visual impact on the roof.

A relatively new breed of so-called "roof-integrated" PV panels are so sleek that they lay almost flat on the roof. Some are even formed to look like and run flush to roof shingles and concrete barrel tiles to better integrate into the roof finish. And, because modern solar cells are more efficient at converting solar energy into electricity, a house needs fewer of them to satisfy its solar energy needs.

In Ontario, the majority of the solar systems you see on a building's roof or on there own stands do not actually provide power to that house.  These solar power systems are actually providing power to Ontario Hydro power grid .  Through the"Ontario Solar Fit Program" the Ontario Government pays the homeowner for the power generated. Your house is not at all connected to the solar system. Usually only homes that are in very isolated areas are totally running on alternate energy systems like solar and wind.

Solar energy isn't just rooftop panels anymore. Landscape lighting, attic fans, and other products can be powered by the sun, as well. Though not connected to the grid like larger PV arrays, their use offsets demand for utility-provided electricity to further reduce monthly energy costs.

Warm Regards,

Doug Abbott
Village Builders

 This is an excerpt from a newsletter that is distributed to all former, current and future clients of Village Builders Inc.  If you would like to receive this newsletter feel free to email me at www.robabbott@villagebuilders.ca

Rob Abbott
Operations Manager
Village Builders Inc