Solar up north

[Oh Canada]

I recently purchased a cottage in northern Ontario Canada. Where the solar panels are to be placed gets about 5 hours of sun, when it's not raining. Should I help the batteries charge with a genorator or will it be ok. Some days are cloudy and sun may not be out for days. Thanks

 

[eddie1261]

Personally I would invest in a generator. You never know with clouds vs sun and you can't control that. The generator you CAN control

 

[Dnnap]

It's always a good idea to have a backup power source. If you design your solar system to account for a few days of autonomy and if the system has a power service factor (overkill) and accounts for efficiency losses you can minimize the use of a backup generator.

 

[Dnnap]

I also have a cabin/cottage in northern Ontario. Where are you located approximately? 5 sun hours per day seems high. It might be a good idea to use worst case value of sun hours or December/January values.

 

[Steve_S]

Welcome from Near Pembroke / Petawawa here. 100% offgrid solar.
Having a good Backup Genny is essential, as you know, we get dumped on a lot (coming very soon too, ugh) so much to do yet....

 

[Wiley]

Funny the preconceptions we all have. On another thread when I mentioned I live in the PNW (Pacific Northwest) Supervstech thought of ice flows. Around where I live when someone speaks of Canada directionaly we think: north of us. Out of curiosity I did a quick search on Google maps of Petawawa, Canada. I was surprised that Petawawa is actually south of me..... pretty close to the same latitude as Portland, Oregon.

 

[eddie1261]

Petawawa is 390 miles north of me as the crow flies, but 630 as the car drives. Thank you, Great Lakes for being in my way.... Used to LOVE playing in Ontario. Played The Talisman Motor Lodge in Ottawa every trip. And a WHOLE bunch of little towns!