FOR A CMPLETE ENERGY SOLUTIONS?
AS Design & Renovations designs and installs renewable energy systems for all kinds of applications. We will custom design a system to meet your exact needs whether you want to build a remote home or cottage, improve your energy security, reduce your greenhouse gas emissions, bring power to a remote location, or just dabble in making your own power.remote is remote? Well, if you can't get there with an extension cord from the nearest electrical outlet, it's remote!
A FEW DEFINITIONS
Off Grid
Off Grid systems are completely independent from the traditional electricity grid. People living with off grid systems produce all their own electrical energy and consume only what they're able to produce. System components include an energy source (such as solar panels), a storage medium (like a battery), and usually an inverter to create high quality electricity for standard household appliances. A fossil fuel burning generator can be incorporated into an off grid energy system with great success.
Grid Connected
A Grid Connected system has a passive connection to the standard electrical grid used to charge batteries either in the absence of a renewable energy source or in addition to a renewable energy source. A backup power system, designed to bridge gaps in standard electricity service, is a grid connected system.
Interactive / Grid Tie
Grid Interactive means that power can flow back and forth between a renewable energy system, your loads, and the standard electricity grid. Energy you require but can't produce is drawn from the standard electricity grid and energy you produce but don't consume is sent onto the grid. This is the basis for 'net metering', an arrangement where your electric utility credits your account for electricity you send into the grid.
PV
PV stands for PhotoVoltaic, or the photovoltaic effect. This is the technical term for what allows a solar electric panel to convert sunlight into electricity.
Wind
Wind power is also solar power! The sun's energy drives the earth's climate patterns which, in turn, produce wind. We can harness the energy in the wind with a wind turbine -- essentially a large propeller which is driven by the wind. The propeller, in turn, drives a generator (an electric motor working in reverse) which creates electricity.
Hybrid
A Hybrid system combines energy generation technologies. For example: a solar/wind hybrid system captures energy from both the sun (with PV modules) and the wind (with a wind turbine). There would still be only 1 battery bank and 1 inverter (in the case of an off grid system, for example).