Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
How did a small town
sheet metal mechanic come to
build one of Canada's mosticonic fishing lodges?
I'm your host, steve Nitzwicky,and you'll find out about that
and a whole lot more on theOutdoor Journal Radio Network's
newest podcast, diaries of aLodge Owner.
But this podcast will be morethan that.
Every week on Diaries of aLodge Owner, I'm going to
(00:25):
introduce you to a ton of greatpeople, share their stories of
our trials, tribulations andinspirations, learn and have
plenty of laughs along the way.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Meanwhile we're
sitting there bobbing along
trying to figure out how tocatch a bass and we both decided
one day we were going to be ontelevision doing a fishing show.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
My hands get sore a
little bit when I'm reeling in
all those bass in the summertime, but that's might be for more
fishing than it was punching.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
You so confidently.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
You said hey, pat,
have you ever eaten a trout?
Find Diaries of a Lodge Ownernow on Spotify, apple Podcasts
or wherever you get your podcast.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
As the world gets
louder and louder, the lessons
of our natural world becomeharder and harder to hear, but
they are still available tothose who know where to listen.
But they are still available tothose who know where to listen.
I'm Jerry Ouellette and I washonoured to serve as Ontario's
Minister of Natural Resources.
However, my journey into thewoods didn't come from politics.
(01:34):
Rather, it came from my time inthe bush and a mushroom.
In 2015, I was introduced tothe birch-hungry fungus known as
chaga, a tree conch withcenturies of medicinal
applications used by Indigenouspeoples all over the globe.
After nearly a decade ofharvest, use, testimonials and
(02:02):
research, my skepticism hasfaded to obsession and I now
spend my life dedicated toimproving the lives of others
through natural means.
But that's not what the show isabout.
My pursuit of this strangemushroom and my passion for the
outdoors has brought me to theplaces and around the people
that are shaped by our naturalworld.
On Outdoor Journal Radio'sUnder the Canopy podcast, I'm
(02:22):
going to take you along with meto see the places, meet the
people that will help you findyour outdoor passion and help
you live a life close to natureand under the canopy.
So join me today for anothergreat episode and hopefully we
can inspire a few more people tolive their lives under the
canopy.
(02:42):
People to live their livesunder the canopy.
Okay, first of all, as always,we want to thank our listeners
all across Canada, the statesall around the world,
Switzerland, Ghana.
Now I have to tell you in Ghana.
I know we have a lot ofreliable, faithful listeners in
Ghana, but I told Dr Nick that Iwould let his people there know
(03:08):
that he's a friend of mine.
He has a health food store inOshawa where he carries our
Chaga product and he's nowbuilding and got a fairly
completed, a 20-room hospital inGhana that he's covering the
cost and paying for and helpingout rural Ghana, which is great
to hear, and thank you, Dr Nick,for those contributions and
(03:30):
making a difference in thatcountry.
But also we want to thank ourlisteners around the world, in
Trinidad and Tobago, in theBahamas and, as usual, of course
, as I mentioned earlier, allacross Canada.
It's been a usual morning, Up atfirst light, I was out doing a
firewood cut.
Oh boy, I'm telling you, it'snot easier, and the more I do it
(03:50):
, the more I have to go see mychiropractor to get fixed up.
I know I was in two days agoputting a rib back in my wrist
fixed and my knee back in place,and it might be another couple
of days before I have to go seehim again because I just keep
pushing on and pushing on andmaking it, abusing my body,
shall we say.
But it's that time of the yearnow where we'll be out
(04:12):
harvesting chaga shortly, and Iwas with a mushroom seller who
was showing me his chickens ofthe woods that he happened to
harvest last week and I got totell you though the lion's mane
that we normally get on thebeech tree up by our camp up in
between Halliburton and Bancroft.
(04:33):
No lion's mane this year, whichis kind of surprising, but it's
been a very, very dry year upthere, and I noticed that there
hasn't been as much of a wildflush of wild mushrooms that we
normally see, been as much of awild flush of wild mushrooms
that we normally see.
But also our gardens, our wildgardens, our living apothecary,
as we call it the lemon balm,the sage, my mint patches are
(05:09):
all due, the lavage is kind ofdone, but a lot of the other
herbs and spices, all the herbsthat we grow, are ready for
harvesting and drying andprepared for their next stage.
And that's where we consumethem, whether it's the rosemary
or the sage or the thyme or the,as I mentioned, my mint patches
both peppermint and spearmintand lemon balm and all the rest
of it, and, as well, I see a lotof mullein.
Now I was with some people lastThursday that were having some
(05:32):
lung issues and I mentioned tothem that mullein would be
probably the best thing for them.
They were asking specificallyabout chaga and the impact there
, but the chaga not really known.
You know, getting rid ofinflammation is probably the key
component, but also theantioxidant level in it is so
(05:52):
high compared to everything else.
But when you get lung issues,mullein is the one that a lot of
recommend.
But I'm not a doctor, can'tgive medical advice, nor would I
Follow what your professionalhealthcare provider says you
should be doing, or even see anaturopath or your regular
doctors to take care of thoseissues.
But we get a lot of questions,as I normally do, and I had a
(06:14):
lot of questions about off-gridliving and wanted more
information about it, and sotoday we have a special guest,
Chris from XSolar, to talk aboutsolar panels.
Welcome to the podcast, Chris.
Speaker 5 (06:31):
Sorry about that.
I had myself muted.
How's it going, Jerry?
Speaker 4 (06:34):
It's good.
Okay, so welcome to the podcast.
You had yourself muted, soyou're back on now.
I'm back on.
Oh good.
So, chris, tell us for ourinternational listeners,
basically from Toronto, or areyou in Toronto?
Whereabouts are you located?
Speaker 5 (06:47):
Yeah, I'm in Toronto,
that's right.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
Okay, and what's your
position with the company?
Speaker 5 (06:53):
So I'm the owner of
the company.
I'm the one who started it.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
Okay, and so what is
XSolar, what do you do and what
is your company focused on?
Speaker 5 (07:03):
What do you do and
what is your company focused on?
So it's a solar panelinstallation company.
We do probably 99% residential,though we are growing more into
commercial.
We have some projects kind ofin the pipeline.
So I would say that we are anational Canadian solar panel
(07:27):
installation company, since weinstall from, you know, Prince
Edward Island, Newfoundland,Nova Scotia, all the way over to
British Columbia.
We don't install in Quebecright now, but other than that
we should have everyone covered.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
Very good.
So in the territories as well,you get a lot of requests up
there.
Speaker 5 (07:44):
Yep, we do cover the
territories.
We have some installers locatedup there.
We don't get too many requestsup there.
Obviously there's not that manypeople up there.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
But we do have a
project set to go in Northwest
Territories.
Yeah, that's good, because Iknow I did spend some time in
the Yukon Territory and yeah,the population base isn't as
large as it is in the rest ofCanada.
However, access to the grid upthere is a lot more difficult,
so I would have thought on apercentage basis of the
population, there may be ahigher likelihood of individuals
(08:20):
utilizing solar.
Speaker 5 (08:23):
Bring up a good point
.
Individuals utilizing solar.
Bring up a good point.
Um, you know, part of it isbecause we haven't probably
leaned into our marketing thereas much as other places right,
like ontario, like albertaobvious, you know solar hubs
where there's a lot of peoplethere too, right?
Um, so it's probably I 100.
Agree with you, though andthat's part of the reason why I
(08:44):
wanted to expand the companyinto the territories was because
they have a lot of well highenergy costs and also probably a
lot of grid instability issuesthere.
Speaker 4 (08:59):
I lot both my buddies
Bert and his brother, my other
buddy, roley.
Both have generators installedat their facility where Roley's
living in Bert's cottage, simplybecause of the amount of
downtime on the grid there thatthey want to make sure that
(09:21):
things don't freeze up on them.
So they had a generator backup.
Speaker 5 (09:28):
But solar is another
option in that area, correct,
solar is a fantastic option.
It's also cost efficient.
You know it pays for itself.
Okay.
Speaker 4 (09:33):
So now what?
So tell us, what are the basiccomponents for necessary to
install solar?
I mean, we had Roger and Deniseat the end of the lake where we
were and they were completelyon solar everything and I think
they only had about 1200 wattsof solar to run their entire
(09:53):
facility, but they had agenerator, backup and a battery
system as well.
So what kind of equipment doesone need in order to be
self-sustaining in solarequipment?
Speaker 5 (10:05):
does one need in
order to to be self-sustaining,
and solar.
Well, I guess this is part ofthe things that make solar so
confusing or intimidating forpeople is that there are quite a
few different components in thesystem.
Um, you know, just as an asideto the question I'll come back
to, uh, it's actually hard toget financing for people for
solar, because you could get afinancing contract for your heat
(10:33):
pump or your furnace, let's saypretty easily, they'll come and
they'll install a new furnaceor heat pump and you'll get put
on a payment contract over 10years or whatever.
It is no problem because it'sjust the one product.
But you can't get a deal likethat with the banks.
(10:54):
I've talked to them and tried,because the issue with the solar
panel installation is that it'sso many different products that
all kind of get assembledtogether into the one system.
So for the same reason, it canbe intimidating for an
individual.
It's also kind of intimidatingto banks and stuff as well.
(11:17):
For giving you kind of like afinancing for the whole system
put together.
Yes, of financing for the wholesystem put together, yes, um,
but so to run through, whatcomponents are included, do you?
Speaker 4 (11:32):
want just the
electrical components for, like,
well, if somebody for me so say, for myself, I'm basically off
grid at our place up in centralontario um, what do I need?
To be completelyself-sustaining with solar?
So okay there.
Okay, everybody just thinks thepanels, but there's a lot more
to it than just panels, and youget different panel sizes.
And what kind of volume ofpanels do you need in order to
(11:53):
be efficient?
Speaker 5 (11:55):
Okay, and so this is
an off-grid system.
There's no connection to hydro,that's correct.
Yep, okay, so obviously there'sthe panels that go on the roof,
and then you're going to needyour mechanical hardware to
actually adhere them to the roofor fix them to the roof
permanently, right?
(12:15):
So we, we anchor it right intothe trusses and then you'll have
your aluminum rails that thepanels get clamped to.
So, um, mechanically, that'skind of how it's adhered to the
roof.
And then so there's also adevice called an inverter.
Um, so what this does is thepanels produce dc energy and
(12:42):
your house uses AC energy, so ithas to get inverted.
So that's what the inverterdoes, quite simply.
Okay, if all the devices inyour house use DC electricity,
you wouldn't need one.
Speaker 4 (12:56):
Okay, Are there those
options available?
So do they have DC fridges andDC stoves?
I don't know DC fridges and DCstoves I mean.
Speaker 5 (13:05):
I don't know.
I mean, there are DC appliances.
Yeah, there are, they're notcommon.
No, I haven't heard of too manypeople who have them.
I remember one guy telling meone day there was like some
conspiracy against DCelectricity.
I didn't get too many details,but it's a curious question.
(13:28):
You know, dc versus AC?
As far as I know, the reasonwhy it's like that is because AC
electricity travels furtherdistance without losing as much
energy to heat.
(13:48):
I believe is the reason why.
Okay, so you have your solarpanels, then there's the
inverter, which converts theelectricity, and then, if you're
off grid, obviously you'regoing to need somewhere to store
the energy.
So then that's where thebattery would come in as well.
In a typical system that'sconnected to the grid, you might
(14:11):
not even need a battery becauseyou can send all the extra
power you generate that youdon't use back to the grid, and
that's probably 90% of thesystems that we do, to be honest
, are grid-tied.
Most people are tied to thegrid, right, everyone's getting
credits on their power bill fortheir systems.
Speaker 4 (14:31):
Oh, so there's a
program out there, because I
know when it first started therewas huge amounts of funds just
to get people inspired to getinvolved in solar, so they get
credits for what they contributeback to the grid still, yeah,
they do.
Speaker 5 (14:49):
The program has
changed quite drastically over
the years.
Okay and this is a large sourceof confusion for a lot of
people that come to us for aquote as well is that the
government kind of doesn'treally have a set idea of what
they want solar to be, so it'salways flip-flopping and
(15:09):
changing and one day it workslike this and then the next day
it works like this.
Right, but so I think you'retalking about the microfit
program where, um, probablyabout 10-15 years ago, the
government was like payingpeople, putting them on like
20-year contracts to buy backthe electricity, yep, so that
(15:31):
program ended in 2017.
Okay, and now they have the netmetering program, which is just
, it's an agreement set upbetween the homeowner and the
utility company.
Where they will.
You know you generate your power, you do your thing at home, you
know you're privately usingyour energy, but as a
(15:55):
convenience, any excess energythat you do not end up using,
you can ship for export to thepower company, to the grid, and
they'll take that energy.
You know they'll do what theywill with.
Know they'll do what they willwith it.
They'll power your neighbor'shouse or it'll get sent to a
distributed network, but thenthey'll put a credit on your
power bill for the retail valueof that electricity Right.
(16:17):
So it's not quite asludicrously profitable as the
old microfit program was,because they were paying way
above market rate for theelectricity oh yeah, it was like
60 or 70 cents a kilowatt hour,wasn't it yeah?
yeah, well, it started at 82cents and then it kind of every
year kind of got brought down,lower and lower and lower, until
(16:38):
it eventually the program gotphased out so I'll tell you,
chris, one of the things thathappened with us is, um, I used
to be an elected official withthem.
Speaker 4 (16:46):
You know it was a
privilege and honor to serve as
Minister of Natural Resourcesand we were in opposition when
the government brought it in.
So I thought, hey, this is agreat idea.
And so I made application forthe property we had just been
talking about and we gotapproved.
But all of a sudden the partytook a strong stance against it
(17:10):
and started to try to hammer thecurrent government that was in
power at the time about what aterrible program.
So I just kind of had to backoff.
Otherwise, can you imagine thepolitical implications if here
we are slamming the government,yet one of the opposition
members has taken advantage ofit?
Speaker 5 (17:30):
so hey, yeah, I mean
I, I can see why that might be
strange from like a public youknow looking point of view.
But hey, you're, uh, I, if itwas me, I'd be like hey, I'm a
canadian too.
This is available for canadians, I'm gonna use it.
Why not?
If they is available forCanadians, I'm going to use it.
Why not?
If they want to vote it in, whyshouldn't I use it?
Speaker 4 (17:48):
Well, exactly.
But yeah, the hard part is thepolitical implications would
have been pretty negative forthe party and cost me a lot of
problems.
So we just had to quietly justlet it fade away, which it did.
But we were approved for thatoriginal 82 cents or whatever it
was when it first started, butnever followed through on it.
Speaker 5 (18:10):
No kidding.
Yeah Well, there's people whoare literally still getting
checks from the government tothis day from that program who
got it in like 2007.
Speaker 4 (18:19):
Yeah, I recall a good
friend of mine, gary Fox, was
concerned.
He was another MPP and I'msurprised that the government of
the day because he would havebeen, he was no longer an MPP
but he was an opposition partyand he took out his farm.
He put up a huge solar panelfarm and was still to this day,
(18:41):
as far as I know, still doingvery well financially as a
result of that.
Speaker 5 (18:46):
No kidding, yeah, I
don't doubt it for a minute.
Speaker 4 (18:49):
So okay, so you got
your solar panels, you got all
your hardware to install, andhow hard is it to install?
Is this something that you cando on your own, or do you need
individuals to come out, or howdoes that work?
Speaker 5 (19:02):
So you can definitely
install the system on your own
if you're a handy guy, butyou're gonna need an electrical
contractor to come in at somepoint, uh, to, like you know, do
it all in the right way andpull your permits and make sure
you have a licensed professionaldoing all the internal wiring
in your in your house, panel andstuff right.
(19:23):
Right.
Also, you know, depending onhow big your system is, if the
voltage gets too high, you don'twant to be messing with that
either, right?
But typically in like aresidential system, you know you
could do it yourself.
You could, depending on howmany panels you have, because
each the way the systems are setup is, you'll have, like, let's
(19:44):
say, you have 15 solar panelsin your system.
Speaker 4 (19:48):
What size?
Because I've got 15, 20, and 50watt and 300 watt ones at home,
so you got 15 solar panels, androughly what size would you
expect those to be?
Speaker 5 (19:59):
Well, right now,
solar panels are in the like 400
to 500 watt range.
Okay, so that's quite a lotlike 400 to 500 watt range.
Okay, so that's quite a lotbigger, probably, than what you
have, yep, because they keepgetting more wattage over time.
Right, they keep making thembigger and bigger and bigger.
Speaker 4 (20:16):
So you're looking at
1,500, 400 watt panels.
Speaker 5 (20:21):
Yeah, so that's like
a 12 kilowatt system.
I think our our average systemsize that we do is probably
around 10 kilowatts, 11kilowatts, something like that
okay that will cover the averagehomes usage.
Um, and that's we can get intothat point.
After, about how if withoff-grid you, you probably want
(20:43):
to actually oversize your systema little bit, okay, just
because you don't have that gridto rely on for your peak power
demands right um, so you do, tolive the same lifestyle.
You would need actually a largersystem, um, but usually, you
know, off-grid people are a bitmore energy conscious, a bit
(21:05):
more, you know, yes, payingattention to when they use power
.
Speaker 4 (21:08):
So oh yeah.
So a lot of the off-grid willhave the solar.
They'll have a backup generatorand then wind as well yeah,
yeah, um, so what was I gettinginto there?
So you're talking about the,the, the size of the, uh, the 15
, 15, 400 watt panels.
Speaker 5 (21:26):
Right, okay, so I was
going to explain how, if you
have 15 solar panels, it'll bedivided up into like three
different strings of five solarpanels, and so the inverter that
they get plugged into will havelike three different inputs on
it typically, and so you'llseparate your solar panels into
(21:48):
groups and then that's whatthey're called strings.
Okay, so, so that way you knowif you, if you have five solar
panels that are plugged intogether in one string, it's a
lot lower voltage than if youhad all 15 plugged in together.
Yes, so it's not dangerous.
You can install it yourself wasthe point I was getting at.
(22:09):
Right, and you would have toobviously look up a guide, get
some installation manuals onhand, maybe have a YouTube video
open, and obviously you don'twant to mess up your roof that
you paid a lot of money on, soyou do want to make sure you're
pretty confident in what you'redoing.
You know, be able to find thetrusses on your house so that
(22:30):
you know where to drill Right.
But this is all stuff that anyyou know.
If you're a handyman type ofperson, you'd be able to figure
it out, yeah.
Speaker 4 (22:39):
Right.
So when you're talking roof,Chris, does it matter if it's a
steel or a wood shingle or anasphalt single roof?
Does that?
Speaker 5 (22:49):
play any difference
in any of this.
Well, the roof type does play adifference, but the ones you
mentioned will all work, whetherit's a metal.
If it's a metal, steel roof oraluminum roof, or shingles or
wood roof, that can all workright.
Um, where we get into troubleis when, when you start getting
into, like clay tiles or slateroofs, things like that, where
(23:09):
they can shatter, yes, um.
Or or where it's not quite aflat um base to install on, okay
, yeah, um, um, becausetypically there's different
types of anchors that we can useas well, depending on what type
or how the roof looks.
(23:31):
Right, if it's like an asphaltshingle roof, we can use a
square foot, that kind of justlike almost glues itself to the
roof using weatherproof glue,glues itself to the roof using
weatherproof glue.
But if it's a wavy roof, likeone of those Italian-style ones,
(23:53):
it gets a bit more complicated.
You kind of have to use a boltthat goes straight down, and so
you'll find, when they put theroof together originally,
there's already some bolts inplace and so you have to take
those ones out and then put thenew one in.
Okay, but we don't really likedoing those like installs on
(24:16):
those types of roof.
It can be done, and we havedone one or two before right,
but it does pose a much moreserious risk of leaking in the
future, both because of the waythat you're unscrewing the bolts
that are already in place Right, but also the anchor it's
called a T-bolt that you'reputting in.
(24:36):
It's not as weatherproof as thenormal square that I was
talking about, that kind ofself-seals.
Okay, that kind of self seals.
Okay.
So I would recommend that youdo solar if you have a roof with
enough flat space on it.
So that's like a asphaltshingle roof or a wood roof or a
(24:56):
corrugated metal roof.
You know where it's like youhave a ridge but then a big fat,
a flat section in between allthe ridges.
That works perfectly as well.
Okay, good, so that's, mostmetal roofs is like that.
Speaker 4 (25:14):
So I know, chris,
we've got a metal roof at the
camp we have in central Ontarioand it's very much like you
mentioned, the corrugated.
But one of the things whenpeople come in and on a sunny
day we're sitting there,everybody says the same thing
what the heck is that noise?
The metal on the roof expandsand contracts like crazy and you
(25:34):
hear all this expansion noise.
Do you get the same sort ofstuff with the solar panels or
not?
Speaker 5 (25:39):
really, no, I don't
think so.
That's an interesting question.
Speaker 4 (25:46):
I haven't heard
anyone giving us that feedback,
though, so I'd have to say nookay, and some of the other
questions then is if you haveasphalt shingles, when you use
the panels, does it affect theshingles differently, or or is
there some care or anything thatneeds to be done there to
protect the shingles, or doesthe panels protect the shingles
(26:09):
better, give better coverage?
Speaker 5 (26:12):
I'm glad you asked
this question because it's
actually a hidden benefit ofgoing solar.
Is that the thing that damagesthe shingles, I came to learn,
is actually the sun.
The sun is beating on theshingles all day.
To learn is actually the sun,you know it.
It, the sun is beating on theshingles all day and it dries
them out and that's what causesshingles to curl and crack and
(26:33):
go bad.
Um and so by having the solarpanels basically blanketing them
, keeping them in the shade, itwill preserve the lifespan of
those shingles by a long, like avery long margin.
Oh good, like you'll see peopleI mean, my company is only five
years old but like you'll seepeople with much older
(26:55):
installations, like, let's say,the Microfit at this point, and
they'll take those panels offthe roof and all the shingles
will be that like healthy darkcolor, and then all the shingles
around the system will be likegrayed out and washed out and
need to be getting replaced.
Speaker 4 (27:12):
Oh, okay.
Speaker 5 (27:14):
And that's just
because it's protecting them
from the sun.
Speaker 4 (27:18):
Well, chris, there's
a lot of different technologies
coming forward with panels aswell, and I'm seeing these
flexible panels as well.
Are you familiar?
Do you have those, or how doesthat work, or do you know much
about them?
Speaker 5 (27:32):
I think you're
talking about the ones that kind
of like roll on onto like avehicle roof or you can roll it
onto your roof, kind of thing.
Yep, exactly, I'll admit Idon't know a ton about them.
I assume they work becauseotherwise they wouldn't be made.
Yes, I haven't done a ton ofresearch into them, and the
(27:57):
reason why is because they'renot really carried with the main
distributors here in Canada andalso I'm not sure that they
would pass an inspectioncurrently.
Okay, because when we'reinstalling our systems now I
might not be correct about thatyou know there's always
different deviation requests.
(28:18):
You can ask for with theinspectors, okay, but they do
ask to see you know a certainamount of clearance off the roof
.
But they do ask to see you knowa certain amount of clearance
off the roof and that the wiringis not hanging on the roof and
stuff like that.
Right, and then the way it's,yeah.
So I'm honestly not entirelysure how that would go with you
(28:41):
know getting inspected andwhatnot.
Speaker 4 (28:50):
But if the product?
Speaker 5 (28:51):
works.
I yeah, yeah, I don't know muchabout it.
It's.
It seems like a good product ifit actually works and lasts.
That would be.
My biggest question is how longwill this last?
Speaker 4 (28:59):
yeah, I, I take, I I
monitor, have a look at a lot of
off-grid sites and it'ssomething that I just noticed,
probably in the last month, thatthey had these rollout shingles
that just basically go on yourroof, but I didn't know much
about them To me.
I always thought, and I'vethought this, if actually the
(29:22):
shingles were actually made ofsolar panels, everybody's roof
would be ideal for collectingenergy.
Speaker 5 (29:30):
Well, that's what
Elon Musk's trying to build with
the solar roof, with Tesla,right, but I think they're
having some technicaldifficulties because I don't
think they've scaled that up toowidespread yet.
Speaker 4 (29:44):
Yeah, I don't know.
There's you know, and youmentioned Tesla, but Nikola
Tesla was the founder of ACelectricity, alternating current
electricity and the poor guydied.
It was a genius, probably oneof the smartest individuals
(30:06):
around, and died pennilessbecause everybody stole all his
ideas.
Speaker 5 (30:12):
But I don't think he
knew yeah, I don't think he knew
it when he was alive how famoushe was going to be.
Speaker 4 (30:18):
Yeah, exactly, and
and yeah, the more I look into
Tesla and Nikola himself, themore I'm impressed with all the
things that he was able to comeup with, which has been great
for society as a whole.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
Hi everybody.
I'm Angelo Viola and I'm PeteBowman.
Now you might know us as thehosts of Canada's Favorite
Fishing Show, but now we'rehosting a podcast that's right.
Every Thursday, ange and I willbe right here in your ears
bringing you a brand new episodeof Outdoor Journal Radio.
Hmm, now, what are we going totalk about for two hours every
week?
Well, you know, there's goingto be a lot of fishing.
Speaker 7 (30:59):
I knew exactly where
those fish were going to be and
how to catch them, and they wereeasy to catch.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
Yeah, but it's not
just a fishing show.
We're going to be talking topeople from all facets of the
outdoors, from athletes All theother guys would go golfing.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
Me and Garton Turk
and all the.
Russians would go fishing.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
To scientists.
But now that we're reforesting-and laying things free.
Speaker 7 (31:21):
It's the perfect
transmission environment for
life.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
To chefs If any game
isn't cooked properly, marinated
, you will taste.
And now it's time for anothertestimony podcasts, or wherever
you get your podcasts.
Speaker 4 (31:54):
And now it's time for
another testimonial for Chaga
Health and Wellness.
Okay, we're with Bev here inLindsay, and, bev, you've got
some experience with Chaga thatyou'd like to share with some
people.
Tell us two stories.
Can I start with your father'sstory?
Speaker 6 (32:10):
Hi, derry.
Well, my dad had mentioned tome that he was struggling with
his blood pressure and he'd goneon meds and it wasn't bringing
it down.
He was running around 180, 185and wasn't enjoying that at all,
and so I suggested that he trythe chocolate tea, because I
knew some other people that hadhad a good experience with it
and I knew my own experiencewith it.
(32:30):
He started doing the chaga teaevery day.
He stuck it in with his coffee,so he only had to drink one
thing a day, and within threeweeks he had dropped from 180 to
140, which he was reallyexcited about.
But what he was even moreexcited about was that about
three to four weeks after thathe had gone down to 125.
So we're really grateful forthe difference that Chaga has
(32:54):
made with his blood pressure.
Speaker 4 (32:55):
Good and he wasn't
doing.
There wasn't any othermedications or changes.
Speaker 6 (32:59):
No, no, this was the
actually the only shift.
He didn't shift anything dietwise, physical exercise wise at
all.
The only thing he added in thathe hadn't been doing before was
chaga.
Speaker 4 (33:08):
And he put it in his
coffee.
Speaker 6 (33:09):
I believe I heard you
say, and he put it in his
coffee.
Speaker 4 (33:11):
Yeah, very good.
Okay, and you have your ownstory.
Now I have my own story.
Speaker 6 (33:14):
So I started on chaga
when I met Jerry, just as I
realized that I was going into arelapse of multiple cirrhosis,
that I had not relapsed forapproximately 25 years.
So I was a little startled aboutit and wanted to get on it.
And so I was in the process ofchanging a lot of things so that
(33:35):
I could go back into relapserather than dealing with the MS
symptoms.
And so I did change diet and Istopped physical exercise so
that my body would have morerest, and I added the chaga in
and within a within a, I meanwithin five days I noticed that
the nerve sensory issues I washaving in my legs was already
(33:58):
settling down and within aboutthree weeks I had the strength
to walk unassisted again.
And I am about three months innow and I have taken a 10-day
break from it a couple of times,just to you know, you know,
just so that my body yeah, youknow can stay balanced.
(34:20):
You know, without it, sure, butevery time I go back on it, I,
um, I can feel the difference inmental clarity and in the way
my nerves are communicating andI'm walking very, very well now.
Speaker 4 (34:33):
Very good.
Well, thank you very much forsharing your story with us.
Speaker 6 (34:37):
Thanks for hollering
me and asking me to try a free
cup that one farmer's marketmorning.
Speaker 4 (34:43):
Well, I'm glad it's
working out for you.
Speaker 6 (34:44):
Thanks.
Speaker 4 (34:44):
Jerry.
Okay, we interrupt this programto bring you a special offer
from Chaga Health and Wellness.
If you've listened this far andyou're still wondering about
(35:07):
this strange mushroom that Ikeep talking about and whether
you would benefit from it or not, I may have something of
interest to you.
To thank you for listening tothe show, I'm going to make
trying Chaga that much easier bygiving you a dollar off all our
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To do is head over to ourwebsite,
(35:29):
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If you're new to Chaga, I'dhighly recommend the regular
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This comes with 15 tea bags perpackage and each bag gives you
around five or six cups of tea.
Hey, thanks for listening Backto the episode.
Around five or six cups of tea.
(35:49):
Hey, thanks for listening Backto the episode.
So somebody who has a smallcabin, like I'm talking because
I get a lot of people like whoare remote individuals, trappers
and things like that and allthey run is basically a light
system, a DC light system intheir camps or outback camps and
things like that.
In Ontario there's land usepermits, camps that are out
(36:13):
there that usually have a lot ofsmall needs.
What size would you need?
You know everything's relevantfor the time that this would go
to air.
What kind of cost are youlooking at, basically to put up
a basic system just to run yourlighting system, sort of thing?
Speaker 5 (36:34):
Well, you wouldn't
need a big one, that's for sure.
So our company basicallyspecializes in I think five
kilowatts is the smallest systemthat we'll do on a on a
residence and that's just tomake it commercially viable for
us and like the the differentcosts and stuff that we have,
(36:54):
right.
But if you were looking to doit yourself and you just wanted
to put together a small system,you could do something for
relatively cheaply.
You know, and they have theseproducts all online that are
good products that you could getprivately and install and
they'll work for you.
(37:14):
But you know, if you're justrunning lights and maybe like a
freezer, you probably would onlyneed a handful of solar panels.
I'd say like, maybe like foursolar panels.
get yourself like a one to twokilowatt system okay um, and,
(37:35):
based on what you described,honestly think that would be
sufficient, I mean, if you'rereally not using too much power,
you know.
Once you get to the point,though, where you're, where you
want to have, like um, you knowyou want to to have regular
household appliance type stuff.
You want to have a regularlifestyle.
Speaker 4 (37:52):
Yes.
Speaker 5 (37:54):
That's where you're
going to need to upgrade to your
10-kilowatt system, becausethen you're running heating and
you're cooking and you've gotcomputers going and TV and the
fridge.
So the modern kind of householddoes have a higher energy
(38:14):
demand.
But if you're living alifestyle where you can cut a
lot of that stuff out, youreally don't need much.
And the other thing too is thatfor off-grid specifically, the
number of solar panels is almostkind of not the right question.
Okay, the right question isactually how much battery
storage do you need?
Speaker 4 (38:34):
Yeah, that was my
next question is the type of
batteries as well.
I mean, I've seen it.
My father, he was on Monk Lakeand they were building a new
camp at the North End and theyhad like 15, 20 car batteries in
the basement where they storedall their solar panel
electricity because they wereoff grid up there.
(38:54):
But what kind of batteries doyou use?
And this was probably 25 yearsago, sort of thing.
Speaker 5 (39:01):
Car batteries.
You said right.
Speaker 4 (39:02):
Yeah, they were car
batteries.
Well, at least when you look atthem.
I didn't talk to themspecifically to ask, ask, but
when you looked at him and youlooked in the basement you
thought those are all carbatteries it's funny.
Speaker 5 (39:15):
I'll.
I'll go on a tangent quickly.
I was playing a online videogame with a guy um a few years
ago and he was.
He actually worked for Tesla.
Um, he was an engineer.
He's.
He's from, uh, he's fromoverseas.
He came to live in America, um,from some country, and he's now
(39:38):
an engineer at Tesla.
But so he um, there was likescrap batteries in their
warehouse or factory or whatever, and so he got his hands on one
and he actually converted itinto, like a solar battery.
Okay, because the teslabatteries that go into their
vehicle, um, you know that theycan be used as a battery and you
(40:03):
know they're even developed,like tesla themselves are
developing technology so thatyou can charge your home with
your car, so you can kind of useyour vehicle as your battery at
the same time.
Um, so it's interesting thatyou said that because, like, I
think that's fascinating thatyou can use your vehicle battery
(40:24):
dual purpose for your car andyour house at the same time.
Right, so that's somethingcoming in the pipe for the
listeners.
That that's kind of on the way.
But to answer your questionmore directly, you definitely
want to go lithium ion, becausethe lifetime on those batteries
is a lot longer than thelead-acid batteries, right.
(40:50):
And the other thing too is interms of the cost, people will
be like, oh well, I don't wantto buy a lithium battery because
it's so expensive.
But in truth, because withlithium you can drain the
battery all the way to 100%,nearly Right For every like one
(41:22):
kilowatt hour of battery storage.
How do I say this?
What's the best way to put this?
So, like when you're, when youuse a lead acid battery, if, if
you get a one kilowatt hourbattery, you can only actually
drain it halfway to like 50percent, um, and because if you
go below that you'll startdamaging the chemistry of the
battery and it won't, and thenit'll lose shelf life.
(41:44):
So it'll start lasting less andless time, kind of like your
phone I don't know if you have asmartphone or what but over
time that you'll notice thebattery kind of doesn't last as
long, and then you have to startcharging it more often and more
often and more often.
And so that kind of happens tobatteries over time is that they
(42:06):
start losing charge quicker,and that can really happen to
lead acid quite badly if youstart draining it below about
halfway, and so lithium doesn'thave that problem.
You can go down to like 95%.
So when you're comparing theprice of a one kilowatt battery
(42:27):
lead acid versus a one kilowatthour battery lithium, you're
actually getting twice as muchstorage or effective storage
with the lithium battery.
So you have to factor that intothe price as well.
Speaker 4 (42:41):
Interesting and some
of the other things, though is
do not the lead acid batteriesgive off off gases as well that
need to?
Speaker 5 (42:48):
be vented out.
Yeah, they do, they do.
Speaker 4 (42:51):
Yeah, because that
was one of the things that I
understood was a bit of an issueas well as OK, so you got all
these batteries.
How do you get the gas?
That's not good for you to ventit out elsewhere not good for
you to vent it out elsewhere?
Speaker 5 (43:07):
Yeah Well, it
definitely serves an interesting
logistical question if you have, you know, a bunch of batteries
stored floor to ceiling, yeah,Like a server room or something.
But most people you knowprobably don't have that many
batteries.
Speaker 4 (43:23):
Right, right, yeah,
this, you know, was just kind of
surprising.
It was, as I said, well, it mayeven been longer than 25 years
ago, when first solar was firstyou know distant conceptual
ideas that I saw this stuff.
That was quite surprising, yeah, so, chris, tell us the
difference.
Ok, so you mentioned like akilowatt battery.
(43:47):
Is that what I am I saying itcorrect?
A kilowatt battery?
Speaker 5 (43:53):
Well, the kilowatt
hour is just the storage
capacity of the battery.
That's how you'd kind of likecompare the different sizes.
Speaker 4 (44:00):
Right, so what size
batteries are there?
Speaker 5 (44:03):
Any size.
Yeah, usually they're modular.
You can get batteries that aresmall, batteries that are big.
You can have a bunch of smallbatteries and wire them all
together right um, kind ofdepends on the product you're
using and if it's built to bemodular or if you're going for
more like a power wall type ofbattery, where it's just one big
(44:24):
unit of course.
I mean, evenwalls are modulartoo.
You can connect two Powerwallstogether.
Speaker 4 (44:31):
Yeah, I know I did a
number of sportsman shows and
actually they were showing.
Basically, if you looked at it,it looked like a car battery,
but they're all single unitsthat you put specific batteries
inside them.
Yeah, yeah, and I think it waslithium, if I remember correctly
yeah.
Speaker 5 (44:52):
So like, if you're
off-grid you're not going to be
using a power wall um, butyou'll use like batteries like
that, right, or like those smallcar battery looking ones, um,
make sure it's lithium, and thenyou can kind of just choose a
good priced battery, right, andyou can um just connect them to
(45:12):
each other, right.
So so the amount of batterystorage that you need, it
depends very, it varies widelydepending on your usage.
You know, and this is a toughquestion to give like a
one-size-fits-all answer,because your viewers, if they're
all over Canada, they're indifferent countries, their usage
(45:35):
is all going to be different.
So for you, I could say, or forthat trapper you're talking
about, where they're not usingmuch, I could say you could do
with one battery.
Get like a three-kilowatt-hourhour battery, one kilowatt hours
of solar, you're going to beable to power your lights in
your fridge or whatever you like.
Basic, basic necessities rightum, but no high powered loads.
(46:00):
But then you know, if you'retrying to run a house, modern
living, computers, tv, I wouldsay you're probably going to
want to at least a 10 kilowattsystem.
You know, you, you get awaywith like a seven, eight
kilowatt system too, but but thebattery storage you don't want
to skimp out on um, because thesolar panels will be working
(46:20):
even when you're not home.
You know, let's say, let's sayyou leave for a week, you come
back, your panels have beenworking the whole time, so it
actually kind of matters morehow much battery storage you
have, and it's.
This is kind of what we do atzoller, is we help people match,
like we help people figure allthis stuff out, because you know
(46:43):
you might use 10 000 kilowatthours annually and need a system
that can offset that much powerdemand, but someone else might
only need half of that, right?
So we we have to look at, okay,what is this household using?
Or you know, if it's off grid,we would have to say, okay, what
(47:06):
appliances are you using?
And we'd have to literally lookat those devices and grid.
You have to go about this in avery scientific way, because if
(47:30):
you get it wrong.
You don't have the luxury ofthe grid just supplying your
surplus, right, you know?
If you're like, okay, well, mysolar panels don't cover my peak
demand when I'm starting up myheat pump, but it's okay,
because I'll just pull the extraenergy from the grid that I
need and then the solar willcover everything else.
(47:52):
When you're off grid, you don'thave that option, so you have
to really make sure that yoursystem covers what you're doing
in that house.
Speaker 4 (48:00):
Right, and I remember
I mentioned Roger and Denise on
the lake and they had, I thinkit was, 1200 watts and Roger or
Denise was telling me she said,well, we had to change, or she
had to change a lot of the waythat she managed things.
For example, if she wanted todo laundry, she had to wait
until the sun was at its peak inorder to be able to run all the
(48:21):
facilities, as opposed to, say,doing it in the evening, when
she normally would when she wasat home.
Speaker 5 (48:27):
Absolutely.
You'll have to make adjustmentslike that because you know
you're getting your peak powerin the middle of the day.
Speaker 4 (48:35):
Right.
Speaker 5 (48:36):
So that's when you're
going to want to do all of your
peak power demand activities.
Speaker 4 (48:41):
So what about things
like overcharging?
Is there protectors so thatthey don't overcharge, or can
lithium batteries be overcharged?
Speaker 5 (48:48):
So that's an
interesting question.
As far as I understand, ifyou're overcharging the battery,
it will.
So there's a device in betweencalled a charge controller,
right, which kind of helpsmodulate how much energy the
battery is taking.
Modulate how much energy thebattery is taking, and if you're
(49:12):
if you're um generating toomuch electricity, it will start
to dissipate as heat.
Um, however you do, that isthat is a problem, and you do
want to make sure that you'rebalancing how much energy that
you're generating with how muchpower storage that you have.
Right, you know you don't wantto.
Speaker 4 (49:29):
You don't want to
like have a million solar panels
plugged into a small batteryand then explode the thing or
fry the thing right, I know Iwas at a fishing camp up in
northwestern ontario that had adiesel generator uh, and that
might be, you know, an area thata lot of these outpost camps
(49:50):
that run off, basically a lot ofthem generators but they
specifically said, look, pleasedo us a favor and leave all the
outdoor lights on, because whenthe generator is running they
have to make sure that they'reusing enough of the facilities
out there to burn up theelectricity that's being
generated.
So to make sure that the baseload was being taken care of.
Speaker 7 (50:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (50:15):
Yeah, so with these
batteries, chris, do you have to
worry about winter freezing ortemperatures and things like
that?
Speaker 5 (50:21):
You do.
You do so.
Every battery product is goingto have a data sheet that comes
along with it that will say youknow this product can operate
down to zero degrees or negative20 degrees and then.
So you're going to want tomanage that, because that's
(50:42):
going to help you make sure thatyour batteries live the
lifespan that they're supposedto, right?
So you're going to want tofollow the manufacturer
guideline, depending on theproduct that you have.
Speaker 4 (50:52):
Okay, so there's a
lot of options out there as well
, and I see as well that when Ifirst started looking at the
price of solar you mentionedabout it it's constantly
fluctuating and things like thatI imagine because solar prices
have come down per panelconsiderably from when that time
when it was, you know, themicrofit program came in, to
(51:16):
what a cost of a kilowatt houron a panel now is.
Is it the same for batteries aswell?
Speaker 5 (51:23):
I would say so, yeah,
so again, we primarily do grid
tied systems, and so the mostpopular battery that we sell is
actually the tesla powerwall.
Okay, um, so this is a 13.5kilowatt battery and, um, I mean
(51:45):
to get it installed.
It's not cheap, it's probably a$20,000 job.
Speaker 4 (51:52):
And that's for the
entire package, or is that just
the battery installation?
Speaker 5 (51:57):
That's just the
Powerwall alone.
Okay, yeah, but the Powerwallis a heavy-duty battery.
It's meant for a modern housewhere you're using a ton of
electricity.
Speaker 4 (52:08):
Right.
Speaker 5 (52:09):
And it can run your
whole house for like a day or
something like that okay um, butif you're, if you were just
doing a smaller system with afew lithium iron batteries, it
would be.
I think the grow watt batteryis like I think it's only a
couple thousand dollars per eachone, okay, and they're modular.
(52:32):
So you could scale it up to bea $20,000 system with like 10 of
them, but you don't have to,and that's part of the benefit
of maybe a system like that isthat you can start smaller and
then kind of add to it over time, right?
Speaker 4 (52:51):
So somebody going
away, say to a cottage that
wanted to do this, where they goup for the weekend, uh, through
the week when the sun's out, itwould be charging all the
batteries, and when you showedup on for your weekend they
would be pretty much fullycharged.
Speaker 5 (53:03):
You know, if it's the
weather's right, exactly, and
so that's why it's important tounderstand how you're going to
be using the energy in the place, because, like a weekend
cottage type of property, youwould want more battery storage
and less solar Right Because ofexactly what you just said.
(53:24):
You know you're not there to usethe power, so you need a bigger
battery bank and relativelyless panels themselves.
But if this is an off-gridproperty, by contrast, where
you're actually living therefull-time and you're doing
laundry and you have all theseenergy needs, you would actually
need more solar panelsrelatively just to make sure
(53:48):
that you have enough to coveryour peak power demand, like the
lady you're talking about howshe has to do her laundry at
noon because that's when shegets the most power.
So it's the same kind of ideaIf you can get away with not
being there for a long periodand you can just get it to fill
(54:11):
your batteries up, and then youcan basically operate wholly off
the batteries for the weekendthat you're there, and then,
once you leave, the batteriesare drained, but then they have
another week to recharge.
Speaker 4 (54:22):
Right.
Speaker 5 (54:22):
Yeah, versus, if
you're living there every day,
draining the battery every day,then you're going to need more
solar panels, okay.
Speaker 4 (54:33):
Yeah, so very
interesting.
So, chris, when I'm looking atdifferent things, I see what is
it pure, sane or sane type of?
Is that a panel?
Is that a type of panel?
Am I off on this?
Am I?
Speaker 5 (54:48):
talking about.
I'm not sure about thepronunciation of that.
How do you spell it?
Speaker 4 (54:52):
uh, s-i-n-e, I think
it is s-i-n-e.
Speaker 5 (54:56):
That's a brand of
solar panel.
I haven't heard of this uh,well, no, just uh.
Speaker 4 (55:00):
there there's
different types of panels that
produce different types ofelectricity and believe it is,
and there was, I think it waspure sane.
It was the one I was thinkingof, but I was wondering if
there's much of a difference,and can those systems be
interacted?
Speaker 5 (55:20):
Hmm, do you mean sine
?
Is that like an inverter thing?
Is that what it is?
Yes, like a sine wave, likesine versus cosine kind of thing
.
Speaker 4 (55:30):
yeah, pure sine a
wave inverter uh, inverters,
yeah so.
Speaker 5 (55:34):
So with inverters the
electricity is a waveform.
So I mean it's funny that Ihave all this knowledge built up
over time.
Um, I didn't learn any of thisin school.
Of course not, but so sine waveversus cosine wave is the
(55:55):
waveform has to match betweenall the components in the system
for them to be compatible witheach other.
Speaker 4 (56:02):
Okay.
Speaker 5 (56:03):
And so that's part of
what like a charge controller
will do.
If you're bringing in dirty,know dirty dc electricity, it
needs to get quote-unquotecleaned up, which is basically
converted to the right waveform.
And that's basically what yourcharge controllers and your
inverters are doing is they'reconverting the electricity to
(56:24):
make sure that it's the samewaveform that can be compatible
with all the appliances in yourhouse.
Speaker 4 (56:31):
Right.
Speaker 5 (56:31):
Because, let's say,
your computer is, when it's
receiving energy, it's expectingthat energy to come in a
certain format, and if itdoesn't, it won't even work.
Okay, right, so that's whatthese inverters are doing, is
they're making sure the waveformof the electricity matches the
waveform that your devices areexpecting in your house.
Speaker 4 (56:54):
So do all solar
panels perform the same waveform
, or are they different?
Panels produce differentwaveforms.
Speaker 5 (57:04):
Well, I think that's
what the whole conversion
between DC and AC is about.
I think that's what the wholeconversion between DC and AC is
about.
Honestly, I think that questionis probably a bit outside my
pay grade when it comes to thisstuff.
What I do know is that you haveDC and AC which are
incompatible.
It needs to be converted.
(57:24):
And what I do know is that ifwe go installing solar panels of
different sizes and pluggingthem in together, they will rate
limit each other to the lowestcommon denominator, okay.
So if you have like a 500-wattpanel plugged into a 400-watt
(57:45):
panel, it'll actually bottleneckat 400 watts, the whole string,
okay.
Watt panel, right.
It'll actually bottleneck at400 watts, the whole string,
okay.
Speaker 4 (57:54):
So I don't think
that's the same thing, but it's
kind of along the lines of youknow, backwards compatibility
with different components andstuff like that right, yeah, and
I know there's, um, I'm lookingfor myself just a sauna that,
uh, is not connected to the gridin an area, that there is no
grid in the area, and try andput panels in there and just run
lights in the sauna.
(58:14):
So try and figure out what sizepanels and what batteries to
use to run lights and thingslike that and I often wondered
about.
So that's the inverter thatdeals with the panels, to make
sure that whatever energy isbeing produced is converted into
(58:36):
what can be utilized.
Speaker 5 (58:39):
Correct, yeah, okay,
so in that situation you'd want
to go and check all thedifferent light bulbs and see
what's the individual powerconsumption of each one, both
the peak startup demand and theoperational demand, and then you
would have to kind of add themall together and come up with a
number, and then that numberwill inform you of how many
(59:01):
panels do you need and how muchbatteries do you need.
Speaker 4 (59:03):
Right, okay,
interesting, very good.
So, Chris, is there support outthere for uh, going solar,
solar?
Is there government programs tosupport any aspect of this at
all throughout canada?
Speaker 5 (59:18):
uh, there absolutely
is now off grid, I think, has
limited support.
Um, they have programs, tons ofprograms for grid-tied, but I
think off-grid is a blind spotfor these government programs.
Okay, so I mean, there's theGreener Homes loan right now
which is actually going away inOctober so it's bad timing where
(59:41):
they were giving $40,000interest-free loan to people so
that way you could finance yoursystem, uh, for low monthly
payments yeah, you mentionedthere was difficulty with banks,
so that kind of that's I, fromwhat I'm hearing from you, that
this is designed to to deal withthe banking and getting loan
issue.
Speaker 4 (01:00:00):
Is that a?
Speaker 5 (01:00:00):
system that?
Yeah, exactly because otherthan aside from the greener
homes loan, what people have todo is just get a line of credit.
You know, in in the states theyhave different um financing
companies that will give youdifferent loans 10 year, 12 year
, 20 year, whatever it is.
They have lots of options, buthere in canada we don't have too
(01:00:21):
many.
So it's like either you geteither you get the greener homes
loan or you get yourself a lineof credit with the bank.
That's basically your onlyoptions, because it's hard to
get financing for the systemspecifically in the same way
that you might get financing fora car or your heat pump okay,
(01:00:43):
yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:00:44):
so yeah, because I
understand that there's programs
available now for things likeheat pumps, but support programs
, and I don't even know ifthat's the same throughout all
Canada or not.
Speaker 5 (01:00:57):
So other incentives
that are available in Ontario
you can get up to $10,000 if youdo a grid tied behind the meter
system.
Speaker 4 (01:01:07):
What does that mean
behind the meter system?
Speaker 5 (01:01:11):
A good question.
So what it means is that youknow how I was telling you about
the net metering program, howyou can use all your power and
then the extra gets exported tothe grid.
Yep, so it's kind of like that,but you can't export it to the
grid anymore.
You have to use it all withinyour house, so.
So what that means is that youhave to pair it with a battery
(01:01:31):
okay yeah, so, so typically,it'll be a power wall system
where you have your solar panelsin your power wall and, um,
either, in the settings of thesystem, it'll be set to zero
export so that you don't sendany power back to the grid,
right?
Um, and the reason why they'rekind of shifting towards that
(01:01:52):
type of program is because Ithink the honest answer is
because the grid is aging andwith all these people putting
solar panels in and generatingall this power, um, they're
gonna, they're gonna have tostart upgrading the grid
infrastructure.
So they're kind of pivoting,and now they want people to just
(01:02:13):
offset their own consumption,which would actually act to
reduce the load on the grid,because now, if all these houses
are self-sufficient and are notpulling from the grid, then it
reduces the net energy demand onthe grid itself.
Speaker 4 (01:02:31):
Right.
Speaker 5 (01:02:32):
But if all these
houses were putting extra energy
on the grid, then it wouldn'treally solve that problem.
Speaker 4 (01:02:38):
Right.
Yeah there's a lot of gridstuff that I got involved with
before.
For example, a lot of peopledon't know what line loss means
when you're talking on the grid.
Speaker 5 (01:02:49):
Right.
Speaker 4 (01:02:49):
So we use my place in
central Ontario but kind of
halfway between Bancroft andHalliburton, If the energy in
order to charge the grids comingfrom being here by Toronto, the
nuclear plants at Darlington orthe nuclear plant in Bickering,
there's a lot of lines anddistance for that electricity to
(01:03:10):
get up there.
However, if there was sourcesof energy that were much closer,
it reduces that and takes a lotof strain off the grid to make
it more available.
And solar, from what I'mhearing in rural Ontario, would
be in a really an effective wayto reduce line loss and charges
that are used to carry all theenergy those distances well, you
(01:03:31):
hit the nail on the head it's,it's.
Speaker 5 (01:03:33):
it's an interesting
benefit of solar.
You know, if you, if you look atthe top down picture and you
don't think about just theindividual in the household
offsetting their own usage, butthe kind of aggregate effect of
if everybody's doing this right,it really would reduce the
strain on the grid itself.
And then also, because you'reproducing that power locally, um
(01:03:56):
, you know, let's say you are onthe net metering program where
you send your extra energy tothe grid.
So, um, you're powering yourhouse.
Let's say you have some extraenergy that you're not currently
using in real time.
Instead of that having to go tosome far off area, right, yep,
(01:04:20):
it can literally just go intothe transformer and then to your
neighbor's house, yes, yep.
So there's an advantage to thatwhen everyone's producing
energy locally and also storingenergy locally, because in the
future, if everybody has abattery on their house.
I don't think they have anyprograms like this here in
(01:04:43):
Canada yet, but the UnitedStates, they're years ahead of
us on this stuff with the solarand battery adoption.
Okay, but their utilitycompanies actually have like
virtual power plant programswhere if you own a battery, you
can opt in with the powercompany and they'll essentially
(01:05:06):
pay you to take control of yourbattery.
Speaker 4 (01:05:09):
Oh, okay.
Speaker 5 (01:05:10):
And so you know, if
they're doing this with a
thousand people, that becomeskind of a significant source of
battery storage for them.
Yep.
And so they actually pay peopleto do that.
Speaker 4 (01:05:21):
Right.
Speaker 5 (01:05:22):
So, like you store
your excess power in your
battery and then you can.
There's like some setting whereyou can say, okay, I want to
basically donate 50% of this tothe power company and then keep
at least a 50% storage formyself or if I need it.
And so people in the UnitedStates are doing this, where
(01:05:43):
they're just sending all thisenergy to the, they're leaving
all this storage capacity forthe power company, and then what
the power company will do isyou know, you were talking about
um base loads and stuff likethat they'll, they'll use
everybody's collective batterystorage to regulate um the like
(01:06:07):
peak energy production times,and then when it gets later into
the day and it's there's lessenergy being produced, then the
batteries will um drain and then, you know so, to help meet that
peak power demand withoutactually ramping up production
of power.
Well, because then the questionis, where does all this power
(01:06:28):
go?
Speaker 4 (01:06:29):
you know, so having
all that extra battery storage
in aggregate allows the utilityto be very uh flexible with
things like that well I, I know,chris, that, um, when I was
minister of natural resources,one of the issues it was a
company that was ran, a companythat ran a mill in northern
(01:06:51):
Ontario and they had their ownpower plant to produce
electricity to run the mill.
And what I mean is a lumbermill, and I can't remember if it
was like a two-by-four mill orif it was a veneer mill or a
chip mill, what it was like aplywood sort of mill or a chip
mill, what it was like a plywoodsort of mill.
(01:07:12):
But anyways, they wanted theability to be able to sell
energy on the spot marketbecause their hydro and this was
a dam was a hydro dam and whatthey would do would be, all of a
sudden, new York City, forexample, would be in huge
demands and paying about $2,000a kilowatt hour for electricity
in order to supply the demandsthere on short notice.
(01:07:34):
So they wanted the ability tosell on the spot market like
that, because it was costeffective for them to ship that
electricity that they produced.
In that case the discussion wasNew York City and my response
was well, what happens to thefactory when you do that?
They said well, we make moremoney selling the electricity
(01:07:54):
than we do running the factory.
And I said, well, no, Iwouldn't support that, because
what you're doing now is allthose people that are working in
the factory would now besitting or being unemployed or
not being paid, or all thetrucks or all the forest
industry doing all theharvesting and everything else,
just because you're making moremoney selling the energy, and I
(01:08:16):
wouldn't support that.
But yeah, so certainly theseoptions like this for rural
municipalities, for example,that they could really support a
lot of the grid if they had apromotion program that for the
line loss and everything else,it could keep the lines charged
and a lot more energy in highdemand areas such as urban
(01:08:39):
Toronto and all the otherfactory areas around.
Speaker 5 (01:08:43):
Yeah, toronto itself
doesn't lose power too much,
unless there's a storm orsomething.
But you know, know, there wasjust this winter there was, I
think the headline was a millionhouses without power.
Yep, um, from the ice stormthat knocked down some power
lines and there was people whodidn't have power in their house
for quite a while after that,and so, um, I just actually
(01:09:07):
learned Hydro One installs powerwalls on people's houses who
lose power a lot.
Oh, I didn't know that.
Yeah, I didn't know that untilrecently either.
Actually, I don't know if theyjust started doing this or if
it's something they've beendoing for a while, but they'll
actually just come and install apower wall for people and and
that might be like if they'rewithin their service area but
(01:09:30):
for whatever reason, they losepower all the time right to,
kind of like, fulfill theirobligations, I guess right um,
but it's uh, you know, with it's, it's funny how we have this
whole modern society.
You know it's built off of this,like rickety old infrastructure
, like this rickety oldelectrical grid which can kind
(01:09:52):
of get knocked down when thewind blows too hard.
Um, so, having battery storagebuilt in and baked in, so to
speak, to not just individualhomes but into society at large
yeah I think could go a long wayat some point.
You know, obviously not now,there's not enough people, but
(01:10:12):
there would be a critical massat some point where if you, if
you could, if the utility couldhave these like collective
agreements where everybody couldopt in like, okay, if the grid
goes down, if there's anotherone of these storms, we have
collective battery storage thatwe can use to help these people
(01:10:33):
who are stuck withoutelectricity in the middle of
winter.
You know.
Speaker 4 (01:10:38):
Yeah, and there's so
many other aspects about it that
are not taken intoconsideration.
I recall I was working aby-election for Doug Holliday
when he was running in Etobicokeand we were door knocking in an
area but the power had been outbecause it was, I think it was
August and it had been a severerainstorm where they took out
(01:11:00):
huge amounts of power lines justbecause of the volume of the
rain.
And it was in August.
And so I knocked on the onedoor and the guy answers the
door and he says when's thepower coming back on?
I said well, sir, this is notthe right level of government
that deals with this.
This is your Toronto hydroissue and I can't give you the
(01:11:21):
answer.
And he started to complain.
He said well, that's it.
I says I'm just going to loseit.
I guess that means we're havinga block party and I'm going to
lose all the food in my fridge.
And I just looked at him.
I said well, why don't you justgo buy a block of ice and put
it in a tub and you put it inyour fridge?
And he looked at me and saidwhat I said yeah, it'll keep the
fridge cold and keep your food,so it'll stay in itself and
(01:11:42):
don't open your freezers.
I mean, if you need to, you canput dry ice in the freezer to
keep everything frozen there,but there's a little bit of
tricks to get dry ice.
But he said that'll work and Isaid, yeah, it works perfect.
I mean, when we go up north,all we do is we have ice and
coolers or old fridges to keepall our stuff cold, and this is
(01:12:04):
stored energy of another typethat people can utilize, and
having these solar panels withbattery backups would go a long
way in situations like that aswell.
Speaker 5 (01:12:14):
Yeah, putting ice in
a bucket.
It's ancient knowledge.
Speaker 4 (01:12:18):
Oh yeah, he was
shocked that anything like that
could what.
That's all it would take.
I said, yeah, go to the grocerystore and buy a block of ice
and put it in a tub and it'llkeep everything cold in the
fridge.
Really, I said, yeah, I'm goingto tell everybody on the block.
Speaker 5 (01:12:36):
Yeah, but no, it's
important to be resourceful in
situations like that, but it'salso important to consider
having battery storage.
I think that as we kind of moveinto the future, with
electrical demands only goinghigher and the price of energy
(01:12:57):
only going higher and thenprobably the price of batteries
coming down as well, that it'sgoing to be more mainstream,
just like how every house has anair conditioner now almost,
whereas it used to not be thecase, yep.
So I think in the future you'llwalk by every house and
there'll be their battery on theside there.
I mean, it just makes sense,right, like who wants to lose
(01:13:19):
power.
Yeah, like who wants that.
You know you can't go to work,or if you work from home, you
can't work.
You can't go on the internet,you can't access.
You know yep online, which mostof our lives are online these
days.
Speaker 4 (01:13:34):
so well, certainly
there is a huge component of
individuals who are all workingfrom home now, and this is one
way to ensure that they cancontinue to work from home, by
making sure that they have aconstant source of energy that
can be, you know, dependent onWell, nobody wants to be that
guy that's like wants to workfrom home.
Speaker 5 (01:13:54):
but then your power
goes out all the time and then
you know your boss is justrolling his eyes.
Speaker 4 (01:13:58):
Yes, exactly.
Yeah, all right, chris.
Well, I think you've been veryinformative and I appreciate all
the information.
So, essentially, what you'relooking up for a solar panel
system is determine the size ofnecessary for the facility that
you want to comply with set up.
And then you're looking atpanels, hardware to install it,
(01:14:21):
the converter systems and thestorage system to put it into
your house and all thecompliance necessary, whether
it's contributing back to thegrid or if it's a rural off-grid
situation.
Have I got that pretty muchcorrect?
Speaker 5 (01:14:35):
Absolutely.
Speaker 4 (01:14:36):
Good, all right.
So, chris, how can people getin touch with you to find out
more details or find out aboutthe programs and the options
that your company provides forpeople out there?
Speaker 5 (01:14:47):
Yeah, so our team can
help anybody who's interested
in finding out what rebates orincentives are available locally
where they live, because it isdifferent from one province to
the next or even from one cityto the next sometimes.
So you can go over to Zollercaand it's X-O-L-L-A-R dot C-A and
(01:15:08):
our team.
You'll just fill out the formthere asking for a quote and
then our team will get in touchwith you and kind of review your
situation and see, you know,are you living off grid?
Are you grid tied, you know?
Are you living in a smallbungalow or are you in a mansion
?
Like, are you running, you know?
Are you mining crypto in there?
Like, are you running, you know, are you mining crypto in there
(01:15:29):
and you need a ton of energy?
Or are you kind of?
You know, an older couple thatdoesn't use too much power and
they're prepared to help withall of those types of questions
and figure out the right systemfor you.
And then, ultimately, we managethe whole project from start to
finish white glove service andthen we install it for you and
(01:15:50):
set you up and running withsolar energy.
Speaker 4 (01:15:52):
Very good, and this
is all across Canada, right.
Speaker 5 (01:15:55):
Absolutely Aside from
Quebec.
Speaker 4 (01:15:56):
Okay, so everywhere
in Canada except Quebec.
Speaker 5 (01:15:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:15:59):
Very good sir.
Well, Chris, thank you verymuch for taking the time.
I think it's been veryinformative and I think a lot of
our listeners will be veryhappy that we've been able to
provide some more answers to thequestions that we got asked,
and that case was about beingoff grid and solar and things
along those lines.
So thanks very much, Chris.
Speaker 5 (01:16:18):
Absolutely.
Another thing we'll have totalk next time about is the RV
systems.
Those are popular too at thecampers.
Speaker 4 (01:16:24):
Oh, okay, all right
Sounds good, chris Yep.
Speaker 5 (01:16:28):
Thanks for having me.
Okay.
Bye, right, sounds good, chrisYep.
Thanks for having me.
Okay, bye for now.
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