Two different problems that get talked about as one. Being off the grid entirely, and staying on when the grid goes down, need different equipment and different conversations.
People arrive here with one of two situations, and they need different things built.
The thing almost nobody knows before we tell them. A grid-tied solar array is required by law to shut itself down the instant the grid fails, so that it cannot feed power onto lines a crew is working on. Which means on a bright afternoon in an outage, with panels covering your roof, your house is exactly as dark as your neighbour’s. Solar alone is not back-up. A battery is what changes it.
Array, battery bank, inverter and automatic generator start, sized to carry the property through the worst month rather than the average one. December in Northern BC is the design case, and a system sized on annual averages will fail you in exactly the week you need it. More here.
A critical-loads panel that keeps the furnace, well pump, fridge, freezer, lights and internet running through an outage without anyone doing anything. If the battery runs low, a generator starts, tops it up and shuts down again. More here.
For sites and communities running their own generation — solar, battery, generator and controls working as one system rather than three that happen to be in the same building. More here.
The grid-tied version: solar on the roof, a battery behind it, and a house that stays up when the line does not. This is the most common thing we are asked for in town. More here.
Every one of these is a service-panel job. It involves a critical-loads subpanel, an automatic transfer arrangement, grounding and bonding that has to be right, and an inspection at the end. It is electrical work with solar attached, not solar work with some wiring attached, and that is the order we treat it in.
The same licensed crew designs it, wires it and signs it off. The full sequence is here.
Whether it is a property with no line to it, or a house that keeps losing power, the answer starts with what you actually need to keep running and for how long.
Nechako Solar is a licensed and bonded BC electrical contractor, Electrical Contractor Licence LEL0204111. Rebate amounts and rate details are set by BC Hydro, not by us, and are current as of August 2026.
