Racked, Stacked, and Buttercup does it Again!

So, after a loong period of silence, we are back. Funny, that's what we said last year at this time. Our apologies to those of you who wait with bated breath for these blogs. Harold. Yes, it's been a fun year. Thanks to pneumonia and kidney failure, I lost four months of my life I will never get back. That was 7 months ago, not sure what happened there, but here we are.

So why the title and what does it mean? Cuz we know you can hardly wait.

Racking. Pretty integral and important part of your install. Yes, folks, you do have to mount them to something. Livestock panels work (yes, we have seen it, and actually, it serves the purpose), but we have some different solutions.

Enter GMX and Elite racking by FastRack.

(And thanks to the folks who we poached the centre photo from, you did a great job putting them together.)

Another option for fixed mount solar panels, especially if you need them higher up, is the  FastRack TPM (top-of-pole mount) racking system. These are designed to attach to a 6" well casing. If you set them 6' in the ground, with concrete, you can get them 15' up in the air.

As cool as these are, however, we do not suggest stationary ground mounts for full-time off-grid use, as you will spend a good portion of your winter sweeping off your panels. (Do not remove snow by beating on panels from behind. Yes, we have seen that too. Didn't serve the purpose.)

For full-time off-grid, let's introduce the Burns Lake Solar special. We have designed our own seasonably adjustable racking system, as most everything out there was either terribly expensive or just plain useless. We have several racks in use, with no issues. The current design is yet again being developed further to improve it even more. They wouldn't win a beauty pageant but they are sturdy, use readily available materials to build, and don't require an engineering degree to assemble.

On to the stacked part. As some of you know we are long-time fans of the Rolls lead-acid batteries. We have thousands of pounds of red batteries out there in client off-grid systems. However, the demand for lithium and smaller footprint batteries is increasing, and Rolls has stepped up to the plate and added some stackable lithium batteries to their offerings. And of course they are red.

Per battery they are comparable to the Made in China Pytes brand. But aren't made in China. They are made in ... drum roll, please... CANADA! That's right, the high-quality, pretty red Rolls Batteries are made in Canada. Check out our website to see more info!

They do require that you purchase a base and top kit, but after that you don't need a bunch of extra hardware and cables for connections.

After all that technical stuff, we will finish off with the exciting news you have all been wondering about and waiting for. Buttercup. And what has she done again. Well, Buttercup is our Highland-Angus-Jersey mama, and she had another bull calf. Yay for steak!! Right now he is too cute to eat, but one day... She does it right, too. One minute she is happily munching, and an hour later she has a mostly dry beautiful calf.

Stay tuned for future updates on packaged systems and more product coming to our website soon. And chicken chicks and turkey poults.