Middle Earth Solar

The Muskrat Ranch Overhaul

In the early 1970’s Margie Jamieson and her late partner Art Twomey broke ground in Ta Ta Creek BC to build their off grid lifestyle. At the time solar electricity was an emerging technology, expensive and not readily available. They installed three 90 watt modules and ran everything direct DC for nearly 30 years. Margie is truly a solar guru, in 2010 she hire Middle Earth Solar to re-vamp the system with new Solar Electricity and Solar Hot Water. The old system was tested and because the old (40 year old) 90 watt Solar modules were still producing 70% of their rated power, we cleaned up the terminals and re-installed the system in her small guest cabin. The main system incorporates six Suntech 270 watt poly crystal modules, mounted on one of Middle Earth Solar’s hot dipped galvanized Orbit 6 top of pole mount racks. The solar hot water was mounted right beside the solar electric array for the best sun exposure. All pipes and electrical wiring were run underground. The electric system produces 1.6KW in full sun. Inside the Muskrat Ranch power shed an Outback FM80 controls the Surrette L16 batteries charge while an Outback VFX3524 inverter mounted on an e-panel completes the system. The Outback inverter is capable of 4.8KW and Margie easily powers, her lighting, computing, washing machine, and water pumping needs. While we were finishing the system Margie commented that it would be the last she ever buys!

BC Parks Wonderland Cook Shelter

Middle Earth Solar was requisitioned to add an electric lighting system to the Wonderland Cook Shelter in Mount Assiniboine Provincial Park BC. The building had a small existing solar system used for powering a water treatment plant. The goal was to add a simple LED lighting system to the building in efforts to move away from historical propane lights. Designing a system that provided the largest number of lumens of light while using the least amount of energy was a challenge. Occupancy sensing lighting controls were considered but the amount of electricity used in the sensing equipment was going to be double that used by the new state of the art LED lights. Middle Earth Solar designed the next best thing. We matched equipment and upgraded the solar panels to nearly 200watts. We then programmed a Morningstar Sunsaver MPPT charge controller to allow electricity for lighting 1 hour before dark until 1 hour after sunrise. This controls the lights from being used during the day. The two LED 12 volt lighting circuits inside the building are then controlled by their own 4-hour timer switches. This helps prevent the lights from being left on once everyone has headed off to bed. Although this system is still somewhat experimental we were amazed by how much light the new LED’s put out.

Water From The Sky

As the world’s climate changes more and more people are having their old faithful drilled wells run dry. Water is quickly becoming a commodity worldwide. Middle Earth Solar designs and installs rainwater catchment and purification systems. We use plastic cisterns buried in the ground plumbed with filtered rainwater inlets, inlets for low producing wells and re-pressurized outlets to feed domestic water systems. These systems can be automated to run based on demand, availability, and equipment protection. You will notice a number of cisterns can be plumbed in series and controlled equally to provide mass water storage banks underground. We generally use 1100 imperial gallon underground plastic cisterns as this model is the most economical per gallon and easily transported and handled. Rainwater harvesting has been the norm for many arid areas in jurisdictions all over the Southern US. With North American ground water reservoirs slowly depleting, many people have recognize drilling a $50,000 hole in the ground to access water is not a good investment!

Middle Earth Solar Demonstration Facility

At Middle Earth Solar we use the equipment we sell. Our Demonstration Facility is powered by nearly 3KW’s of solar electricity through SolarWorld Panels, which feed our battery bank of 16, L16 400amp hour batteries. The Outback FM60 charge controller manages the power going in, while the dual stacked OutbackVFX3648 inverter base gives us up to 10KW going out. The system is backed by an Isuzu Diesel generator, which is rarely used from Nov 1st to Jan 28th. The remainder of the year our power needs are met by about noon each day. We run our entire office, 3 computers, our shipping and receiving department as well as our assembly and manufacturing facility, drill presses, a wire feed welding machine, grinders, and the whole gamut of shop tools. Our water is pumped from tanks for domestic and irrigation use. We distribute 240VAC between our buildings. Although we have enough electricity to do all this, we conserve whenever possible making sure our batteries have sufficient energy for the next task.

Sentry Lodge Micro Hydro

In the fall of 2009, pre ski season, Golden Alpine Holidays Sentry lodge burned to the ground. Owner John Bell wasted no time planning for a rebuild. He wanted the project North of Golden BC to be built by local contractors and trades people. The new Sentry Lodge was a complete rethink of the backcountry living experience. To quote John, “the goal is to build a lodge that is elegantly simple”. This concept steered the entire project from design and construction to planning of the new energy system. The old Sentry Lodge used a small Micro Hydro turbine to generate electricity that charged batteries under the lodge in the crawlspace. When the lodge burned the control transformer and inverter base were destroyed. Because the original turbine from Australia was no longer in production, Middle Earth Solar designed a new turbine energy system using current Canadian technology. The new power plant is a high voltage Stream Engine manufactured by Energy Systems and Design of New Brunswick. This Stream Engine produces between 350-550watts at 300volts 3 phase AC. This high voltage helps overcome some of the line losses over the 340m between the turbine shack and the lodge. Many variables were taken into account when designing the new system. A formal Micro Hydro potential survey had never been done for the site so this was where we started! The old Turbine shack had some difficulties. It was exposed to avalanche and from time to time would have its roof ripped off. We moved the turbine shack about 60 feet onto a less exposed terrain feature with big trees. We then constructed an avalanche diversion wall to divert snow and air blasts away from the turbine. The intake screen and much of the existing penstock plumbing were updated and repaired. Inside the lodge Middle Earth Solar was given the opportunity to consult with the general building team in the sustainable design of the lodge systems. The power centre located in the basement receives the high voltage electricity from the turbine. Here it is stepped down to 48volts DC to charge the batteries. A load diversion controller manages the batteries charge and diverts extra electricity to an air heater once the batteries are fully charged. The inverter power centre is based around an Outback VFX3548 inverter integrated with a system mate. The mate has been programmed to automatically turn on a battery box ventilator fan and ventilate the hydrogen battery gasses outside the building when the system is charging. A production meter and trimetric meter were added to the system to give the hut custodian the capability of monitoring power in, power out as well as the general state of the system. While the snow is pilling up outside Middle Earth Solar feels confident the new Sentry lodge will be well powered for the future.