John's 8.1 kW solar installation in Greely, Ontario

0:00well my name is John and I'm uh retired from the Canadian Forces for 25 years I retired as a master warrant officer I

0:08have four children seven grandchildren I'm retired now I I worked for the federal government as well for a

0:17few years after I retired from the military and I like the thought of uh the solar saving money and plus with the grants that the government had

0:26uh offered it made it sound worthwhile and uh so far I've seen a real cut in my

0:34energy bill and I'm not worried if uh the power goes out in the city whether it's during the day or at night I have a

0:42generator to back it up as well just the reliability and know that I have it is good enough for us so on the

0:50recommendation from the government they had various contractors listed I actually picked them based on the name

0:58just seemed like a cool name for a company and uh they were on there Canadian company so I uh decided to go with that

1:06I'm not one to investigate numerous companies for numerous

1:13things I uh figured that if they were listed as recommended on the government site somebody's already done that for me

1:22and I didn't think there'd be much difference between each company so it wasn't a factor didn't get a good feel

1:29feeling that they were connected in Ottawa because they were headquartered so far away but they the got a hold of

1:39the contractors the installation went smooth and here we are my last bill was

1:47$34 compared to 200 so there was a significant drop in

1:55my electricity bill I have an app on the phone and it shows me uh you know from 6:00 in the morning till 6:00 at night

2:03and it's an usually a a nice Parabola I think you call it I think I got the same amount of energy in the winter as I do

2:11in the summer well I I did get the $5,000 rebate that was offered uh so cut

2:19our cost down by five grand which was an also a nice benefit so those two things

2:26were a big factor and I I'm surprised others aren't uh doing it more hey I don't worry about the electricity I

2:35don't worry about my sump pump or my FR refrigerator or the heat you know I can

2:44just feel confident that I'm not going to lose that while I'm away and solar is uh the way to go I mean we're we're

2:53always looking for another energy source be It Solar or ionized water or or

3:01whatever they're coming up with for the next battery um but I think it's healthier to

3:07not have to rely on uh pulling minerals out of the ground for us to consume and

3:14and who knows harm the environment yeah it's cool it's uh it just kind of reaffirms that to me that it's

3:23working and when I get my electricity bill that that reaffirms to me that yeah it's working so that's cool it's nice to

3:31see that I'm you know I'm not depending so much on uh the grid maybe they're going to ease up and they won't need as

3:40much water or wherever they get their electricity from so you know in the long run hopefully it's good for all of us