Frequently Asked Questions

 Microgreen stands out as your premier choice for several reasons:

1. Proven Track Record:  With over 10 years of experience in the Solar + Storage industry and a vast customer base of over 3,000 satisfied clients, Microgreen has established itself as a trusted leader.
2. Easy Integration: Our products are designed to be “plug and play” - simple to connect and install, and the integrated functionality of our systems lowers the overall costs, to achieve a rapid payback period of less than 3 years in most scenarios.
3. Expert Guidance:  Our team of experts is dedicated to helping you find the perfect system tailored to your specific needs. Microgreen provides service and support for all of our products in Richmond Hill, Ontario.
4. Cutting-Edge Technology: Microgreen products utilize the latest technology. We make new innovations and release new products annually. Partnering with renowned battery supplier CATL further solidifies our commitment to delivering top-quality products.

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In a nutshell, use the Power Pak to provide green power, save on hydro bills, and eliminate the cost/noise of a back-up diesel generator.

The Power Pak is a free standing, complete Off Grid system. It draws power from the sunlight and makes your cottage environmentally friendly. It is a practical DIY product for the handy cottager. Microgreen can also install the system if required.

When you have an Off Grid system, you will still need a back-up power source in case you do not have enough sunlight energy to keep your batteries topped up. Back-up generators are expensive to purchase, run on diesel fuel which adds more costs, and make noise in your home. So instead, you can use your grid connection as your back up power via the Power Pak. In this way, you have a minimum monthly bill from hydro, unless you use some of the grid to charge your batteries.

When you are using the Power Pak as the primary power source, you should wire the power Pak directly into your electrical panel to provide power to all of your appliances etc. If you configure your system with enough batteries and solar panels, the off-grid power system should get you 6-8 months without the use of a backup source. During the winter months, you will need the grid power as a backup source.

We have two sizes of Power Paks that will take care of most cottages. If you fill out our load evaluation spreadsheet, we can determine your power needs and recommend the most sensible model for you. Based on the amount of your expected loads and how much time you will be at the cottage, we will estimate the battery capacity and quantity of solar panels required.

In a nutshell, save on cost, maintenance time, and smell!

From a cost perspective, you have the initial purchase cost of the generator. Then you must continually to buy diesel fuel. The Power Pak has a one-time purchase cost, zero maintenance and zero monthly cost once installed. If you compare it to the recurring fuel expense and operating costs of a diesel generator, the Power Pak can pay for itself in 3 years in most circumstances. In addition, you get rid of the noise annoyance, smell of diesel fuel and maintenance headaches.

The Power Pak is a unique innovation, self-contained, practical DIY product, and it comes ESA certified. It can be installed int your cottage in a day. All you need to install in addition are solar panels and batteries. Then, just wire them to the Power Pak and you are done. The Power Pak will handle up to 3x its wattage in motor start scenarios, like a deep well pump.

There are two common scenarios.

Scenario 1: If hydro power is available and reliability is not an issue for you, you can power your cottage from the grid. If the grid is unstable and you have concerns about power outages, then a Backup Pak to cope with occasional power outages will take care of your power needs.

Scenario 2: Usually the cost to bring hydro power to your cottage ranges from $5,000 to $ 100,000. In these scenarios, an off-grid power system for a small to medium sized cottage would give you the best return for your investment. A 4 kW Power Pak is the obvious choice. It would cost from $ 4,000.00 to $10,000. Plus you will avoid paying quarterly hydro bills.

The 4 kW system is compact. It can be installed by one person alone. The installation is as simple as making 4 wire connections. Just add Panels and Batteries. Then you get the power for your new cottage. The Power Pak comes with a 2-year warranty. We will ship you a replacement unit while we make repairs to your Power Pak in the rare chance that it needs servicing.

Our Backup Pak is engineered to cope with power outages. This Backup Pak operates like an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS). You simply take some crucial circuits out of your electrical panel and wire them directly into the Backup Pak.

Examples of crucial circuits are the fridge, freezer, furnace fan, water pump or sump pump, and some lighting and Wi-Fi systems. These selected circuits are automatically operating through the Backup Pak when the grid goes down. The Backup Pak has capability to switch to the battery power mode to operate these loads.

When the grid power is restored, the Backup Pak returns to its normal standby mode and starts charging the batteries, to be ready to cope with the next outage. The Backup Pak is a DIY system and home owners can install it themselves. If the outage of grid is a concern for you, the Backup Pak is a right solution.

As a rule of thumb, if your top considerations are light weight, compact size, environmental factors (carbon emissions, chemical spillages), long operating life time, the lithium batteries are your right choice.

Lithium batteries are 1/4 the weight of your typical AGMs, 1/3 the size of your typical AGMs. They have 3 to 5 times the cycles of usage (charge up and then use the battery energy completely). For typical usage pattern in cottage environments, this means they should last up to 25 years.

The initial cost to purchase lithium batteries is higher, but their return on the purchase price is greater than the AGM batteries. Lithium batteries are about twice the price of AGMs. If we normalize the cost of battery cost by the amount of usage cycles, lithium batteries actually cost much less in the long run.

You will have to replace the AGMs at least once before you would need to replace the Lithium. If your primary considerations are the initial purchase cost, you expect to use the batteries very little, and the bulky and heavy feature of AGMs do not bother you, then AGM would be the right choicefor you.

Lithium batteries offer the capability of monitoring and control over your usage of the batteries. This is not possible with AGMs. Lithium batteries have a battery management system to help balance the cells and control the amount of charge and discharge currents. With the trend of IoT applications for smart home environments, lithium batteries can be made into part of your smart home to allow you to monitor and control the usage of lithium batteries from remote locations via your cell phones or computers.

The MINI Power Pak is intended for up to 3 kW of electrical loads. Typical applications are tiny homes, RVs and cabins.

The COMPACT Power Pak can power 4 kW of electrical load. This intermediate model is suitable for small and medium sized cottages.

The GRANDE Power Pakwill deliver 10 kW of power. This unit is designed for homes and workshops.

Although the amount of time to connect the Power Pak is less than a day, here is a typical weekend scenario.

Our customer picks up the Power Pak, solar panels and batteries on Friday. Then drives to the cottage. On the Saturday morning, mounts the Power Pak, installs the solar panels and wires them to the Power Pak. Then sets up the batteries on the ground, connects the ground wire to the electrical panel, connects the battery cables and turns on the unit. The customer can now power their cottage from two receptacles on the underside of the unit. The off-grid system is complete and operational. So our customer typically starts using the off-grid power from a solar source on Sunday.

Microgreen’s business practice is to maintain stock of all products in our warehouse. All of our products are available for immediate pick up or delivery.

We replenish the stock at our warehouse each month. So in the rare chance that are out of stock on a specific item, the maximum waiting time is a month.

Microgreen Products:

We offer a 2-year warranty for Power Pak, Energy Pak and Backup Pak. 

Our Partners:

We always use reputable brands of solar panels; these panels have a 25 year product warranty and a 6-year mechanical warranty.

You only need a drill, wrenches and some screws to install the Power Pak. Depending on where you plan to install the solar panels, you may need other materials.

All the battery and MC4 cables are included in the system kits.

On average, the Power Pak and batteries will be installed within a couple of hours. At this point you will have power via the two receptacles on the Power Pak.

Depending on how and where you plan to install the solar panels, the time will vary based upon the type of mounts you use.

You can mount panels on the roof or on a ground mount frame. Each one has its required steps and the ground mount frame will take longer.

Verify each stage of the installation before you move to the next step. Check the voltage and polarity of each connection at each step . The installation manual guides you through these steps.

1. Read the installation manual completely before installing the system.
2. View the installation video on our website, before you start.
3. You must have an electrical multi-meter when installing a system. Measure the voltage and polarity at each step of the process. The installation manual gives all details.

Improper wiring up of the system is the most easily encountered mistake. We have eliminated this problem by supplying a completely tested and ESA certified product. An important practice is to verify the polarity as you wire the solar panels and batteries.

Failing to make sure the solar panels are installed correctly is another common mistake. The manufacturer of the mounting rails gives you guidelines on how to install the solar panels and they must be followed precisely.

• Check that the connections are all tight.
• Check the polarity of each connection.
• Call Microgreen to discuss with our service technicians.
• Take a photo of your installation, to show us how the system was installed.
• Finally, come in and visit us, to discuss it in person

Roofs should be facing south because the sun rises from the east and sets in the west. The sun angle changes from above our heads to down below the horizon in the winter time, so south facing is the optimum.

We have learned from experience that anything up to 45 degrees east of south or west of south will get 100% of the possible revenue or return from your solar panels. We have also seen the panels on the west side of a roof receive 95-96 % of the same amount of power or revenue when they are south facing.

For some reasons the sunlight hangs in the afternoon, favouring the west orientation - we don’t know why, but the east orientation doesn’t do as well as the west orientation. Panel positioning is fairly crucial, but if you are not perfectly south, you will still get close to optimal performance.

Lithium ion batteries offer a longer lifespan and despite their higher initial cost, they have a lower cost per charge/discharge cycle compared to AGM. Lithium batteries are also significantly lighter and smaller for the same amount of energy in terms of KWH.

The most important factors are cash flow, weight and environmental factors. AGM will cost less for the initial purchase of the batteries, but the batteries will need to be replaced much more often, and in the long term lithium batteries are less expensive. AGM batteries are much heavier than lithium ion for the same amount of energy, so if weight is important in your application then it is better to use lithium ion. AGM contains lead, while lithium ion contains no heavy metals and is better for environmentally sensitive.

There are different types of lithium ion batteries, each with different safety characteristics. Microgreen offers lithium iron phosphate batteries (known as LFP), which are generally considered to be the safest type. These are different from the type of lithium ion batteries used in the phones and laptops that have received a lot of media attention for catching fire. For large power requirements, it is important to use battery management system (known as BMS) to accomplish operational safety.

Lithium ion batteries can be used with or without solar. Solar allows the batteries to be recharged by the sun, without the need for plugging them into an outlet to charge. To use batteries without solar, they will need to be charged by another source, usually an electrical outlet in the wall.

No.

Microgreen’s knowledgeable sales staff will help you choose the right battery and answer any questions you have. We need to know several key parameters: desired energy capacity in terms of KWH, operating voltage, your expected maximum current consumption. We can provide some guidance for you to set these key parameters.

Call us 1-888-684-8868 or drop by our store.

Microgreen has a strong network of suppliers and is able to offer very competitive prices. Our sales team will work with you to choose the right battery size for your application, ensuring that you don’t pay more than you really need to.

We offer 2 years of warranty on our battery products.

We have demo units of battery modules and fully completed systems in our display room. Most of our customers visit our display room to visualize and test these products before buying.

Several key parameters are important. We like to know your requirements for the energy capacity in kWh and your operating voltage. Another critical parameter is the maximum current that your loads would be consuming. These factors will allow us to estimate the configuration of your required battery system and the expected cost. If you don’t have this information, our sales team can help you estimate based on what types of electrical appliances or other loads you want the battery to power.

The operational life time of lithium battery is measured in terms of charge-discharge cycles. Our systems have an operational life time of 3000-5000 cycles. If your application consumes one full cycle in a day, the expected duration will roughly be 10-15 years.

We offer warranty of 2 years for battery cells. We do service work for warranty in our service shop located in Richmond Hill, Ontario.

Microgreen respects the privacy of its customers and does not have access to customer data through the remote monitoring feature.

Many municipalities accept dead batteries at their waste facilities. If your local municipality does not offer this service, please contact Microgreen (1-888-684-8868) for information on how to safely dispose of your battery.

A few tips for you to keep in mind when you use lithium battery systems. Do not allow your battery to be completely emptied, that is, you should take care to charge up the battery whenever the capacity falls to 15%. Do not get your battery into over-charging or over-discharging situations. Do not get your battery in an environment that is over 40 degree centigrade. Extreme cold weather conditions are not suitable for charging up the lithium battery.

Microgreen offers an IoT solution. It allows your cell phone to view the operating conditions of your lithium battery.

Lithium ion batteries require certain types of protection to ensure safety and to optimize their performance. This is done through the BMS. The BMS monitors the temperature, voltage and current, and uses this information to take action to prevent the battery from being damaged or creating a safety hazard.

Yes. For questions and enquiries, you can  reach us via:

By Phone:

• Customer Support Hotline: +1 (647) 699-0420​

By Email:

• Customer service: cs@microgreen.ca
• General enquiries: sales@microgreen.ca

Submit Ticket:

You can also submit a ticket via contact us page. Our customer service representative will get back to you soon. 

Yes, we have a physical location conveniently located at:

860 Denison St Unit 10, Markham, ON L3R 4H1 (get direction)

You can schedule an appointment to meet with one of our representatives and discuss your solar needs in person. Please contact us to schedule a meeting at your convenience.