Solar panels on Gary MacIsaac’s roof supported all the household’s energy consumption last summer — and more!
(The following is a guest article from Dunbar resident Gary MacIsaac.)
By Gary MacIsaac
As homeowners in Dunbar for over 40 years, we live in one of the typical 1929 Dunbar stucco homes of the type we all too frequently see being demolished here. Over these years we’ve worked to repair, maintain and enhance the building systems in our home to make it function well for ourselves, and hopefully for future residents. The idea of investing in the enhancement of an old Dunbar house is sometimes questioned because the land value so significantly overwhelms the value of the building on the property.
However, people need to live somewhere and we don’t mind the smaller building space with some actual garden and natural yard around—there are health, biodiversity and community environment benefits in these features too.
In addition, we wanted to reduce the carbon footprint of our house, and us living in it, as much as possible to make up for past carbon debt—something that does not show up in a typical Return on Investment analysis:
All-Electric Household
We made two significant changes to our household systems: converting our furnace to an electric heat pump system, and changing our broken tankless hot water system to a 60-gallon electric heat pump water heater. As a result, we no longer required Fortis gas and so closed our Fortis gas account, making our house 100% electric in 2023.
Back in 2020 we had replaced our hybrid electric car with a battery electric vehicle (BEV) which transferred our vehicle energy use from gasoline to 100% electricity. We overnight charge the BEV using a Level 2 charger installed in our garage.
With our home now 100% electric and an all-electric car, there were obvious changes in our BC Hydro bill and kiloWatt hour (kWh) usage. It was not long after we eliminated our Fortis gas account that BC Hydro offered a time-of-day pricing plan, which we joined. When possible (e.g. timer-based running of appliances, overnight charging the EV, etc.), we worked to use the majority of our electricity during the low rate period between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m.
Details on the time-of-day option are available from BC Hydro here:
Last August, 70% of our electricity use occurred during the discount period where the energy cost is $0.05 less per kWh than during the normal off-peak periods from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. and 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. While time-of-day pricing helped, we were still drawing more power from the grid.
Moving to Solar PV
We viewed solar PV, which is on an astounding growth curve, as the last stage of our home energy transition. The cost of solar PV power continues to drop and has now become the most significant portion of global renewable energy expansion according to the International Energy Agency:
“In 2024, 80% of the growth in global electricity generation was provided by renewable sources and nuclear power. Together, they contributed 40% of total generation for the first time, with renewables alone supplying 32%. New renewables installations hit record levels for the 22nd consecutive year, with around 700 GW of total renewable capacity added in 2024, nearly 80% of which was solar PV.”
https://www.iea.org/reports/global-energy-review-2025/key-findings
BC Hydro provides a billing structure called “self-generation” to accommodate home solar PV power generation with surplus power being sent to the grid. Currently, this excess generation, called outflow, accumulates as a kWh credit on the Hydro account. Consumption from the grid, called inflow, is deducted from the kWh credit. This diagram (example from my August 2025 statement) shows the status of a self-generation account for the billing period. With the outflow shown, my new balance would be 1,949 kWh from which 486 kWh is subtracted.
August 2025 BC Hydro statement showing MacIsaac’s solar PV system sent more power to the grid than his household took from the grid.
Readers should be aware that the B.C. Utilities Commission recently completed hearings on a rate structure change proposed by BC Hydro. At the time of writing, the Commission had not made a final decision on the proposal and submissions provided by intervenors. So the self-generation process and cost structure may change.
[Author’s note: on March 24, 2026 the BCUC issued its decision and report on the BC Hydro proposal for changes to solar PV self-generation rate structures. That decision can be found here.]
The process of adding solar PV may involve several steps, depending on how you choose to finance the project. The federal government closed the Canada Greener Homes Loan Program last October, but BC Hydro offers a $5,000 rebate on new solar PV installations:
One key step is very helpful (and necessary) regardless of which retrofit rebates or loan programs are pursued. That step is having an Energy Adviser review the current energy profile and efficiency of your home and make upgrade recommendations. We used City Green (https://www.citygreen.ca/) to review our house for all of the government programs.
23 Panels Installed
Panels on south-facing roof. Each panel can generate up to 400 watts.
New standing seam metal roof provides mounting base for panels.
Each panel is connected to an optimizer device that manages DC power production.
In 2024, we moved ahead with a solar PV project that would install 23 panels on our south-facing and east/west facing roof. Each panel is capable of generating up to 400 watts for a total system of 9.2 kW. We chose Vancouver Renewable Energy (vrec.ca) to do an analysis of our site for solar energy production and ultimately do the installation.
Locating solar panels on the roof has implications regarding eventual roof replacement. If your roof needs significant repair or replacement, this would be the first step in pursuing a solar installation. Depending on the type of roof, if a roof replacement is needed, the entire solar panel array and mounting system would have to be removed and reinstalled.
In our case, we were very near the point where a roof replacement would be required. We chose to replace the asphalt/Fiberglass shingle system with a standing seam metal roof. By installing a standing seam metal roof, we accomplished two things:
1) the lifespan of a metal roof is significantly longer than asphalt singles—on the order of 50 years, and
2) the standing seam structure provides a mounting base for the solar PV rack support system that does not penetrate the roof surface.
This allows for easy attachment and detachment of the solar panels. It is generally much easier to install, maintain and adjust a solar panel system on a standing seam metal roof. It is also easier to clean the metal roof when required. We chose Rankin Skyline Services for our metal roof installation (https://www.rankinskyline.com/).
The key components of the installed solar PV system are:
- Each solar panel is 1.7m x 1.1m x 3cm thick and can produce 400 watts of DC power.
- Each panel is connected to an optimizer device which manages the DC power production on the panel.
- The optimizers are connected together to a single inverter device which converts the DC input power to AC.
- From the inverter a single cable runs to a 40 Amp breaker in the main house panel where the power is consumed with any excess flowing back out the service line through the smart meter and out onto the grid.
BC Hydro smart meter with the added information plates required by the City of Vancouver to indicate a solar energy generation system is attached to the house electrical panel.
DC to AC inverter that takes the energy generated by the solar panels and conditions it for use in the house via the main electrical panel.
The entire solar PV system is monitored using an app on a smartphone which shows, in real time, how much energy is being generated and provides historical data over chosen timelines.
Smartphone app shows how much energy is being generated in real time.
Historical data is also at your fingertips.
PV System Worked Well
We have been very pleased with the energy production of this solar PV system. Over the summer it supported all of our household energy consumption—including all home charging of the EV—and still produced a kWh credit by sending energy to the grid.
Through our grid contribution, the impact of our 100% electric house on the grid infrastructure has been reduced. We do increase our grid inflow significantly during the shorter and rainy days of winter. However, averaged over the year, our grid consumption has definitely been reduced.
At some point in the future, adding a storage battery system would allow for battery charging from the solar PV panels during the daytime and top-up the battery from the grid at low time-of-day rates so we could draw upon that battery power during peak periods to save money and further reduce the impact of grid consumption.
Broader application of roof-top solar PV and battery use could have a big impact on the sustainability and reliability of our grid through Virtual Power Plants.
https://www.bchydro.com/news/press_centre/news_releases/2025/virutal-power-plant.html
There are also new applications of solar PV for other parts of buildings that are coming online–one example is balcony solar. We just need policy and bylaws to catch up.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/climate/plug-in-balcony-solar-panels-1.7618883
There is substantial opportunity for solar PV generation in Vancouver to provide greater energy security and self-sufficiency. As solar panel technologies improve and system costs decline, there should be a positive future for this renewable energy source.
(This article appeared in two parts in the Fall 2025 and Spring 2026 editions of the Dunbar Residents’ Association Newsletter.)
Thank you, Carol, for a well presented article. Thank you, Gary, for presenting the information so clearly to someone such as myself who is completely ignorant of the whole concept, other than to know that I recognize the urgency for the need of the transition. I plan on taking your recommendations and information to the renovation of my mother’s home when the time comes. I am sure that this article will inspire many residents to consider solar PV and other steps to reduce their carbon output. Some of my family are in Germany. When a new roof is needed, solar must be installed. The system is highly efficient and effective. It is welcomed by home owners from both an environmental and economic point of view. Thank you again, Carol and Gary!
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