Solar Panels & Battery Backup in Alexandria, Apple Hill & Maxville

Solar and battery backup for North Glengarry — designed and installed personally by an ESA-licensed Master Electrician.

North Glengarry and the Apple Hill corner of North Stormont are the most rural part of the counties we serve. Alexandria is the main town, with older homes in the village core, Maxville is known for the Highland Games grounds and Apple Hill sits in the middle of open farmland. Between them it's mostly farms, woodlots and homes on large lots.

Out here the questions homeowners ask us are practical: will it keep the water running in an outage, will it work with an older house, and is it worth it on a farm? Those are good questions, and the honest answers depend on the property.

This page walks through how the rebate applies to North Glengarry homes, why backup power is often the main reason people call, and what we look for when we visit.

Your utility and the rebate: Hydro One

Most homes in Alexandria, Apple Hill and Maxville are served by Hydro One. That matters, because Hydro One customers can use the Ontario Home Renovation Savings Program (HRSP): up to $5,000 toward solar, and up to $5,000 toward a battery installed together with new solar.

The trade-off is real and worth understanding before you decide: a system that uses the rebate can't be net metered. Instead of sending surplus power to the grid for bill credits, the system is set up for load displacement — your solar and battery power the house first, and you buy less from Hydro One. With a battery, daytime surplus is stored and used in the evening rather than exported.

For many homeowners the rebate is the better deal, especially when backup power is part of the goal. For others with large daytime surpluses, net metering without the rebate can make more sense. We run both scenarios with your actual Hydro One usage data and show you the numbers side by side, so you can choose with the full picture.

Backup power for North Glengarry

North Glengarry sits at the end of long rural feeders. When ice builds on lines or a summer storm rolls through the woodlots, outages here can last well beyond a day while crews work their way out from the towns. Older residents still talk about the 1998 ice storm, when parts of the township were without power for weeks.

Most properties outside Alexandria's village core are on wells and septic. No power means no water pressure, and in a long winter outage it can mean frozen pipes if the furnace can't run. Farms add more at stake: water for animals, milk cooling, freezers and heat lamps.

Standby generators are common here, and they're a reasonable choice for very large loads. For a typical home, a battery has real advantages: it switches over automatically in a fraction of a second, makes no noise, burns no fuel and needs no annual engine service. With solar, it can recharge every sunny day instead of running down. Some owners keep their existing generator as a last-resort backup and let the battery handle everyday outages — we can design for that too.

Why a Master Electrician

Older Alexandria homes often have panels and wiring that need attention before anything new is added — sometimes a panel upgrade, sometimes a new grounding system. We catch those things at the site visit and include them in a clear quote, rather than discovering them halfway through the install.

True Beacon Solar is owner-operated. The owner is a Master Electrician licensed in Ontario and personally does the installs, so the person who designs your system is the person on your roof and in your electrical panel.

We work under ESA Licensed Electrical Contractor #7016796. Every system gets the permits and Electrical Safety Authority inspection it needs, and we handle that paperwork for you.

Built by our in-house crew — the same four-person team on every install, led on site by Master Electrician Nicholas Piche. You have one point of accountability from the first site visit to the day the system is switched on, and after that if you ever need service.

Frequently asked questions

Can I get the solar rebate in Alexandria or Maxville?

Yes, if you're a Hydro One customer, which almost every home here is. The HRSP offers up to $5,000 for solar and up to $5,000 for a battery installed with new solar. Systems using the rebate can't be net metered.

Will a battery keep my furnace and well running?

With the right sizing, yes. We back up the well pump, furnace blower, fridge, freezer, lights and internet first, then add other circuits if the system allows.

My house is over 100 years old. Can it still take solar?

Usually. The bigger questions are roof condition and the electrical panel. If the roof isn't suitable, a ground-mount array in the yard is often the better choice.

How long does the whole process take?

From signed quote to switch-on usually takes several weeks, mainly for permits, ESA inspection and Hydro One paperwork. The on-site work itself is typically a few days.

Do you install ground-mount solar on farms?

Yes. Ground arrays are common on North Glengarry acreage. We design the racking, trenching and connection to your service.

Does snow stop the panels from working?

Snow covers panels temporarily, but they shed it as it melts, and ground-mounts at a steeper angle clear faster. Winter output is lower; most production happens spring through fall.