Highlands Remote Farm

Overview

Our client, Kate Elliot and her husband Robert have lived together off-grid in the Scottish Highlands for over 25 years. Robert was born on the remote farm in which they live and had used off-grid power for several years. With the nearest village and amenities just over 10miles away in each direction, it is vital for the farm to have ongoing, undisturbed power 24/7. The generator they had was still in working order, however the batteries they used to charge for their power were taking around 2-3 hours to recharge at night.

Situation

The client lives in an incredibly remote location in the Scottish Highlands and relies on their off-grid power system to provide electricity to their farm. Their old generator and batteries were still in working order however, they were taking 2-3 hours to recharge at night. As such, they decided it was time to upgrade their system in order for them to benefit from new efficient technologies that would not only prove to be even more reliable and environmentally friendly, but also help save them money.

Their options were to either remain off-grid but to find a new modern solution that would be easier to manage and much more powerful, or to make the move on to the National Grid. However, moving to the National Grid would require numerous power pylons and a rather large investment of around £30-40k, not to mention a great deal of upheaval.

Having come across an advert in a farmer’s magazine for Powerguard, they decided to engage with us to assess their needs and come up with a solution. They obtained details from us about our solutions and as advocates of off-grid and renewable power, they opted for a new off-grid generator, dry batteries and wind turbine.

Solution

The ideal solution would provide the client with electricity 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It would not only power the house, but the also the farm. Due to the location of the property, it would be ideal to have a solution that is easy to manage, reliable and efficient.

Having assessed their needs, it was clear they needed a new generator and batteries along with a renewable energy source to create a system that would provide power no matter the weather. The wind turbine ensured optimum efficiency and would help keep their costs to a minimum. Further to this, it was important that the solution we implemented would need little to no input from the client to work.

Process

From the client seeing the advert and engaging with Powerguard, through to us visiting them to assess our needs, designing a solution and implementing it, the entire process took just a few short weeks.

As Kate Elliot explains, “We have a very unique and brilliant system that runs all the household. We’ve had little to no problems, apart from when the windmill was hit by lightning 4 years ago at which point it was decided to put in a new battery, a wet battery which would hold the charge. We had the windmill replaced and now it’;s up and running again with a new control system on it, it’s better than ever. Now just half an hour of wind gives us enough power to charge the batteries within the generator. If anything goes wrong with the PS system you can switch it off and we still have the generator, so we’re never without power.

We’re incredibly happy and confident in the system Powerguard have developed as we know they’re constantly fine tuning their system and providing us with even more benefits including minimising the amount of diesel the system needs to work.

Result

Our experienced team successfully installed the new power system with no problems or downtime. The solution requires very little maintenance and is updated with the latest technology as and when required to ensure it remains up to date and works as well as it possibly can.

Kate Elliott comments, “The system Powerguard have installed is tremendous for now and the future. They’ve been brilliant. They’re always incredibly helpful and talk us through different system updates. We’re in complete control of our power. What’s more, with the windmill, we rarely have to use the generator, so it’s cheaper than ever to run. The next step will be to add solar panels.

The new power system starts the generator up on its own and when the cycle is finished, it switches the generator off. It’s automatic and very efficient, saving the client a lot on fuel costs. In the case whereby the client requires more power, the system will recognise this and power up the generator to boost the batteries. It’s incredibly intuitive and able to rectify itself to ensure it provides consistent, reliable power. What’s more, they’re not affected by any national or local power outages, they get power 24/7.