Randy’s Review

I am 68 years old, retired, and possess some basic acquired electrical skills from past experience and online research. For my retirement years, I bought 40 acres of wooded property in a very rural area of East Central Missouri. I’m building a cabin on this property so I need electric power. Grid power was available but at a distance away that would have cost $20,000+ just to get the line to my cabin and then monthly bills. I chose to go with a solar electric system which I could purchase for about the same cost (after tax credit). I was extremely fortunate to find Backwoods Solar (BWS) on the internet. They intrigued me because they specialized in off-grid systems, each employee had a working solar electric system in their own home, and they offered complete tech support for the DIY person wanting to build his own system like me. This is truly what I needed to meet the personal challenge of building my own solar power system.

My choice of BWS did not disappoint! The customer service and tech support was more than I had imagined and they were there to guide me through every step of constructing my system. I worked closely with Shawn who helped me size, design, and build my system. My system has sixteen 305 watt solar panels, 2 Midnite Classic 200 charge controllers, one MS4448 Magnum inverter, and 24 two volt sealed Discover batteries. I completed all of the wiring on my system using the equipment owner manuals and relying heavily upon BWS tech support. I routinely made phone calls over several months to Shawn who soon became my trusted point of contact, and he was either able to provide my answer or he would find the answer and get back to me. To help troubleshoot and confirm my wiring, I would often send photos to Shawn and then we would discuss by phone. With support from BWS, they made building this solar electric system possible with the set of skills I had.

Just recently I completed work on my system and it is now completely operational and supplying electricity to my cabin! Building this system is an accomplishment that I am very proud of, and it would not have been possible without the superior tech support provided by BWS – thanks especially to Shawn and also to Brian for his help in providing the finishing touches to make my system operational.