As a small business competing in a global marketplace it was obvious we had to leverage the technology that is already proven and available to us. We couldn’t afford to reinvent the wheel or rely on a large markup on our product pricing to cover development costs.

As tempting as it is to add the bells and whistle; wireless this and that, smart home, AI, etc, etc, how about we focus on a quality product. Simple to build, to operate, to maintain while keeping cost down.

How do we know we have a successful product? Because we are using it everyday and we know it works.

We have all heard the saying “if you can make it in New York (City) you can make it anywhere.” Well, for living off-grid with solar the same applies for Vermont! Vermont ranks 48th out of 50 for amount of sunlight per year in the United States. The only states with less sunlight are are the coastal states of Maine and Washington. If our products work for a family of 5 living off-grid in Vermont, there is a good chance they will work for you.

It may be naïve, but we believe in straight forward information instead of carefully picked marketing bullets. We consider it a success if we have helped someone figure out our product is not for them. That may seem strange, but we realize we are serving a niche community. The last thing we want is to sell a product to someone with a lifestyle it cannot support.

Since most of us have had unpleasant experiences with large companies, we want to learn from their mistakes and provide a product from a company that stands behind it, without conditions.

We experienced a situation where a product from a leading off-grid battery charger company, was destroyed because a circuit breaker was turned off while the charger was running. This left us without power for 10 days until it could be repaired and no acknowledgement of responsibility or apologies were ever given. Common sense, it turns out, isn’t so common.

We believe if it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well. We know there are no shortcuts to a quality product. With a small team and even smaller budget it can be tempting to cut corners. When we are faced with such a decision we realize the correct choice is to decrease our scope and double down on quality for what we can do. It is about knowing your limitations.

While living off-grid it seemed to make sense to focus on a product that serves that same environment. The hard truth is, that community is too small to allow the company to be financially sustainable. This means a shift in priorities. Luckily the products we provide have a great deal of overlap between the off-grid and on-grid communities.

Our initial goal will be to focus on a product lineup that serves anyone looking to use solar power while maintaining the typical setup with grid connected electricity.

Off-grid has a unique and challenging set of circumstances by having a limited source of power. Of course this situation is important to us as we are living in it. Immediately following the deployment of our on-grid product lineup will be the introduction of our products serving the off-grid community.

Lastly, we look to the future imagining where we will be. The products we have are serving a need, but remain tied to an industrialized nation with a strong infrastructure. We know our products are focused on providing heat and hot water for someone with solar panels, but we also know the same products can be modified to also provide clean drinking water. With our foundation solid and products established it is time to link them to the nonprofit sector to reach people who cannot afford our products.