When one of our return clients in Shelburne began exploring solar and battery storage for his home, his top priority wasn’t his electric bill. It was reliability. Like many Vermonters, he remembered the ice storms that have knocked out power across the region for days at a time. While recent outages had been much shorter, the question remained: What would happen if the power went out during the coldest part of winter or a heavy rain and windstorm in the summer?
That question became the foundation for a complete solar and battery system: one designed to generate clean energy and keep his home running when the grid can’t.
A Turn-Key Solar and Battery Installation
Like many clients say, he wanted one contractor handling the entire project. Building Energy designed the system, supplied and installed the solar and battery equipment, managed utility interconnection, and handled the Certificate of Public Good (CPG) application from design through commissioning.
During design, our team found that the roof could support more solar production than his current usage required. Rather than size the system to today’s needs, we built in room for what comes next, whether that’s an EV, a heat pump, or another future electrical load. The final design includes fourteen high-efficiency solar panels positioned for maximum production based on the site’s conditions. Actual output will vary year to year with weather, as it does for any solar array.
Building Energy’s First Franklin aPower S Installation
This Client is the first Building Energy customer to install a Franklin aPower S, FranklinWH’s new DC-coupled battery with a built-in hybrid inverter.
Most battery systems pair with a separate solar inverter. The aPower S connects directly to the solar arrays DC output, so it skips that extra conversion step. That means less equipment on the wall, fewer installation steps, and less to maintain over the life of the system.
Our client’s priority list for an outage was heat, refrigeration, lighting, and the well pump. The aPower S stores solar energy for later use and switches to backup power automatically when the grid goes down, with room to add capacity later if the client’s needs grow.
Preparing the Home for the Future
Battery placement took real planning. After the client built a dedicated battery room on the second floor of the garage, with one-hour fire-rated walls and a fire-rated door, to meet code requirements for the installation.
As the project developed, it became clear the home’s electrical service needed an upgrade too. What started as a panel swap turned into a complete 200-amp service upgrade: a new 200-amp main breaker panel with added circuit capacity and new service entrance conductors. On the FranklinWH side, the system uses a Meter Adapter Controller (MAC) paired with a meter socket adapter (MSA), connecting the aPower S directly at the electric meter for a more streamlined interconnection.
None of this happened overnight. Utility approvals, trenching, electrical design, and permitting all had to come together in the right order, long before any equipment showed up on site.
Built for Vermont Weather
This project started with one question about staying warm and safe during an outage. It ended with an integrated system: solar generation, battery backup, an upgraded electrical service, and room to grow.
During normal operation, the solar array offsets this home’s utility bill. During an outage, the battery keeps the essentials running. That combination, real production with real backup capability, is what energy independence looks like for a lot of Vermont homeowners right now.
The Franklin aPower S battery carries a 15-year manufacturer warranty (or 60 MWh of throughput, whichever comes first). The solar modules carry a 30-year power output warranty, and Building Energy backs the installation itself with a five-year workmanship warranty.
If you’re thinking about solar, battery backup, or both, get in touch. We’ll look at your roof, your panel, and your goals, and tell you what’s possible for your home.
Building Energy — 802-859-3384 — [email protected] — buildingenergyvt.com