Vancouver Island’s grid takes a beating from coastal storms. Power is rarely down for long, but it’s down often enough that anyone who’s worked from home, lost a freezer full of food, or watched a hot water tank go cold has thought about backup power. Here’s how to think about it.
The two practical options
There are essentially two practical categories of alternative power for residences:
Standby generators — natural gas or propane-fuelled units that automatically take over when grid power fails. Pros: proven reliability, can run indefinitely on fuel, handles extended winter outages without intervention. Cons: noisy (though enclosures help), require annual maintenance, fuel cost during long outages.
Battery storage — silent lithium battery systems (Enphase IQ Battery being the line Wenner installs on select projects). Pros: silent, no maintenance, no fuel. Cons: limited runtime (hours, not days), expensive per-kWh, doesn’t cover extended outages on its own.
Which fits your house
For most Vancouver Island homes, the practical answer is a Kohler standby generator — typically a 14kW–26kW unit covering critical loads or the whole house. They start automatically, run on natural gas (or propane in rural areas), and just work when the grid goes out. This is Wenner’s primary backup-power practice.
For projects where battery storage is part of the brief — typically alongside a solar PV system installed by a solar specialist — Wenner can integrate the battery into the broader home automation platform and coordinate the transfer-switch logic alongside a generator.
What Wenner installs
Wenner’s backup-power practice on Vancouver Island has been Kohler standby generators for decades — sized to the property, fuel-routed to your service, brought onto the Crestron or Lutron platform for visibility, and serviced annually through WennerCare. Read our generator cost guide for typical pricing, or visit our Standby Generators page for the full service overview.
Battery storage (Enphase) is a capability we deploy on selected projects where it’s the right fit, typically as part of a larger integration scope. Solar PV array installation itself is delivered by specialist solar partners on projects where it’s part of the brief.
The right configuration depends on your property, your loads, and your tolerance for downtime. Discuss your project — we’ll quote on a free site visit.