Newbie - planning Home Solar with battery storage (Canada)

Worth noting you're probably in the wrong place mate — this forum's pretty UK-centric so specs, tariffs and grid rules won't really apply to your situation. Canadian grid regs are a whole different world.

That said, the battery and BMS side of things is fairly universal, so happy to chip in on that bit.

For home storage you'll want to be thinking LiFePO4 — safer chemistry, longer cycle life than standard lithium. Brands like Fogstar won't ship to you obviously, but the underlying cell quality questions are the same wherever you buy.

A few things worth nailing down before anyone can give useful advice:

• What's your daily consumption? (kWh, not just appliances)
• Grid-tied or off-grid? Big difference in how you size everything
• Any net metering available in your province?

For BMS, Victron is genuinely worth the premium for home installs — their ecosystem plays nicely together and the monitoring via VRM is proper useful when something goes sideways. Available in Canada too.

My own experience is mostly shepherds hut and motorhome scale stuff, so residential sizing is a bit beyond my usual, but the fundamentals don't change much. Others here will have more to add on the inverter/charger side.

What province are you in? Might affect what makes sense.

@StormyViking makes a fair point tbh — our DNO rules, G98/G99 regs and export tariff stuff (SEG etc.) won't mean much to you across the pond.

That said, the core battery/BMS tech is pretty universal — Victron kit, LiFePO4 cells, that sort of thing crosses borders fine. Just the grid-tie side that gets messy with different regulations.

Might be worth checking out diysolarforum.com — loads of North American folk on there who'll know your local codes and utility rules inside out. Better starting point for your situation than us lot.

@StormyViking and @Brummie86 are right on the forum geography front, but I'll say this — the battery chemistry conversation is universal. When I was speccing out LiFePO4 for my off-grid cabin, half the research I leaned on came from Canadian and American forums because the cell-level stuff doesn't care about your postcode.

If you're looking at something like a Fogstar Drift or similar LiFePO4 pack, the BMS fundamentals, charge curves, and thermal management questions are identical whether you're in Manitoba or Manchester.

The EV charging side of things though — that's where your local regs will bite hard. Completely different beast depending on province.

Worth joining a Canadian-specific community for the grid-tie and regulatory stuff, but don't be a stranger here for the pure battery chemistry questions.

Fair point from @StormyViking and @Brummie86 on the regulatory stuff — but I'd argue the physics of lithium cells doesn't check your passport before deciding whether to thermal-runaway on you. 🔋

That said, as someone who's spent years keeping a narrowboat's battery bank from becoming an unscheduled river-warming device

@YorkshireBoater hits the nail on the head really — the electrochemistry doesn't care what country you're in. I've run LiFePO4 on my narrowboat for three years now (Fogstar Drift cells into a DIY 280Ah pack) and the cell behaviour, BMS configuration, charge curves — all completely transferable knowledge regardless of whether you're in Ontario or Orkney.

Where I'd say the OP should tread carefully is around cell-level specs at low temperatures — Canadian winters will stress a pack in ways most UK builds don't really encounter. Worth looking into self-heating BMS options or insulated battery enclosures if you're seeing sub-zero ambient temps. That's genuinely useful chemistry discussion even if the tariff and grid-tie stuff is irrelevant here.