30 Years! Since 1992, Eco Energy has been in the business of designing and manufacturing solar charge controllers, battery chargers, voltage switches, and solar lighting controls.

Eco Energy battery chargers for solar are used in most of the parking meters in Montreal, Chicago & Baltimore. Our zero battery drain controls provide more power for solar in areas where the power available in the winter is reduced. Found in gas well and pipeline monitors in the US and Canada, water level monitors in the UK, rain gauges for the US NOAA, emergency phones in Oak Ridge TN, a few large advertising bill boards in the US and in parking meters and road traffic monitors in Europe.


Eco Energy celebrates 30 years of designing and manufacturing solar controls in North America, for use around the World

By Frank Lanier
Off-Grid Professionals
offgridprofessionals.com

eco energy is one of those strategically important, small North American Companies that has quietly touched hundreds of thousands of people – almost anyone who has used a solar powered parking meter, for instance.

eco energy has been manufacturing controls for the solar industry since 1992. 30 years ago, eco energy began in a little home workshop in the married quarters of an air base in Winnipeg. Founder/Inventor/Electrical Engineer/Pilot Mr. Jan King (Capt. Ret’d) has always had an interest in alternative power. After working with a local solar dealer during his spare time in exchange for credits towards solar equipment for his home, he came to realize that he could make a better less expensive charger than what he was being offered on the market. King was eco energy’s first customer. It wasn’t long before the local solar dealers also wanted his controls. Word of mouth was to be the primary source of advertising until the advent of the World-Wide-Web.

Jan King’s philosophy from the start for eco energy has been to create tough, high-performance, efficient, and customizable controls that are made in North America. There is a strong emphasis on simplicity - simplicity of design, installation and ease of use. The attention to detail at every step of the design and manufacturing process means their controls are highly reliable and use less power to run than any other controls in the industry. Most eco energy controls have an auto shutdown feature so that at night they use absolutely no power - truly innovative and very cost effective. King has said, “In the off-grid world, power is precious, so why waste it?”

Other eco energy innovations include the multi-charge PV control that simultaneously charges two or more independent battery banks using a single control, ideal in power systems with multiple battery banks, such as boats and recreational vehicles (RV’s). A solar clock was also recently developed and is an option on some controls, which automatically figures out the time of day, dusk and dawn times. The control can then be factory programmed to turn loads on and off at assigned times.

eco energy controls have more built-in protection and safety features than any other on the world market today, such as automatic over-temperature shutdown, protection from over-current, reverse polarity, and short circuit. Another bonus of eco energy products is the company is powered by solar electric power, so their products are unique in that they are designed, manufactured and tested using solar power from a 6 KW system.

Off-Grid Professional veteran Mark Dettmer said recently in an interview, “The broader solar industry has been forced by extreme financial recovery realities into becoming addicted to ‘off the shelf’ equipment that often is made in Asia and does not have the best longevity and efficiency one would hope for. Thankfully we at Off-Grid Professionals have a resource like eco energy where Jan King and his team manufacture a line of truly rugged, highly efficient, solar management equipment and still remain able and ready to engineer and manufacture custom PV charging and switching gear for special needs on tricky remote powered projects. eco energy has many times said ‘yes’ to our crucial needs when others simply were not interested because of the size of the project as well as the technical challenges. The bottom line is Jan King and eco energy are very appreciated by the people they have served.”

The future looks bright for eco energy and we wish them continued success for another 30 years.