Solar for cabin

[Scott K]

My cabin is off grid, and it will cost about 10k to get it all hooked up to electricity. I have been using 12 volt power for almost everything. I have many 12 volt batteries, and I just bring them back and forth when I go there. I have a battery box that I put 12 batteries in, and use that for my power, and just swap them out when they get low. Anyhow, that is growing old, and I want to make it a little easier on myself. This is basically a 3 season, sleeping quarters, or hideout in the rain. We dont hang out inside much at all.

I was thinking instead of paying the power company 10k to hook up electricity to me, then get a monthly bill, maybe just hook up a solar system, since I have a low demand, and really dont use it all that often. Maybe 1 weekend or 2 a month from may to sept. Then a week in the summer, and a week for deer hunting. Being I am already power conservative, and I dont use much for electricity, solar may be a good option.

Has anyone had experience with solar on an off grid system? Do you like it? WHo sells it around MN-Wisconsin?

I would like to run a dorm fridge, a couple small lights, a radio, plug my laptop in, and in the fall, or early springs, the furnace fan. The fridge may, or may not be unplugged when I leave, it doesnt matter. So when I leave, there would be literally no power draw. But I would like to be up to full capacity when I return, and if I want to run a small tv, and dvd player, I would like that as an option.

Any suggestions? I tried a generator, to loud, and not to practical. To run it for the little but of use for a couple lights at night. I was going to fork over the cash this spring to run the electricity, but got sticker shock, again. But if I can spend a lot less on solar, and have it do the same job, and not have a monthly payment, that would be great. I would also like a system that I can add onto, if I want to start using more power. Anyone have one? Likes? Dislikes?

[SpecialK]

Have you looked into wind at all? I have no idea if it would work but I would think it would produce better than solar, of course you have to have wind. Might be able to use to keep the batteries fully charged anyway.

[BoxMN]

I don't have first hand, but a friend has a resort off grid in Canada. He converted to use solar about 7-8 years ago, and he said it works awesome, and with the price spike in fuel (he has diesel generator for backup and heavy use) he said it went from paying him back in 12+ years to already have broken even after 5-6 (to best of my recollection...). Not sure what system, but I know ti cost him a lot and is pretty big, but it works great for him and he is really happy with it.

Good luck, it would be cool to have free power! even a little bit

[cavalierowner]

A group of us go to Canada every other year on a fly-in fishing trip. The outfitter we use has a solar setup. They use a relatively small (maybe 24" square) collector for keeping the 4 deep cycle batteries charged. There is an inverter that converts the 12V to 120V; the batteries and inverter are always in a separate shed for whatever reason. The 120V is used for water pumps and lights, that's it. I have no idea if it would handle more. Maybe if you talked nice to the outfitter during their off season, probably now, they might give you some insight on what it takes; they are Northern Wilderness Outfitters. I would ask for Vic.

If you're looking for a lot more power than what I described, then you may need to talk to an electrical engineer or maybe a manufacturer's rep for solar collectors could get you pointed in the right direction. Good luck!

[CJH]

Pretty sure Northern Tool sells "off the shelf" kits for both Solar and Wind. For your small application, they might work. You kind of have to figure out how much power you need. Wind vs Solar should be determined based on the site/location they are going to be installed.

Also, you might want to switch your lights out to LED bulbs, which will help lower your power consumption, and is pretty easy and inexpensive if it helps save you on the system you buy.

Good Luck!!

[Tom7227]

You need to know how much power the thing you want to use consume. Someone usually posts the formula for making the calculation to figure out how much solar you need. I would bet that if you spent some time googling the solar power stuff you would get the info fairly quickly.

The more stuff you can run off of 12vDC the better you will be. Using an inverter to get it to 120 vAC will work but you lose a lot of efficiency that way. The LED light thing could be a very significant savings in terms of energy consumption but I don't know if there are 12vDC lights that will light up a cabin.

I wouldn't be surprised if you could get a kit for $500 or so.

[yoppdk]

Our cabin is also off the grid. We use it weekends and an occasional week vacation. We had a local guy install a solar system and we are quite pleased with it ... and have been upgrading it since we just had septic and a well installed. The original system ran our fridge (twice the size of a dorm unit), lights, radios, ceiling fans, etc. It cost around $18k and consisted of two solar panels and an adjustable rack, an inverter, eight deep cycle batteries, battery box, solar controller and wiring. We have since added a third panel, updated the controller and will soon replace the 8-year old batteries with new ones that are double the original size.

We normally flip the main breaker when we leave so the only thing working is the solar charging system ... batteries are almost always topped off when we return. Only exception is winter when there simply is not much sunlight/power. We have a 3000 watt generator that is tied into the system to supplement the battery charging. Our Honda 3000ui is one of the quietest and smoothest available ... runs 10 hours or so on about 3 gal. We hardly hear it running ...

One thing I've learned is that having an expert design and install the system has been pretty important to having the system work properly - also helps a lot if you think you will need higher capacity later on as they can design it to grow as our has. I would not have tried to put such a system together myself, although I do prefer to do a lot of projects myself. Our place is in Ely and the guy who designed and installed it is based in Ely ... it is his primary business. I'd strongly recommend finding somebody in your area who has experience in renewable energy systems and get them involved. It doesn't cost anything to get them to do an estimate ... and go from there.

[Scott K]

Wind wont help me, i am pretty enclosed in trees. With a big opening for the cabin. I have called around, and am waiting for someone to call me back. I have been doing some research, and seems that they are squeezing a quite a bit more juice from a smaller panel now. Ideally I would like to have atleast 1500 watt, enough to run a vacuum cleaner, or a microwave for a little while. The thing is, I would like to start small, but start with a system that I can add onto, without having to upgrade the original pieces, just plug in additional ones. I have seen Home Depot has them, but compared to some systems online, they are high on prices.

[SpecialK]

Have you checked for prices with the local power company up there?

I know my nephew got a really good on the ones he installed for their house either thru the power company or the telephone company he works for, not sure which.