Solar Powered Fish House Build

[PurpleFloyd]

Sweet.

[Rooster7]

I'm thinking on Polaris 4 wheelers you're not supposed to put chains on the front, something with how the front wheels only kick in when needed??

I think the issue has more to do with the chains not clearing the struts on the polaris front tires.

[Whoaru99]

That's very nice.

If I might make a suggestion though, I would consider paralleling the batteries. When the load drawn from each battery is less you get more total AH capacity from the batteries.

Put another way, unless the draw from the batteries is very, very small, batteries in parallel will supply more total AH than the same number of batteries used separately.

Batteries are typically rated on 20 hour discharge cycle. So, the only time you get the full 100AH from a 100AH battery is if the discharge time is 20 hours or longer (discharge rate 5AH or less).

Say for example the discharge cycle was more like 8 hours (12.5AH discharge rate) at this rate of discharge you get roughly 80% of the battery capacity. So, the 100AH batteries now act like 80AH batteries. Using two separately would net roughly 160AH total. Using them in parallel instead of separately distributes the load and drops the individual discharge rate back much closer to the 20 hour rate, thus you get more total AH from the batteries, netting perhaps 30AH more from the same two batteries in this example.

[Princeton]

Thanks for the advice, I do try to keep the draw below 5 amps per battery, but there are times when I am sure that I exceed it for a short time. I have added one more battery to the house battery to try to boost my capacity to run the furnace.

[Princeton]

I have been keeping track of solar output the last few times I have been out. With aprox 300 watts of solar panels on the house here is what I am getting for power:

Cloudy day no sunshine: 17 Ah of charge per day

Sunny no clouds: 62 Ah of charge per day.

This is what is reported at my solar charge controller so it should be pretty accurate. Should be noted that if the batteries are fully charged it stops charging. So the sunny day numbers may be on the conservative side. The max amp output has been as high as 15 amps.

Still have not run out of battery power!!

[bturck]

wow this is truly amazing and a great build. sounds like a family project which is cool as he$$. great attention to detail.....enjoy and thank you for sharing...totally interesting read. hope you catch a ton of fish in this gem

[Princeton]

Thanks for the kind words, it has really been fun working on this as a family and we have had fun using it on and off the ice.

I did make some improvements this year as I added a Wii to the house. To conserve space and to hide the system I built it into the wall in the bathroom/closet. The door is hinged on the top so gravity ensures that it is closed and latched when not in use. There is space to store the controllers and 4 games and the unit is mounted inside the wall so it can't walk away. The great thing about the Wii is that it runs off of 12 volts, it only takes 3 amps DC to run and you can run Amazon Prime on it to watch TV and movies.

Here are the pics of the install:

[Princeton]

To up my security and safety at night I found these 12 volt RV motion sensing lights. The replace the standard outdoor lights. They come with LED bulbs and also have a indicator light on them that tells you the status of your battery. Here is the manufacturer and model; Starlights SL-1000

So far they work very well and have a 50 foot or so range.

[Princeton]

[BTL]

This house is amazing, thanks for sharing. I look forward to any updates.

[leech~~]

Not sure if anyone already made this suggestion are not. I would try and find some light weight protective covers to put over your solar panels when traveling to and on the lake in case some good size ice chunks fly up and damage them.

[Princeton]

The solar panel on the side is very heavy duty, it has an extruded aluminum frame and tempered hail resistant glass. They are pretty safe up high on the side of the house, I would not mount them on the front or on the bottom of the house as to your point I think you would get ice or a rock thrown at them.

The panels on the roof are not glass and are very flexible and actually will still function even if parts of them are defective or are damaged.

[leech~~]

The solar panel on the side is very heavy duty, it has an extruded aluminum frame and tempered hail resistant glass. They are pretty safe up high on the side of the house, I would not mount them on the front or on the bottom of the house as to your point I think you would get ice or a rock thrown at them.

The panels on the roof are not glass and are very flexible and actually will still function even if parts of them are defective or are damaged.

Sounds like your good to go then!

[Princeton]

Thanks, my biggest fear actually was having the panel falling off going down the road!! It is bolted on with three hinges and the two pins. Probably over kill but so far so good..

[JayDeHay]

You, good Sir, are a true renaissance man! Much kudos!

[JoeMX1825]

Just awesome! I had plans of outfitting a beberg skid house the same way. Can you please post some more pictures of inside of the house? Your hole setup, heater, V-front cabinets, maybe some more pics from the build process?

[Princeton]

Sure, I can post a few more pics this weekend when I get back up to the house.

[CJH]

Princeton, looks great!!! One of the nicest I've seen!!!

Say I recently picked up what looks to be the same amplifier as you (Kicker). Just had a quick wiring question, since the manual is pretty worthless: There are two positives in the wiring harness "ignition" (red) and "constant" (yellow), did you hook up the both to the battery or just the "constant" (yellow)?

Thanks,

CJH

[Princeton]

Thanks!! The "ignition" wire is meant to turn the radio off and on when you turn the ignition switch. So if you wire them both together your radio will always be on and drawing battery power. I wired on my battery a mastery accesory disconect switch so I can turn off all the accesories like the radio when I leave otherwise the radio will stay on and drain your battery. Hope that helps.

[CJH]

Thanks!! The "ignition" wire is meant to turn the radio off and on when you turn the ignition switch. So if you wire them both together your radio will always be on and drawing battery power. I wired on my battery a mastery accesory disconect switch so I can turn off all the accesories like the radio when I leave otherwise the radio will stay on and drain your battery. Hope that helps.

Thanks for the info. I'll just skip it then, since I will be disconnecting it from the battery any time I am not running it. In your setup, I definitely think it was smart to wire in the master switch!!

[Princeton]

Here is the floor plan that we worked off of to finish off the design; it is not 100% to scale but pretty close. Each box represents one foot on the drawing. I did not get a chance to shoot any pics this weekend but will post more on the front cabinet construction this weekend.

The yellow blobs are overhead lights in the house and outside. There are also two LED strip lights that run the entire length of the house along the trim on the top of the wall and shoot up onto the ceiling.

[trav102]

That thing is awesome! Building a fish house now myself and after seeing the interior of yours I may have to change my "look" haha! Great work really looks sharp!!

[Princeton]

2016 update.  Solar panels still work like they did out of the box..  Replaced one of the original unclaimed freight batteries (I suspect it was a few years old when I purchased it).  The only upgrades I have made is I added Amazon TV to the house this year which works great to watch movies.    The Alumalite frame is holding out great as well.

[perchking]

That is great to hear, I am picking up a all aluminum skid house (8x10) at the end of the season .  If I find a finished one great, if not I am going to do some minor finishing myself.  I really like your solar setup.  I am looking at 3 different manufactures, which all have good reviews.  The one that gets my business will be the one that sweetens the deal after ice out.

 

[Tom7227]

Would it be possible for you to create a list of what you used on the solar power system and what each cost?  I think you have done a great job and if you were willing to put in the time to create a detailed list it would make it a lot easier for folks to replicate what you did.  For instance what did you use for wire?  I think a lot of folks could use this type of system for their hunting shacks or maybe even seasonal cabins.

Heck you might even develop this into a business where you sell the list and components or something.  Huh, guess I sort of shot myself in the foot if you take this idea up.

Anyway, this is one of the most creative things I have seen on here, and incredibly useful.