Building a cabin on newly acquired off the grid land. What size setup will I need? Using well water with filter system, solar paneled water heater, now just need to get my electricity figured out. This will power everything and I will not run any electrical to the property.
solar setup for 1200 sq foot cabin?
- Thread starter 1KW
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Drunkskunk
100 GW
hard to say. it depends on what you plan to need power for. electric heaters? AC? electric water heater? computers and/or tv? LED lighting or florescent bulbs?
Consider a small RV with gas heating and cooking carries a 4000 watt generator. Also consider a 10,000 watt solar system may only produce >500 watts on a dark rainy day.
Before you can pick a solar setup you need to do an audit of your total power use. go back through your old power bills and see what is typical consumption for your lifestyle, then calculate the consumption of everything you plan to put in the house.
Consider a small RV with gas heating and cooking carries a 4000 watt generator. Also consider a 10,000 watt solar system may only produce >500 watts on a dark rainy day.
Before you can pick a solar setup you need to do an audit of your total power use. go back through your old power bills and see what is typical consumption for your lifestyle, then calculate the consumption of everything you plan to put in the house.
dnmun
1 PW
try to go with DC power. led lights and refrigerator and well pump. 24V or even up to 40V DC for the refrigerator and pump. is it a deep well or is the water close to the surface? if so a DC pump should have enuff power for running water, and you could use a storage tank above ground for the water so if you needed demand consumption you could have a second pump to push it to the taps. on demand.
Kent
1 kW
Motor Earth News has long been the Bible of off- grid living and they have several titles and articles about it.
Of equal importance, perhaps, is to what degree are you willing to live without today's toys and gadgets?
Best of luck. Out of curiosity, what made you choose this lifestyle?
Of equal importance, perhaps, is to what degree are you willing to live without today's toys and gadgets?
Best of luck. Out of curiosity, what made you choose this lifestyle?
Kent
1 kW
Motor Earth News has long been the Bible of off- grid living and they have several titles and articles about it.
Of equal importance, perhaps, is to what degree are you willing to live without today's toys and gadgets?
Best of luck. Out of curiosity, what made you choose this lifestyle?
Of equal importance, perhaps, is to what degree are you willing to live without today's toys and gadgets?
Best of luck. Out of curiosity, what made you choose this lifestyle?
AndyH
10 kW
The very first thing you must do is an energy audit. You cannot size your power system until you know what you power, for how long, and how often.1KW said:
Here are a couple of overview articles from the off-grid source, Home Power magazine. The PDF includes a worksheet and instructions.
http://www.homepower.com/sites/default/files/uploads/webextras/loadcalc.pdf
Here's a package of three spreadsheets - two examples (good loads, bad loads) and a blank sheet:
http://www.absoluteefficiency.com/images/loadcalc.zip
Here's a full analysis package. Do the energy analysis first as you'll need these data for this design package. This will provide info on how large a PV array and how much battery storage you'll need.
http://www.absoluteefficiency.com/images/E-Master_PV_Design_Software.zip
Feel free to post loads and results from the E-Master package for a sanity check.
Andy
mettleramiel
10 W
- Joined
- Dec 28, 2007
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1KW said:
"I am building a house, how many boards will I need?" Like has been stated before, you need to fond out how much energy you are using and for how long each day. How much energy does your pump use and how long will it be on each day? How many days of storage do you want your batteries to be capable of?
thanks everyone for the info!
I still have my house in the city, but i am looking to transfer my lifestyle to the 200+acre land. I DO want to eventually live here. Only downside to this is I need a diesel 4x4 truck for pulling a diesel tractor, 4wheelers, misc heavy duty equipment that is MANDATORY on a land tract this size. So much for going fully electric...
Also need to build a mid drive ebike vs my hub motor bike to get around
I still have my house in the city, but i am looking to transfer my lifestyle to the 200+acre land. I DO want to eventually live here. Only downside to this is I need a diesel 4x4 truck for pulling a diesel tractor, 4wheelers, misc heavy duty equipment that is MANDATORY on a land tract this size. So much for going fully electric...
Also need to build a mid drive ebike vs my hub motor bike to get around
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