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211. Posted: 10 Feb 2017 17:51 - Off-Grid Living / Looking for some help/ advice 9n cabin toklet
Ok, here's the dilemma. First year of owning the cabin- all in all great first year. Made upgrades to elec system by adding solar panel, charge controller , fixed roof leaks to name a few. I have a bathroom with stand up shower, sink and composting toilet. The previous owner really couldn't tell me much ab...
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212. Posted: 6 Feb 2017 08:06 - Off-Grid Living / Small solar setup for cabin
Looking for info on a small solar setup for my weekend cabin. I plan on 5 or 6 led lights, ceiling and box fans and the capability of charging cell phone. Probably will expand in the future too. I...
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213. Posted: 17 Jan 2017 09:20 - Off-Grid Living / off grid power
...ght or might not apply to your situation. I started my adventure with a Pop-Up trailer for a couple of years before building and modified the trailer to make it more suited for off-grid use (without solar initially much as you are doing). The built in converter is primarily meant to allow the use of 12V lights when plugged into 120 at a RV site. Most also have very poor battery char...
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214. Posted: 13 Jan 2017 13:24 - Off-Grid Living / Nate's Outhouse / Privy construction
Quoting: AtlincabinSo question for the electronics folks on here: is it possible/reasonable to just wire one of these little 12V fans directly to a solar panel so it runs when the sun shines? Or is the intermediate step of a battery necessary? Some 12 volt solar panels max out about 22-23 volts open circuit, no load...
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215. Posted: 5 Dec 2016 07:41 - Off-Grid Living / no power fridge idea....
...e battery bank pretty much all day with no problems. I have hooked a killawatt to the freezer and estimate regular use for one day at around 30 watts. Since my place is under a heavy canopy of trees solar doesn't really work except for a couple small panels to keep the bank charged up when I'm away. I use a honda eu2000i generator at night to recharge the battery bank and us...
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216. Posted: 1 Dec 2016 11:18 - Off-Grid Living / Calculating Solar Sizing
Facebook of all places... Stumbled across this posting today (see image). It broke down the sizing aspect of a solar setup pretty good. Along with the follow up comment. My question, is this information, a pretty accurate way to size a system?
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217. Posted: 24 Nov 2016 11:08 - Off-Grid Living / Nate's Outhouse / Privy construction
...#039;t going to do the job. Fortunately, I had another plan from the beginning. We had installed a fan in the vent pipe. One used normally for venting composting toilets. 1.4W fan, 7 CFM. Installed a solar setup to power it for now. Eventually, I will hook it into our larger 12V system. Ran a wire from the fan to a waterproof plastic box, half buried the box in th...
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218. Posted: 22 Nov 2016 07:23 - Off-Grid Living / Generator help, please!
@Julie, I used Grounding Plates for my Solar Panels & Cabin, my powerhouse luckily has the well inside it so the 6" casing took care of that side of grounding. The difference between Plates / Rods is more or less ...
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219. Posted: 31 Oct 2016 20:23 - Properties / Cost of Land in Adirondack
...#039;s cabin that was there. We had septic installed as well. With young kids, I really needed a proper bathroom for them. Since I have no electricity in the area, I learned how to install a small solar setup to run my DC-powered pump to draw water out of my well into the pressure tank. Things have been working out great and the batteries are always fully charged w...
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220. Posted: 12 Oct 2016 19:37 - Member's Projects and Photos / Our Ontario cabin
A rundown of our simple solar setup. When you don't need refrigeration a small setup can work well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9nfGoRPo8U
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221. Posted: 28 Sep 2016 21:13 - Useful Links and Resources / Solar Lights
I could never keep up with Rockies. LOL. Just posting on something that is working well for us and is cheap. For recreational use it is a cheap way to get solar lights. Also for a newbie to solar there is no confusion about what controller, solar panel, battery etc setup you need.
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222. Posted: 24 Sep 2016 17:02 - Off-Grid Living / Choosing a well pump
The solar pumps pump at a very slow rate, so they are only good for filling a tank. Ranchers use them in rural areas to water cattle- the solar pump gradually fills a large wa...
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223. Posted: 22 Sep 2016 19:26 - Off-Grid Living / Choosing a well pump
...used or else the pump would draw it down too far and damage it. Pumps are major power users. So that means running your car while pumping, or using a generator for DC. So it must take a substantial solar setup to power one of these pumps then? Or if I understand correctly, you take a shower and it just puts back the 2 gallons in a minute or so? And the real sweat i...
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224. Posted: 20 Sep 2016 15:38 - Off-Grid Living / Choosing a well pump
...creasing efficiency. I suggest you look for a better quality 7 or 10 gpm pump that will last you a long time. Replacing pumps every few years is costly and a pain in the rear. Don't ignore the solar pump and panel setups they have now. Automatically keeps the tank full when the sun shines.
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225. Posted: 18 Sep 2016 11:09 - Useful Links and Resources / Discovery Chanel Homestead Rescue Show
I've caught a few episodes including the one with the solar setup. OK show with some creative ideas for living off grid.
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226. Posted: 30 Aug 2016 12:49 - Member's Projects and Photos / My 10x10 with small porch
...esome cabin you have there I can certainly appreciate small spaces as the cabin that came with our property was only 8x8 lol . We have since added a 8 x 6 screened room. We installed a very modest solar system (80 watt w/ 110 amp hour battery) that is attached to a 1500 watt inverter. It runs a vacuum, small fan, chargers our phones and laptops and powers a dimmable led lighting st...
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227. Posted: 13 Aug 2016 08:55 - Off-Grid Living / Using Lifepo4 lithium for off grid battery
... industry. So sticking with ReLion Battery... They only list the one 24V / 50AH @ $1297 CAD but they list 48V/100AH @ $4897 & 48V/300AH @ $13,297 Retail from where I bought my Solar Kit (Except Inverter/Charger) are a touch more http://www.solacity.com/product-category/batteries/ BTW: That E-Bay listing like so many, do not ship to Canada. PS: I sent a sugge...
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228. Posted: 8 Aug 2016 20:37 - Off-Grid Living / Hydrogen generation
...torage is relatively easy. According to the website quoted above, 5 or so standard large gas bottles (like you see for oxygen, acetylene, helium) would supply the needs of an average household with a solar/hydrogen setup. They make no mention of the cost of compressing the gas. Extremely high energy density is not necessary if you have the space for half a dozen or mor...
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229. Posted: 3 Aug 2016 16:14 - Off-Grid Living / Battery bank question...
...ust wanting to fart around on a zombie apocalypse project. Fair enough. I totally understand wanting to play around with things to learn more. I powered my greenhouse ventilation fans with a small solar setup instead of running power out from the house just because it was more fun to do. Careful with creeky and his lithium suggestions. Not saying don't get li...
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230. Posted: 26 Jul 2016 08:39 - Off-Grid Living / second solar system for fridge
...ie=UTF-8&u=htt p%3A%2F%2Fwww.energie-abordable.com%2F&edit-text= Yves Julien (speaks English) is also a great resource with good info & very helpful too, he sells on EBay as well... My solar kit came from SolaCity and my Inverter/Charger from Energie Abordable... The 2nd place (French site in Montreal) is mostly aimed at the boating & RV community which is more dia...
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231. Posted: 23 May 2016 09:02 - Off-Grid Living / Question about 12 volt system - newbie
...computer, etc) the panel only provides a drop in the bucket. For a few dollars more than the HF panel you can get a 100 watt panel off Amazon, but you'll still need a charge controller. A good solar setup (panel/charge controller) is going to extend the life of your expensive batteries. The optimal setup depends on your power usage. If it wer...
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232. Posted: 14 Apr 2016 19:19 - Off-Grid Living / First basic solar setup
Ok, so I'm putting together a small basic solar setup. I've logged kwh on everything we'll be using and if we run everything 24 hours a day, we're at 7.5 kwh per day. So, we'll probably be more...
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233. Posted: 14 Apr 2016 13:47 - Off-Grid Living / well pump to trailer to cabin
...ged by a submerged well pump doesn't work in an off-grid system unless you leave the generator running all the time, or start the generator when you want to use water, or you have a large enough solar battery setup to power the pump every time it goes on. For off grid in an area of extreme freezing probably the best thing to do is bury a storage tank, and use th...
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234. Posted: 6 Apr 2016 20:37 - Useful Links and Resources / Berkey Water Filtration Systems
...trong>setup to your Berkey, hmm.. wonder how you would do that- sounds like a good idea but it needs to be engineered to be effective. You have to be on grid to use a UV filtering system because of the power requirements, but maybe a larger solar setup could handle it.
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235. Posted: 22 Mar 2016 22:24 - Off-Grid Living / No to Solar
12 volt system = bad need huge thick gauge wires. 24volt is better but 48 volt system is best. Power loss is your enemy and so is heat. Higher the volt more efficient the system. Mono solar works awesome in full sun withan MPPT charger. Spending money on PWM charge controller is ok for learning but a waste of money. Example of a Nightmare setup 12 volt...
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236. Posted: 9 Mar 2016 13:20 - Useful Links and Resources / New off grid show
...ink has a great concept for refrigeration.... Check it out and tell me what you think of it. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq9CR7GcccLRC6-yvUpISkA this episode has 3 parts and he touches on some solar camper setup issues
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237. Posted: 6 Mar 2016 00:46 - Off-Grid Living / Solar components
creeky The Morningstar is just $70 less than the MidNite Solar Classic. I want the MidNite Solar model because I'm considering a wind turbine, at some point. I've been keeping an eye on the wind speeds in that area -- ...
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238. Posted: 29 Feb 2016 12:03 - Cabin Construction / Generator backup question
Agree w/ PaBound. If the generator circuits are completely separate from the other circuits that come off the inverter, it stays dirt simple. But if you want to power some or all circuits with solar sometimes and generator sometimes, it gets very complicated (for the inexperienced). You'll need a subpanel and a transfer switch to switch between power sources, and you need t...
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239. Posted: 22 Feb 2016 18:05 - Off-Grid Living / Seems solarific (WindyNation kit)
I'm using a WindyNation setup on my little weekend cabin. I have 200 watts and two deep cycle 12 volt batteries, each with 125 amp hours. I was absolutely ignorant regarding solar setups, but the installation was pretty straightforward, and it serves my purposes. I can run the lights occasionally, the fan all night, while cha...
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240. Posted: 22 Feb 2016 16:23 - Off-Grid Living / Seems solarific (WindyNation kit)
Quoting: SE OhioNorthRick,Would appreciate your suggestions for a better solar setup. Have a neighbor considering making the plunge. Maybe others here too?SE Ohio I'm no expert, however, most people start in the wrong order. Such as, ...
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