off-grid electrical system for cabin

[SwiftShot]

going to try to develop a 2000 W electrical system for a cabin. with all the solar components available, I was thinking of starting with a generator feeding a charger/invertor and a battery bank. I don't necessarily need the solar panel support at this time, but may add it in the future. I already have the generator, looking for recommendations on an invertor and battery system.

Any recommendations?

The guy that does DYI solar on YouTube has plenty of videos for off grid. He not only does solar but he does a lot of battery reviews as well as inverters.

Signature Solar

Signature Solar provides solar panels, off-grid solar systems, grid-tie, and hybrid systems. Quality solar inverters, bifacial solar panels, complete solar kits, solar batteries. Featuring brands such as EG4 Electronics with their solar battery, LifePower4 and EG4 LLifePower4 and EG4 LL

signaturesolar.com

Look there for batteries and invertors. Many allow not only solar charging but ac in so a generator is an option. Quite a few even will start your generator if the batteries get to low and it is an electric start gen. Before picking a battery watch his reviews on it.

https://youtube.com/@WillProwse

 

[f16jack]

That's a lot harder to come by but I like the idea of getting electricity from the river or a good running creek and one of my friends has a strong running creek at his property that was able to move vehicles this last summer, making me wonder if he couldn't be getting power from it. Be interesting to know more about systems that could derive power from water, be it one direction, or tide water in the case of some of my other friend's places.

Water is dense. Wind is not. The ability for the dense water to continually turn a microturbine is great. It generated constant power. Again, I don't have this, but I wish I did.

 

[def90]

I’ll just say that if you are using a gas generator then you are not really “off grid”, you are still relying on infrastructure aka gas station for your power.

One thing that wasn’t mentioned at least that I saw is where is this cabin located? If you are in a good solar zone then that would be the way to go.. if not then maybe a small wind turbine or something else.

 

[cnelk]

^^^ I think many would disagree with that - IMO being 'Off-Grid' means you arent paying for the electricity 'grid'

 

[f16jack]

^^^ I think many would disagree with that - IMO being 'Off-Grid' means you arent paying for the electricity 'grid'

To me there is a slight difference in "off grid" approach. One is that you are survivalist and require nothing from the outside world. The other is that you have no access to daily utilities; city water, sewer, electricity, gas. I think most folks off grid use the 2nd approach.
I have a propane tank, but 2 years ago I installed a Jotul wood stove. When I am there I can heat with the wood stove and the excess solar. I can hang my clothes to dry. I can cook with wood and my microwave. So, if I ran out of propane the place would still be fine, just no backup generator.
But, since I'm absent from time to time, I like that I have propane heat and a backup generator. Gives me peace of mind. If I want to ensure I have longer security, I can simply have a larger propane tank. Society hasn't failed; I am just off-grid.

 

[*zap*]

It has been obvious to me for a while now that 'off grid' can mean very different things to different people. If using gasoline makes you not 'off grid' then bringing in anything from outside your little area would mean the same thing...no nails for example or food from a store.

To some folks it means living as simple as possible under your circumstances without any type of hook ups. Others live in a more opulent manner without any hook ups.

 

[ScreamingPotato]

To me the "grid" by very definition are utilities as someone previously mentioned, you're unplugged from them making you off-grid. To be completely self-sustained without gasoline (or modern solar batteries, etc) and such is a step further.

 

[Ishisube]

Yeah, off-grid and totally non-reliant on civilization are two very far removed ideals. By the most stringent interpretation of off-grid one couldn't even have any sort of power generation or needs even. Not the original intent of the term though and if someone wants to pick up diesel/gas/propane whenever they go to town it still fits within the description as long as they don't have power, internet, water or gas running to their property.

 

[qwerksc]

Signature solar stuf works, been up and running, off grid, for almost a year now.
Check all Will Prowse videos, solar is plug and play.
You can get battleborn batteries with built in heaters, if your area is below freezing

 

[Elk97]

To me the advantage of lithium batteries is: weight, and the ability to discharge completely without killing the battery, and space if limited. Downside is price ($$$$). If you need 300 AH of storage cap you'll only need 3 100 AH lithiums. Six 6 volt golf cart batteries will give you about 340 AH or so, for a lot less money. I have 400 watts of solar on the roof of my hunting trailer and just two golf cart batteries and with good sun that will run everything except AC and micro (propane fridge) including the furnace (unless it's really cold). Do an accurate energy survey of what you will be powering before buying anything.

 

[f16jack]

To me the advantage of lithium batteries is: weight, and the ability to discharge completely without killing the battery, and space if limited. Downside is price ($$$$). If you need 300 AH of storage cap you'll only need 3 100 AH lithiums. Six 6 volt golf cart batteries will give you about 340 AH or so, for a lot less money. I have 400 watts of solar on the roof of my hunting trailer and just two golf cart batteries and with good sun that will run everything except AC and micro (propane fridge) including the furnace (unless it's really cold). Do an accurate energy survey of what you will be powering before buying anything.

I tried to keep my AGM lead batteries above 50% Going below that eats into their life. Say I had 6000 amp hours in AGM batteries. I could only use half of that (3000 amp hours). So when I replaced with lithium I only bought 3000 amp hours, because I can let lithium go to almost zero if I want with no damage. They are rated to 10,000 deep discharge cycles.

 

[timberland]

Lots of great advice here, thanks guys. Keep it coming!
What about remote monitoring? Worth it or never use it?
Going to have an 8/12 pitched roof and am at 45* latitude. Should I compromise and install the panels flat?

 

[f16jack]

If you have continuous power then also have remote control/ monitoring. I use SmartThings (which is changing to "Matter" ). I can view my cameras. Start/stop my generator, change thermostats, turn lights on/off. I am also notified of events, like temperature below a certain level, fire alarm activation, or low battery.
For the remote control you will need satellite internet. Sign up for StarLink. It is reliable.

 

[ScreamingPotato]

Lots of great advice here, thanks guys. Keep it coming!
What about remote monitoring? Worth it or never use it?
Going to have an 8/12 pitched roof and am at 45* latitude. Should I compromise and install the panels flat?

I have a cheap ReoLink camera on my generator shed pointing at the cabin, it uses my hotspot but there's cell versions also. I can login and look at camp anytime I need to and can scroll the camera back and forth as well. It's useful for when we get big storms I can see how high the tide and waves came up and see if there's any damage to the cabin and bring supplies down to repair the next trip rather than having to wait.
I've noticed a huge difference with correctly angling the panels, unless you're pretty close to a good angle I wouldn't compromise on that.

 

[NevadaMike]

Oh man I got the chills reading your initial post. Sorry I have not read all the comments so this may be redundant. I have a cabin in Alaska on an island and have been through all the iterations including solar. Keep it as simple as possible and eliminate as many systems as possible. Unless you like chasing problems. I have had Outback and Xantrex inverter chargers. The stuff is fairly reliable but from back country Alaska you are not fixing much of anything while you are there. You are going home with the heavy inverter, solar charger etc and shipping it off for repair. Also Backwoods Solar was my go to supplier at the time. Solar was not reliable for me.

I would have a simple Honda fuel injected generator with a remote start, a quality battery charger and a good battery monitor system you can check from inside. As mentioned if it's truly remote and 12 volt will work stick with that. Wire for both. Batteries have been discussed here already I think. When I started my cabin we did not have reliable LED bulbs so you may not need to wire for 12 volt but you will obviously require an inverter if you stick with traditional residential wiring. The only other charging I would consider is a peloton wheel if you have a reliable creek to power it otherwise a pint or two of fuel keeps things simple.

A honda generator is very fuel efficient and provides clean reliable power for computers and Internet. I know what you are thinking but someone will show up with Starlink. My Honda has thousands of hours on it. It is an older carbureted model but I am super meticulous about fuel stabilizer and completely draining the fuel in the fall. Fuel injection takes the carburetor out of the equation. Not a big deal when you use something all the time but when you are gone for potentially months at a time carburetors are one more source for problems because of bad fuel. I happen have an EU6500 because I found it cheap but a 3000W is more than enough.

I have a variety of people so blowdryers, coffee pots and microwaves were a given. For heavy load times I run the generator. I get up in the morning walk over and hit the remote start and make coffee etc. At the same time my batteries are charging and the Honda automatically idles down to only provide what the battery charger wants saving fuel. You can hear it idle up when the coffee pot heater base comes on reminding you to put the coffee in the thermos and shut down the coffee pot. This also dramatically reduces the noise of the already quiet generator. There is nothing worse than a cheap generator running at 3600 rpm consuming fuel when your charger is only using 5% of the available power. As soon as the morning hustle is over I walk over and check the battery monitor and once I am good I push the stop button. All is quiet except for the hum of the refrigerator. Unless one of the things mentioned is on the generator is just at an idle charging batteries until I shut it off. You need to be careful to not forget its running its so quiet.

Lots of good advice here. I guess my take home message is curb the excitement and expense and keep it simple.

 

[NevadaMike]

Also as to your roof. I have a steep pitch cool cabin roof and I regret it. You cant do anything up there like clean the chimney. If I did it over again I would have a shallower pitch "standing seam" metal roof for collection water and no roof penetrations. Standing seam has no exposed screws and metal allows for water collection.

 

[Eleven]

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