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12x12 shed instalation

brendenrr

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Looking for information
I have a 12x12 insulated shed I use at as an office at a marina.
Unfortunately due to restrictions we can not get a power line run to the shed.
We are looking at adding a solar system to be able to use the shed as a part office (its intended use)
Ideally I would need to run a small window unit AC for a few hours a day in the summer, as well as running the installed LED lights and a coffee maker on occasion (when I have clients)
If i have to im sure i can do the math and spec out a system to cover my needs, what i dont have a lot a familiarity with is the overall capacity of the systems. The window unit has both a timer and a thermostat. Im worried what repeated start and stops by the AC unit would do.
Im also interested if one of the full kits on this site would meet my requirements.
Would i be able to get away with a 24v system or need a higher capacity
 
Well the rest can be somewhat reasonably guessed… but not the AC unit. What are the specs on the AC? And what is your locale? Plus you’ll need either a decent pure sine wave inverter or an appropriately large ‘budget’ pure sine wave inverter of a reliable brand.
 
What's the orientation of your roof? Can you get good solar capture on most of it? (shade, orientation?)
Failing that is there some land available nearby with good sun for ground mount of some panels?
Also, I'm guessing since it's for a marina office you don't need 4 seasons.
 
For intermittent use you might want to do a cost benefit analysis of total cost of solar vs a small 2000w inverter gas generator which are fairly quiet (still some noise) but will run the AC lights computer.

That way you can see the cost of both types of systems and then decide which makes the most sense for your budget and criteria.
 
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My small (6000BTU as I recall) runs at about 500 watts. When clouds shade solar panels, the power can drop a lot. For example of you have 1500 watts of solar panels, on a good day you might be making 1200 watts for part of the day. Cloud shade hits them and it can easily drop to less than 500w watts. A 2 kilowatt-hour battery could power a 500 watt AC unit for 3 hours or so (4 hours ideal but ideal is not real world). So a 2kw-hr battery on 1500watts of solar might be a good place to start. If you had good sun, you should be able to run 500w load and do some charging. If poor sun, you would have about 3 hours on a good charge. You could reduce both battery size and solar panels and still have a fair system if you were okay with turning off the AC when the power was low because of lighting and battery conditions. you would want extra solar so if you had been drawing from the battery and you got good sun for a few minutes, you would want to pound some charged back to the battery before the next cloud came over.
 
My small (6000BTU as I recall) runs at about 500 watts. When clouds shade solar panels, the power can drop a lot. For example of you have 1500 watts of solar panels, on a good day you might be making 1200 watts for part of the day. Cloud shade hits them and it can easily drop to less than 500w watts. A 2 kilowatt-hour battery could power a 500 watt AC unit for 3 hours or so (4 hours ideal but ideal is not real world). So a 2kw-hr battery on 1500watts of solar might be a good place to start. If you had good sun, you should be able to run 500w load and do some charging. If poor sun, you would have about 3 hours on a good charge. You could reduce both battery size and solar panels and still have a fair system if you were okay with turning off the AC when the power was low because of lighting and battery conditions. you would want extra solar so if you had been drawing from the battery and you got good sun for a few minutes, you would want to pound some charged back to the battery before the next cloud came over.
Sounds spot on to me. I have nearly the same capabilities you mention and see those results
 
Looking for information
I have a 12x12 insulated shed I use at as an office at a marina.
Unfortunately due to restrictions we can not get a power line run to the shed.
We are looking at adding a solar system to be able to use the shed as a part office (its intended use)
Ideally I would need to run a small window unit AC for a few hours a day in the summer, as well as running the installed LED lights and a coffee maker on occasion (when I have clients)
If i have to im sure i can do the math and spec out a system to cover my needs, what i dont have a lot a familiarity with is the overall capacity of the systems. The window unit has both a timer and a thermostat. Im worried what repeated start and stops by the AC unit would do.
Im also interested if one of the full kits on this site would meet my requirements.
Would i be able to get away with a 24v system or need a higher capacity
24V should be fine as long as not a workshed running power tools.

My shed = light, small frig, 5k btu a/c. Thats it for now and its fine on a 24v made from 4 12v batt.s (2 strings of 2 12vs in series then those 2 strings in parallel = 24v/200ah = 4800wh.

Just got a small chest freezer and a nuwave oven... havent tried them yey cuz right now, the a/c is important
 
24V should be fine as long as not a workshed running power tools.

My shed = light, small frig, 5k btu a/c. Thats it for now and its fine on a 24v made from 4 12v batt.s (2 strings of 2 12vs in series then those 2 strings in parallel = 24v/200ah = 4800wh.

Just got a small chest freezer and a nuwave oven... havent tried them yey cuz right now, the a/c is important
Just a little fyi, led lights can actually run off dc power
 
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