Greetings everyone. I’ll explain what we got, what I need (or think I need), and I’d like to explore different solutions.
im open to everything and let’s treat it as a clean slate. Money isn’t unlimited, but it isn’t scarce. Basically I’ll spend what I need to but not more than I have to.
cabin is remote, boat access. No power, sewer/water, outhouse. It’s 1400,sq ft. Propane oven, and fridge. Heat is wood stove. Water is pumped(gas) onto the roof to a holding tank and gravity “pumps” our,water to the cabin. Water is heated by kettle on the stove or wood stove.
cabin is powered by a Honda 2000ie (15 years old) and the cabin is wired as one single circuit, terminating into an extention cord that plugs into the 2000.
it works, but it’d be nice to not have to shuttle fuel and we just run the genny for a couple hours a night. I do use a cpap so when I first came out to the cabin I bought a typical power pack with ac and dc outputs. Plug it into the wall charge it up, use it, and repeat.
this got me interested in solar as some of the other cabins have solar. So, I bought myself a,2 wheeled hand cart, cut some plywood , bought:
-12v 100ah lead battery
-150 watt 12v panel
-boggart sc2030 charge controller
-boggart tm2030 battery monitor
-Morningstar suresine 300 watt inverter
-12v cigarette plug
-iota 12v charger
then I learned about volts, watts, amps, pwm, mppt, wire sizing for current. I learned about batteries, bulk, absorbtion, float, and equalizing. I’d watch the battery charge, and the amps drop as the voltage peaked.
solar panel was outside. Each day I’d wheel my cart out and plug in, charge up. At night I’d plug the cpap into to the 12v plug, and charge my iPhone with the suresine. Boom.
the idea was to learn, become non dependent on the Honda 2000, and be able to take my stuff home at the end of cabin season and trickle the battery.
I’ve since acquired a partial ownership in the cabin and would like to take it up a notch with solar. As I said I’m an open book, and appreciate,all input.
I like to tinker, and what not but there are others using the cabin so I’d like to keep it as simple as possible.
the cabin was wired decades ago as a single circuit. This was before current electronics. Starlink is in the works, and I’m tired of wheeling my experimental solar generator in and out each day.
for discussion here’s where my heads at for solutions:
1. Continue with Honda 2000. Run when needed, and swap out my current home made power box for something smaller.
2. Add some panels on the roof and if I go this route I can either:
a) do a permanent set up I.e charge controller, inverter, batteries or
b) buy something like a renogy lycan,5000 And take it home for the winter.
id like the ability to charge the batteries if needed. If I can reuse what I have great. If not, we’ll it is what it is. I like the inverter/chargers
im leaning towards keeping the extention plug so everyone can either “plug” the cabin into the solar system, or “plug” into the generator.
I really like the “all in one” solutions out there.
im not opposed to a rewrite of the cabin (properly with a panel, circuits, etc).
thoughts, ideas? What would you do? Not do? Do over again?
at some point I will dump the gravity water system (see what I did there??) and gravity feed a small 12v pump into a pressure tank.
our site isn’t the best for panels and I’d prefer parallel wiring to series due to shading.
im also old school and am Leary of new stuff, lol. (thus the 12v pwm system)
anyway, I’m all ears
im open to everything and let’s treat it as a clean slate. Money isn’t unlimited, but it isn’t scarce. Basically I’ll spend what I need to but not more than I have to.
cabin is remote, boat access. No power, sewer/water, outhouse. It’s 1400,sq ft. Propane oven, and fridge. Heat is wood stove. Water is pumped(gas) onto the roof to a holding tank and gravity “pumps” our,water to the cabin. Water is heated by kettle on the stove or wood stove.
cabin is powered by a Honda 2000ie (15 years old) and the cabin is wired as one single circuit, terminating into an extention cord that plugs into the 2000.
it works, but it’d be nice to not have to shuttle fuel and we just run the genny for a couple hours a night. I do use a cpap so when I first came out to the cabin I bought a typical power pack with ac and dc outputs. Plug it into the wall charge it up, use it, and repeat.
this got me interested in solar as some of the other cabins have solar. So, I bought myself a,2 wheeled hand cart, cut some plywood , bought:
-12v 100ah lead battery
-150 watt 12v panel
-boggart sc2030 charge controller
-boggart tm2030 battery monitor
-Morningstar suresine 300 watt inverter
-12v cigarette plug
-iota 12v charger
then I learned about volts, watts, amps, pwm, mppt, wire sizing for current. I learned about batteries, bulk, absorbtion, float, and equalizing. I’d watch the battery charge, and the amps drop as the voltage peaked.
solar panel was outside. Each day I’d wheel my cart out and plug in, charge up. At night I’d plug the cpap into to the 12v plug, and charge my iPhone with the suresine. Boom.
the idea was to learn, become non dependent on the Honda 2000, and be able to take my stuff home at the end of cabin season and trickle the battery.
I’ve since acquired a partial ownership in the cabin and would like to take it up a notch with solar. As I said I’m an open book, and appreciate,all input.
I like to tinker, and what not but there are others using the cabin so I’d like to keep it as simple as possible.
the cabin was wired decades ago as a single circuit. This was before current electronics. Starlink is in the works, and I’m tired of wheeling my experimental solar generator in and out each day.
for discussion here’s where my heads at for solutions:
1. Continue with Honda 2000. Run when needed, and swap out my current home made power box for something smaller.
2. Add some panels on the roof and if I go this route I can either:
a) do a permanent set up I.e charge controller, inverter, batteries or
b) buy something like a renogy lycan,5000 And take it home for the winter.
id like the ability to charge the batteries if needed. If I can reuse what I have great. If not, we’ll it is what it is. I like the inverter/chargers
im leaning towards keeping the extention plug so everyone can either “plug” the cabin into the solar system, or “plug” into the generator.
I really like the “all in one” solutions out there.
im not opposed to a rewrite of the cabin (properly with a panel, circuits, etc).
thoughts, ideas? What would you do? Not do? Do over again?
at some point I will dump the gravity water system (see what I did there??) and gravity feed a small 12v pump into a pressure tank.
our site isn’t the best for panels and I’d prefer parallel wiring to series due to shading.
im also old school and am Leary of new stuff, lol. (thus the 12v pwm system)
anyway, I’m all ears