Hello everyone - I am hoping to get some help or information so I can make a decision in regards to my off-grid hunting cabin.
There is a ton of great information on these forums, but unfortunately for me I don't understand the vast majority of it! I am a complete dolt when it comes to anything electrical/solar/invert/convert/etc. When I read things on there about VMS, and MPPT, and 12v/24/v/48v, etc. I might as well be reading about how Dr. Brown needs the lightning bolt to create 1.21 gigawatts of electricity so it can fuel the Flux Capacitor in the Delorean time-machine.
I apologize in advance as this will probably end up long-winded, but here's what I I'm trying to come up with. Currently I have an off-grid hunting cabin in Central Pennsylvania. I do have a simple solar setup now - an el-cheapo (bought on e-bay) 100w single solar panel feeding into a 10a charge controller hooked to one deep cycle marine battery. From that battery I have a 5 bank 12v fuse panel that feeds 8 or 9 LED (camper) lights spread thruout the camp. We currently have a small (I think it's a 7.6 cubic foot) PROPANE refrigerator that does the job but is a bit small for what we want. We like to keep the fridge stocked with cold "beverages" and food so we have things available when we visit. The cabin is fairly close to my house so we are there quite frequently. Anyway, we started kicking around the idea of getting rid of the propane fridge for several reasons; one being that propane is insanely high priced at the moment; we would like a bigger fridge/freezer; and quite frankly having to remove everything from the fridge/freezer to defrost it one or two times a year and waiting for a couple of DAYS for it to cool back down just plain sucks).
I started to look into a 12v fridge/freezer, but honestly paying out around $1,000 for a fridge (about the same size I have now) just doesn't seem too cost effective - in addition to knowing that I will require either an upgrade or a totally new (bigger) solar system than I have now. Laying out (basically) a couple grand and not even getting a larger fridge is hard to justify - even at the high propane prices it would take YEARS to recoup that cost. If I'm going to lay out a bunch of $$$, I at least want a bigger and better fridge - otherwise what would be the point? So, at that point, I started to kick around the idea of running a full-sized house fridge (120v) with an inverter because you can get those refrigerators for practically nothing - heck I have a spare one in the basement of my house that I could use... for FREE.
So in summation... is it worth it to pursue? And which way - 120v with inverter or 12v with a much higher cost? And how much "juice" would it require (solar panel "watts", charge controller "amps", battery bank "amp-hours")? I know just about enough to be able to look at the KW usage and calculate how many watts/day or amp-hours/day and that stuff, but when it comes to trying to figure out how much battery will be used, and how much incoming charge I need to recharge, etc. I am lost.
Thank you all in advance!
There is a ton of great information on these forums, but unfortunately for me I don't understand the vast majority of it! I am a complete dolt when it comes to anything electrical/solar/invert/convert/etc. When I read things on there about VMS, and MPPT, and 12v/24/v/48v, etc. I might as well be reading about how Dr. Brown needs the lightning bolt to create 1.21 gigawatts of electricity so it can fuel the Flux Capacitor in the Delorean time-machine.
I apologize in advance as this will probably end up long-winded, but here's what I I'm trying to come up with. Currently I have an off-grid hunting cabin in Central Pennsylvania. I do have a simple solar setup now - an el-cheapo (bought on e-bay) 100w single solar panel feeding into a 10a charge controller hooked to one deep cycle marine battery. From that battery I have a 5 bank 12v fuse panel that feeds 8 or 9 LED (camper) lights spread thruout the camp. We currently have a small (I think it's a 7.6 cubic foot) PROPANE refrigerator that does the job but is a bit small for what we want. We like to keep the fridge stocked with cold "beverages" and food so we have things available when we visit. The cabin is fairly close to my house so we are there quite frequently. Anyway, we started kicking around the idea of getting rid of the propane fridge for several reasons; one being that propane is insanely high priced at the moment; we would like a bigger fridge/freezer; and quite frankly having to remove everything from the fridge/freezer to defrost it one or two times a year and waiting for a couple of DAYS for it to cool back down just plain sucks).
I started to look into a 12v fridge/freezer, but honestly paying out around $1,000 for a fridge (about the same size I have now) just doesn't seem too cost effective - in addition to knowing that I will require either an upgrade or a totally new (bigger) solar system than I have now. Laying out (basically) a couple grand and not even getting a larger fridge is hard to justify - even at the high propane prices it would take YEARS to recoup that cost. If I'm going to lay out a bunch of $$$, I at least want a bigger and better fridge - otherwise what would be the point? So, at that point, I started to kick around the idea of running a full-sized house fridge (120v) with an inverter because you can get those refrigerators for practically nothing - heck I have a spare one in the basement of my house that I could use... for FREE.
So in summation... is it worth it to pursue? And which way - 120v with inverter or 12v with a much higher cost? And how much "juice" would it require (solar panel "watts", charge controller "amps", battery bank "amp-hours")? I know just about enough to be able to look at the KW usage and calculate how many watts/day or amp-hours/day and that stuff, but when it comes to trying to figure out how much battery will be used, and how much incoming charge I need to recharge, etc. I am lost.
Thank you all in advance!