aspen12777
New Member
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2022
- Messages
- 13
We are in the middle of a complete remodel of our off grid cabin. It has been taken down to the studs. This brought up an idea. I see that I have two pretty good options. There are four buildings that would need to be connect main cabin, bunkhouse, utility shed and Tikki bar.
1) Wire the cabin and outbuildings with traditional AC wiring and distribution, stay with our propane fridge and put in a 24V or 48V inverter/battery systems. This is what other cabins in the area have done to replace their gensets.
2) Wire the cabin and out buildings like an RV, some DC and some AC. It seems that it would make the most amount of sense to go with as 12V system. This would allow me to run a Fridge, lights, and water pump on DC. This seems to make a lot of sense to me and I feel that it would be more efficient and most of the time I could just have the inverter off. I would only turn the inverter on when cooking, watching TV, running power tools or the vacuum. Most devices the family uses charge off USB(Iphones, tablets, speakers....) so this makes to charge this off DC, as we currently just charge them in the truck. I would need to double up on the wiring but not that much as the DC would be for lighting, the fridge and USB charging, then I would wire up AC plugs as normal in the rooms and kitchen.
Before the remodel we just had a Genset so we only had power when we wanted it bad enough to put up with the noise. I am not trying to keep the cost down, but I am limited on places to put panels and the amount of sun I will get because of trees.
I am leaning toward option 2, but I wanted to see if I am missing something.
Thanks for you feed back
1) Wire the cabin and outbuildings with traditional AC wiring and distribution, stay with our propane fridge and put in a 24V or 48V inverter/battery systems. This is what other cabins in the area have done to replace their gensets.
2) Wire the cabin and out buildings like an RV, some DC and some AC. It seems that it would make the most amount of sense to go with as 12V system. This would allow me to run a Fridge, lights, and water pump on DC. This seems to make a lot of sense to me and I feel that it would be more efficient and most of the time I could just have the inverter off. I would only turn the inverter on when cooking, watching TV, running power tools or the vacuum. Most devices the family uses charge off USB(Iphones, tablets, speakers....) so this makes to charge this off DC, as we currently just charge them in the truck. I would need to double up on the wiring but not that much as the DC would be for lighting, the fridge and USB charging, then I would wire up AC plugs as normal in the rooms and kitchen.
Before the remodel we just had a Genset so we only had power when we wanted it bad enough to put up with the noise. I am not trying to keep the cost down, but I am limited on places to put panels and the amount of sun I will get because of trees.
I am leaning toward option 2, but I wanted to see if I am missing something.
Thanks for you feed back