Outlets and other 'finishes' to inherited 12v solar cabin-need advice

[Cavallini]

Hello, We purchased a well built ~700ft cabin in south central Washington last summer. This cabin was outfitted with one 110W panel leading to 2 6V batteries in series which provide (I believe) 200A hours of power. This is what I know and below I have my questions:
-There are two circuits one 15A which goes directly to a solar fridge which works well, the other is labeled as 10A
-The Xantrex charge controller is pictured below
-I've included my diagram with my understanding of the solar systems set up (note we do NOT have an inverter installed at this time)
-There are wired LED lights that all function well in the house
-There are traditional outlets which does power one floor lamp with and LED light
-There is no inverter in the system so my understanding is that everything is on DC

Our needs are as follows:
-Functional outlets for phone charging at minimum and ideally a laptop
-Ability to operate a water pump from portable water containers inside via outlet or hard wired
-Ability to power hot water heater

?So do we simply need to add an inverter to the system 'down steam' where the 15A circuit can still feed the fridge and the 10A inverted power can supply everything else.
?Is there a way to do this with everything being DC still, yet still have the easy plug in ability like a traditional AC set up

We've had sufficient power with this system and while reading through the posts it should like 24V systems are 'the way to go' I don't have a lot of time to retrofit this one and really want to be able to get the outlets to work for our appliances and have warm water over a weekend.

I know I have a lot to learn and I apologize if this is similar to a previous post that I had not found yet.
Thanks in advance for your advice.

 

[Mattb4]

If you want warm water you probably need to put in a propane or gas water heater unit. The cabin DC system as you describe is not going to supply much loading. A 110 watt solar panel is not much power. Water heating is a big draw if electric. Even small units are frequently 2500 watts or higher.

You could add a small 12 volt mobile inverter to the batteries not the 10 amp circuit however. 10 amps at 12 volts is only 120 watts. Mobile inverters have traditional outlets on them.

You possible could run a RV on demand pump to transfer water off the 10 amp 12vDC circuit the cabin has. You would have to look up the power ratings for the pump.

In your design keep in mind that: Watts=Volts X Amps.

Battery amp-hour is a rating for capacity based on a draw at 20 hours till full discharge. Thus a 100ah 12v battery can supply 5 amps for 20 hours. When supplying at a higher amp rate the time drops down. Ex. 50 amps (600 watts) draw would deplete the battery in 2 hours. When using lead acid batteries it is best to never discharge greater than 50% if you want them to last.

 

[shot428]

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and yes get a 12v RV water pump to move water

Very easy to add a few batteries and live 12 volt, Truckers and RV sites will be full of info

 

[FishHog]

You will need propane for hot water but my cottage runs everything on 12v. Most phone drop 110 back down to 12v or lower so save yourself the conversion loss and keep it at 12.

 

[Cavallini]

Thank you all for the suggestions and resources. To clarify ‘You could add a small 12 volt mobile inverter to the batteries’ this implies that the inverter would be powered directly from the batteries. Our solar shed is about 30’ away from the cabin so this would be difficult.
Would it make sense to hard wire a few outlets that run the 12V appliances like one would find in an RV/car or boat? They are set up with traditional (15A?) outlets like a house.

 

[Checkthisout]

Thank you all for the suggestions and resources. To clarify ‘You could add a small 12 volt mobile inverter to the batteries’ this implies that the inverter would be powered directly from the batteries. Our solar shed is about 30’ away from the cabin so this would be difficult.
Would it make sense to hard wire a few outlets that run the 12V appliances like one would find in an RV/car or boat? They are set up with traditional (15A?) outlets like a house.

I didn't full follow but you don't need an inverter at all.

Get a 12V propane on demand water heater.

Install some cigarette lighter type outlets and then just use car chargers for your phones. You can get a 150 watt inverter that plugs into a cigarette lighter for laptops and tv's.

And then like others have said, just stick with 12v rv pumps for water.

 

[12VoltInstalls]

there a way to do this with everything being DC still, yet still have the easy plug in ability like a traditional AC set up

Yes

Most phone drop 110 back down to 12v or lower so save yourself the conversion loss and keep it at 12.

Yes

Install some cigarette lighter type outlets

No. Maybe 1 or 2 for Justin; Justin Case.

These are more dependable for 12V outlets for accessories and items like these can be turned on only when you need usb charging. Wiring this with an sae plug provides 120V charging for power tool chargers or ~19V laptops and has USB ports for $50

That’s the solution I would go with. And did: I have all the above operational in my offgrid camper. And jeep.
I actually only use the 300W inverter in the jeep for power tool batteries because the camper runs on a 1000W AIO and I have spare inverters up to 2000W if needed.
Bonus item that are relatively low watts but on the scale of low-watt 12V lights they are a bit high at 5W- for tiny solar like yours you have to pay attention

2 6V batteries in series which provide (I believe) 200A hours

With lead batteries that’s 100Ah of usable power without damage or reducing lifespan. Keep them properly filled with distilled water. 100Ah of usable lead acid batteries really should have 200W of panels- the controller looks like a 40A so adding 1 or 3 panels shouldn’t be an issue.

I recommend flojet RV pumps; the one at about $85 is no-surge and I’ve got 4 years of daily use on one