DParker76020
New Member
- Joined
- Jan 13, 2022
- Messages
- 5
I have a livestock stable situated about 100 ft from the back of my house. I've been contemplating a small, simple solar setup for it so that I can power a few A/C devices, like LED lights in the stalls and the electric milking machine I plan to get eventually. But more important is the need to power about 75 ft. of self-regulating heater cable that I'll be attaching to the plumbing that runs to and through the length off the stall, branching to a couple of automatic waterers (for my goats), in order to keep it all from freezing in Winter (I just installed the plumbing this Spring so the need did not exist previously).
I live in N. Central Texas where the winters can get surprisingly cold for equally surprisingly long periods. It occasionally dips into the low teens F and can stay below freezing for a week at a time. I have no way of knowing how often the automatic heating cable would be on during such periods, so I have to assume the worst case scenario of it being on at all times, 24/7 while the air temperature is near/below freezing, even though that's probably very pessimistic (especially since I'll also be wrapping the pipes and cable with foam insulation tubing). The cables are most all rated at 5 W per foot of length. The cable closest to my needs is 80 ft long, so I'm looking at the possibility of consuming up to 400 W of continuous power around the clock for a few days at a stretch even if I don't run any other loads. Add in the fact that the skies are commonly partially-to-completely overcast for days at a time when inclement weather moves through and I'm going to need a ridiculously large battery bank to power the heater cables for 2-3 days at a stretch (just shy of 30 kWh worth). If in reality the heating cable only ran 20% of the time during even the worst conditions, that's about 6 kWh of storage needed, which is not terrible. But if I gambled on that and lost then the price would be burst plumbing and the need to manually haul water out to some thirsty goats until the weather warms and I can make repairs...something I very much want to avoid.
At this point the cost of the battery bank required for a safety margin, even ignoring the cost of all of the other equipment, makes it seem like it would be cheaper in both the short and long term to just pay an electrician to run electricity from the house to the stable. Or am I screwing something up somewhere along the way in my thinking here?
I live in N. Central Texas where the winters can get surprisingly cold for equally surprisingly long periods. It occasionally dips into the low teens F and can stay below freezing for a week at a time. I have no way of knowing how often the automatic heating cable would be on during such periods, so I have to assume the worst case scenario of it being on at all times, 24/7 while the air temperature is near/below freezing, even though that's probably very pessimistic (especially since I'll also be wrapping the pipes and cable with foam insulation tubing). The cables are most all rated at 5 W per foot of length. The cable closest to my needs is 80 ft long, so I'm looking at the possibility of consuming up to 400 W of continuous power around the clock for a few days at a stretch even if I don't run any other loads. Add in the fact that the skies are commonly partially-to-completely overcast for days at a time when inclement weather moves through and I'm going to need a ridiculously large battery bank to power the heater cables for 2-3 days at a stretch (just shy of 30 kWh worth). If in reality the heating cable only ran 20% of the time during even the worst conditions, that's about 6 kWh of storage needed, which is not terrible. But if I gambled on that and lost then the price would be burst plumbing and the need to manually haul water out to some thirsty goats until the weather warms and I can make repairs...something I very much want to avoid.
At this point the cost of the battery bank required for a safety margin, even ignoring the cost of all of the other equipment, makes it seem like it would be cheaper in both the short and long term to just pay an electrician to run electricity from the house to the stable. Or am I screwing something up somewhere along the way in my thinking here?