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diy solar

Small campground setup

shannibalhector3

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Oct 7, 2021
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Hello, I'm new to solar and looking to setup a system to power a small campground that will include a community cabin and 3 RV campsites. My question is would it be better to build a large central system at the cabin and distribute power to the 3 RV sites from it OR build individual smaller systems at each site? I've attached a drawing with approximate distances from cabin to RV sites and specs of panels I'm thinking of buying. Thanks for any advice on setup and whether these panels will do the job.
 

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What exactly do you wish to provide at each RV campsite? 12VDC or 110VAC (30A or 50A)?

Will this be completely off grid and powered by solar?

How do you want to handle 3 big RVs plugged in at the same time and using 3000W each all day and night?

How do you want to handle a week of crappy weather and little solar to recharge your batteries while the RVs crave more power?

How shaded is this area (at the cabin and at each site)?

Do you want each site to have just an outlet for the RV or do you want lots of equipment (inverter, charge controller, solar panels, etc.) at each site?

There are so many questions that need to be answered before you even think about narrowing down your choice of solar panels.
 
This will be a completely off grid communal living environment powered by solar and generators on a hilltop in eastern Tennessee. The cabin gets full sunlight, RV sites are shaded. The RVs will be using lights, small fans, laptops, mini fridges daily and small AC units during summer months. Cabin will have a full size refrigerator/freezer and fans running full time with Coffee maker and lights running when needed. Everyone is mindful of the need to conserve power.

What exactly do you wish to provide at each RV campsite? 12VDC or 110VAC (30A or 50A)?

Will this be completely off grid and powered by solar?

How do you want to handle 3 big RVs plugged in at the same time and using 3000W each all day and night?

How do you want to handle a week of crappy weather and little solar to recharge your batteries while the RVs crave more power?

How shaded is this area (at the cabin and at each site)?

Do you want each site to have just an outlet for the RV or do you want lots of equipment (inverter, charge controller, solar panels, etc.) at each site?

There are so many questions that need to be answered before you even think about narrowing down your choice of solar panels.
 
This will be a completely off grid communal living environment powered by solar and generators on a hilltop in eastern Tennessee. The cabin gets full sunlight, RV sites are shaded. The RVs will be using lights, small fans, laptops, mini fridges daily and small AC units during summer months. Cabin will have a full size refrigerator/freezer and fans running full time with Coffee maker and lights running when needed. Everyone is mindful of the need to conserve power.
I'm working with $5,000 to set something up. I can get the panels I mentioned for $130 each which seems like a decent price so was hoping to be able to use those. I am new to all of this but I'm very capable of learning and setting it up myself. I just need help choosing the right components and any advice I can get. Any assistance is GREATLY appreciated ?
 
This will be a completely off grid communal living environment powered by solar and generators on a hilltop in eastern Tennessee. The cabin gets full sunlight, RV sites are shaded. The RVs will be using lights, small fans, laptops, mini fridges daily and small AC units during summer months. Cabin will have a full size refrigerator/freezer and fans running full time with Coffee maker and lights running when needed. Everyone is mindful of the need to conserve power.
One system for all sites will be far cheaper.

RVs are not exactly knows for their high insulation value and electrical efficiency.
 
To start you really need to do an energy audit so you can determine how much power you really need. Then you can work out how much battery you need and then how much solar you need.

It would also help to answer the questions I posted earlier. You only touched on a couple of them so far.

With the limited budget you are going to have a difficult time getting enough battery storage, solar panels, charge controllers, inverters, and all the bits and pieces together to power 3 sites plus the cabin. But put together the numbers and we can go from there.
 
To start you really need to do an energy audit so you can determine how much power you really need. Then you can work out how much battery you need and then how much solar you need.
I have a feeling your $5k budget will be less than you need to run any single RV or Cabin.

My system costed more than that for my RV and I do not think of running AC off of it. My biggest draw was 220 ah in one day or 3kw. That was mostly the propane blower motor on the whole night. Also, the fridge was propane along with stove and oven cooking. I can watch all the TV I want, put all the lights on I want (both of which is next to no power). For high wattage stuff, I can brew all the coffee I want off my 500 watt Kuerig Coffee maker, and warm, nor cook, with the microwave for for two minutes at a time for 4 - 6 times a day.

The power and batteries I mentioned above, even though I paid more, could be done for less than $5k if you did the labor yourself. The money I mentioned included me tooling up, so if you have "an awesome set of tools" could be cheaper.

If people staying in those cabins and RV spots I mentioned are not energy conscious, the power consumption will skyrocket. I could see an all electric fifth wheel consuming up to 30 kwh a day.
 
Yes a single system would be best. I would have 560 ah 24v battery and four 1000watt inverters to limit each site to that power level. This central plant would be in or near the cabin and primarily charged with solar. Bury some underground cable to each site and provide a single 15 amp connector.

NO air conditioning, NO microwave, NO electric heaters. Everything in the RV needs to run off propane or the included 12v system except for small items like a laptop or television. RV fridge and hot water on propane only. Put all the solar you can on it. Make sure they are chipping in to expand as needed for the next season.

Anything else would be a BYOBig generator and fuel.

Just my random thoughts, best of luck ;)
 
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Yes a single system would be best. I would have 560 ah 24v battery and four 1000watt inverters to limit each site to that power level. NO air conditioning, NO microwave, NO electric heaters. Everything in the RV needs to run off propane or the included 12v system except for small items like a laptop or television. RV fridge and hot water on propane only. Put all the solar you can on it. Make sure they are chipping in to expand as needed for the next season.

Anything else would be a BYOBig generator and fuel.

Just my random thoughts, best of luck ;)
i like this idea. I would do something like this since you have a very tight budget. I would suggest smaller cells like 100ah make 4 to 6 24v v batteries. Batteries would have to be carried to cabin daily to charge. if you really want to run AC plan to spend well over 10k.
 
Just to throw the idea out there, what about a power shack and distributed inverters? Just kinda thinking out loud here... buuuuttt:

Small shed for housing the SCC's and 48v battery packs...
4 mounted 3000w 48v inverters
All the batteries and inverters connect to bus bars with AWHonking-ass wire in case of full load
The SCC's would connect to the bus bars, a generator/battery charger wired in for the bad weather times...
Each inverter would power 1 camp site at 120v/30a for the RV plug...
The cabin input would just be straight from one of the inverters...
When someone plugs in, pop into the shack and turn that inverter on, otherwise leave it off to avoid the offline draw load thingy...

You get more panels? Run them into the shack, no need to sacrifice space in the tiny cabin. Run conduit and put up posts at each parking spot, let people bring their own extension cords. Got more batteries? Throw 'em on the bus bars as you expand. It seems the idea would allow you to start smaller, save money on batteries to spend on the infrastructure, then upgrade to stacks of LiFe's later down the line. Trying to get all that stuff under a budget you have to make sacrifices and starting with WallyWorld FLA's is a LOT of up-front savings and easy enough to replace later. Just insulate the shack well and make it at least twice as big as you think you'll need so you don't have to pay for lumber again later.

Just a thought...
 
Can you do it in phases? Get the cabin set up for high demand loads first.

Then in a year or so add on to equipment in the cabin (additional battery storage and PV panels) to provide 30a outlets for each RV site?
 
a single location for all the hardware is likely the easiest to build/maintain. However as single system it also creates the issue of the super user crashing the system because they think they are on the grid running the coffee machine, microwave, air conditioner and hair dryer all at the same time.

I also am in agreement with 4 isolated inverters (3kw 48v growatts would be my first choice) at a single location. However I would build 4 separate systems. Again I'd hate for the super user to kill the single battery for all 4 sites. If I'm being conservative with my use I'd be pissed my neighbor drained the battery because they couldn't comprehend/communicate the limitations of the off grid system.

You could have one central array but divided into 4 sections for the 4 inverters.

For my dual growatt system at 5500w PV. Its short on panels now that I have enough battery. (its been running for a year now) I'm having to change the mount and I'll add about another 3kw of panels at the same time. Turns out growatt did well at matching the 4kw array to a 3kw inverter. Based on my cost I would ballpark the avg 3kw growatt system to run you about $5K each. Not including the cost of a sizeable shed to put all the hardware in and a decent permanent mount generator that will take autostart commands from the growatts. (id likely shoot for something in the 10Kw size)

My price is right bid for a workable reasonable system for all sites is no less than $30K.
 
My price is right bid for a workable reasonable system for all sites is no less than $30K.
I agree with that with one caveat. If the RV sites are filled up with fifth wheels with double Aor COnditioners, electric fridges, and they turn their electric hot water heaters on to save on propane, I’m not positive this could push that power.

If this is a for pay campground, I think finding people willing to save energy would be hard. They’ll want a 50 amp hookup to run 2 ACs simeltaneously, and a 30 amp hookup to run one AC. Both will be unlimited microwave usage and electric hot water.

If the people going to this place will respect energy conservation, then that is possible.
 
There was another thread posted within the past year or so with the same idea. Similar questions, similar answers. See if you can find that thread as it may provide most of what you're looking for. I don't know that the author of that thread ever implemented the idea.

People that are used to boondocking are very familiar with conserving energy. Folks that never stray out of campgrounds can be energy hogs.
 
Oof.

Every time I see "small AC" in context of RVs I often hear it followed up with "you know, less than 15k btu".

And then suddenly we're talking about 30kwh of battery to run it all night.
 
Electricity is Harry Potter level of magic to most people. You move a stick and lights turn on.

A neighbor tried to setup an little low income off-grid RV park on his property. He mostly provided the RVs. A few solar panels on the roof and a few batteries for power. Everyone was instructed on how to read the meters and power management. All killed the batteries within 3 months. He gave up after a few years as the time he spent replacing batteries and running generators for them was not worth it.
 
Electricity is Harry Potter level of magic to most people. You move a stick and lights turn on.

A neighbor tried to setup an little low income off-grid RV park on his property. He mostly provided the RVs. A few solar panels on the roof and a few batteries for power. Everyone was instructed on how to read the meters and power management. All killed the batteries within 3 months. He gave up after a few years as the time he spent replacing batteries and running generators for them was not worth it.
"Man this battery is really good! I used it all night long and it still reads 10 volts! Nowhere near empty!"
 
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This situation is kind of like driving a rental car. I drive that thing like I stole it. Pedal to the metal, let's burn some rubber. If you're not directly paying for the power then you're going to use it like it's an infinite supply.
 
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This situation is kind of like driving a rental car. I drive that thing like I stole it. Pedal to the metal, let's burn some rubber. If you're not directly paying for the power then you're going to use it like it's an infinite supply.
I loathe weekenders who camp for the sake of camping but roll up to their sleek gloss black 60 foot triple axle seasonal sites with 2 or 3 ACs running from the time they arrive to the time they leave.

I mean if you enjoy that go nuts but good lord do they absolutely disrespect the hell out of their power connection. I had one site that shared a pole with one of them and my 5000btu ac compressor stalled the first time it tried to start after they turned theirs on.

Hit it with a meter and I had 101v in my camper. I explained it to them and asked if they could at least turn one of them off only when they left and they told me to fuck off. The Saturday I was there, they were long gone all during the hottest part of the day.

So I just roasted all weekend. 97F and >80% humidity.
 
I loathe weekenders who camp for the sake of camping but roll up to their sleek gloss black 60 foot triple axle seasonal sites with 2 or 3 ACs running from the time they arrive to the time they leave.

I mean if you enjoy that go nuts but good lord do they absolutely disrespect the hell out of their power connection. I had one site that shared a pole with one of them and my 5000btu ac compressor stalled the first time it tried to start after they turned theirs on.

Hit it with a meter and I had 101v in my camper. I explained it to them and asked if they could at least turn one of them off only when they left and they told me to fudge off. The Saturday I was there, they were long gone all during the hottest part of the day.

So I just roasted all weekend. 97F and >80% humidity.

"Honestly, I have no idea how your circuit breaker got tripped. Maybe you have something wrong with your electrical system?"
 
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