Weekend cabin for cold weather advice

[12VoltInstalls]

good reviews on some good safe 12v lights

12V lighting

Lights installed from my post above. As you can see; lots of light! The two of them combined only consume around 20 watts. I use these switches to control my 12v light and fan applications. The switches are fused, and you can pump a decent amount of juice through them...

diysolarforum.com

The inverter may not be able to “see” less than 5W

 

[12VoltInstalls]

far below freezing you also don't want to discharge them because the electrolyte can freeze and physically damage the plates

I had 8 lead acid marine batteries outside all last winter. Kept charge above 12.1 at its lowest. To my knowledge they didn’t freeze ever, although late Oct through part of Dec I damaged them with weeks on end of insufficient solar when the max was 12.3-ish volts. Once I set up some supplemental to stay around 12.8 over the winter it was ok, but this summer proved (by previous multiple year history with four and six batteries being sufficient in summer) that I hurt the batteries.

So yes, maintaining charged voltage makes a huge difference, but without discharging too low I don’t think freezing is a worry

 

[Stiffler]

You can say things like, “period,” “comma,” “quote,” “semicolon,” and “hyphen.” Then it won’t be a rambling jumble of words like a drunk man doing cocaine.

I'm also voice texting while I'm driving and working

 

[Stiffler]

View attachment 117361

If I were u I would put the lv2424 in the standby mode and just use it as a solar charge controller then buy a buck inverter or 2 to step down your 24 volt or your 48 volt system down to 12 volts to run all your lights and other 12v and when you need power then you kick on your inverter cuz the lv2424 idle consumption's for standby should be way less like the eg4 6500.... Which I've been dragging my. Feet in buying

 

[Checkthisout]

Also, if you like to tinker, your cabin is a good candidate for recovering generator waste heat to help warm the place up.

Inverter gens work good for this.

 

[Scoutmaster]

Winter Cabin update.
Winter came super fast. 2 feet of snow and still way below freezing. I pulled the lv2424 out last week on my snowmobile.
I’m running a basic 2000w inverter and 1 Sok 100ah battery and a 15amp battery charger. One of my SOK’s was shipped back to replace a cell and the BMS. Lithium batteries might solve 1 problem but they have a created a few new ones.
I have 2 AGM 100ah batteries up at the cabin and hoping to install my battery switch so I can swap back and forth between batteries.
The 400w of solar is covered in snow-ice so unfortunately I don’t think I'm going to pull much Solar this winter.

I ran the generator last weekend on about 2 gallons of gas which charged the battery enough to watch tv and use string lights.

Overall I continue to be pretty humbled but I’m still going to have an awesome winter just running the generator and changing batteries.
Next year I’ll make another stab at it.

 

[12VoltInstalls]

The 400w of solar is covered in snow-ice so unfortunately I don’t think I'm going to pull much Solar this winter.

Adjust them to vertically oriented
No snow/ice accumulation most of the time

What’s on there will melt off or sublimate in a few weeks I’d bet

 

[Scoutmaster]

Adjust them to vertically oriented
No snow/ice accumulation most of the time

Thanks I was going to just mount them to the exterior cabin walls but the winter storm hit early…I didn’t have the correct wiring to configure them.

What’s on there will melt off or sublimate in a few weeks I’d bet

I definitely am happy i didn’t roof mount them. I think vertical during the winter is the only realistic option. This is my neighbors shearing off last winter.
Even if I mount on my front wall which gets the only sun…there is a chance the snow gets Deeper than that 7 foot wall.
I built the simple frame out of 2x3s in a snow storm but need to modify to hold panels vertical. I get 1-2 hours of sun on a good day in the winter.

 

[12VoltInstalls]

get 1-2 hours of sun on a good day in the winter.

Uggh!

 

[Scoutmaster]

Uggh!

I think because of your advice ..I’ll probably drag up new marine batteries from Costco for $89 each maybe 3… and then use a battery switch to my 2 SOK 100ah 12v when the cabin warms up.
I’ll hook each up to 200w-400w of Solar and give each set there own battery charger from the generator.
I’ll run the generator for 1-2 hours morning and night. It will get the job done.
I have a remote start generator so it’s easy to turn in on/off when I want to make coffee/microwave etc.
I’m giving up on my big dreams and being realistic. To much snow and to little sun during the winter to rely on solar. My cabin sits on Forrest service land so I have limits to what I can install on the land and building. I think next year I can build a shed if I get approved and put solar/batteries etc inside/on it.
I have propane lightning and tons of wood for heat. It has the ability to be super primitive if needed.

 

[x98myers7]

honestly, for situations like this a 2kw inverter genset is the best option. for $450 you can get a predator brand from harbor freight.

otherwise, for cold weather.... as others have said, use lead acid. I really like GC2 type 6v batteries for that application. cheap and easy.

 

[Wakintx]

Have to look them up but Will mentioned rv grey water tank heating pads for batteries or there are 12volt car seat heating pads you could possibly use to heat the lifepo4 batteries. As mentioned your BMS needs to prevent charging cold batteries. Good old lead batteries come in handy at times.

I have one AIO system and one with individual components and not certain if I would buy another all in one or not.