Solar Power for the Off Grid Cabin

Описание: So here are my initial observations, if you have questions please ask them in the comments

The 5 panels are wired "in series", meaning end-to-end in a chain, 5 is the number that's optimal for this inverter, the limit is the input voltage and that goes up each time you add a panel to the chain, but, you can wire more packs of five panels "in parallel" and what this does is simple, and well worth it, it allows the battery to still charge pretty fast in low light. Panels are cheap for what you get now so it's well worth having as many as you can buy. In this case you'd want 5,10,15,20 and so on. Solar panels do not like partial shadows and keeping them pointed directly at the sun gives a significant advantage.

It's worth noting that these systems can get hugely complex and sophisticated, I've chosen something that's a good place to start and something more simple to learn and maintain.

Batteries buffer load demand and of course run things when solar and other power input sources fail, the bigger the battery the longer you can keep things up and running with low sunlight in bad weather for example. Batteries are expensive, using salvaged Tesla batteries is interesting because of their reasonable cost and their compact nature. The more batteries the less funds you will have for hunting and gathering, chasing a mate etc. The battery is "intelligent", there's some electronics and other components in there, it's not an easy thing to fix if it fails, this should be considered.

If you have a flowing water source that can be a game changer, even a small 500 watt micro hydro can keep your batteries charged effectively.

What are inverters for? The inverter, in this case the blue box, is a sophisticated software and electronics device that manages the relationship between the input power sources and output power sources, it's a bit like a cop at an intersection when the cars are the electricity and there's ambulances coming through from time to time.

Grid tied systems - if you have the ability to sell electricity to your electricity provider then in theory you can use the grid like a giant battery (infinite in any practical sense) but you still need an actually battery or course. In theory you can pay off your system like this, somehow I don't think corporate electricity suppliers are going to make this fair or simple. Why would they?

Costs, economies of scale - these things are not really quite cheap enough yet but they're well on the way there and improving all the time, there will clearly be large economies of scale even with three or more houses sharing a system. They work of course better where you have more sunlight, on the top of hills or in hot countries. Once I treble up my five panels the stats will be really interesting. It seems my 3KW inverter is already a little on the low power side for my needs. I think you maybe can daisy-chain those too, we'll see.

New battery tech is also evolving fast, energy density is the issue and it's still a long way off liquid fuels and a galactic distance from nuclear fuels, also those promoting the destruction of the liquid fuel markets and industry are now dragging solar/battery/inverter solutions into a them-or-us type political fight which is dumb as both have their place and compliment each other well as you saw with my little generator.

Note also that solar electric is a 20% efficient energy conversion, solar thermal (heating water direct with the sun) is 80% efficient, if you want to heat hot water for the tap then solar thermal is cheap, reliable and highly effective. To heat a house, a small house, well insulated then simple wood burners are still a very good option.

Imagine your solar power system is like a piece of factory machinery, to get the most energy usage from it it needs to be running as much as possible, the way to achieve this is to make use of the excess energy, we'll address this in future videos as it's an endless subject, feel free to ask questions in the comments below, I'll answer fast.

Inverters and battery management systems are complex electronics and software, they are very reliable now but can fail. If you're in the middle of nowhere and weeks away from expert help then building in redundancy makes a whole lot of sense.

Also consider there's likely to be a market crash (many can't understand why this has not happened already) and that will make everything unpredictable and thus the whole off grid plan or having it as a backup plan seems to make sense, if you have kids building something like this and involving them can be a fantastic adventure.

Google "SHTF" , "prepping" or "bug out", you'll see lots of people that don't seem to realize that in a survival or great depression like situation community and practical ability is everything, we're trying to build this channel into a rational off grid, homesteading and technology community, you support and interest is greatly appreciated, please share our videos!