Hi, this first post will be a pretty much non-technical brief summary about why we did what we did.
When I met my husband (2015) he'd already had and lived on the 8 acres for about 6 years, built a small one-room cabin by hand out of scrap lumber, donated windows, etc. He hauled water from a lake nearby, filled drinking water jugs at friends, and for power - propane stove for cooking, woodstove for heat, a little windmill up on the high spot that had recently seized up (high windstorm), an old generator to charge up 2 car batteries, and a 1000w inverter to run a couple lights and a TV for a few hours a day. We lived like that for a year; loved it.
Our second year, we decided to make this place our permanent home...and to 'improve' it to make life a little easier so we could stay here when we got really old & feeble, lol, in our 60's now. Briefly considered having power run in - but it would have been over $35K for this far out, so nope. Mostly though, just wanted to stay 'un-hooked', so stand alone system was the choice.
First was to have the well drilled - so we'd know depth & therefore pump requirements... and what kind of power was needed to run it. Ended up at 200'. Too many options/choices...and my knowledge was general rather than deep enough to make a good selection - so I called in a pro to help design based on our needs. Over the summer of 2016, we built an addition on to the cabin and incorporated a 'power room' in that, for the battery bank (16 Rolls 6v, 428AMH, configured for 24V) and all the component parts. Also built a treated 4x4 framework for the 9-panel array (crystalline, 235w each), which is 100' up above the cabin.
Though comfortable doing all the house wiring, etc, we decided to have this system installed by a pro. We did all the build & trenching; he did the hookup. Also having him come up once a year to give everything a good check-over; we maintain the 2 ton (lol) worth of batteries, checking every 6wks for h2o levels, topping them off, and if they need to be equalized we do that then. Been over a year now, so far all good.
It was likely an over-build. I dont care, even though the pro said we could get by with a smaller system. The main thing was and is - sufficient watts coming down the hill to keep an oversized battery bank charged (it only dropped once below 90% after a week-long rain last summer, so we fired up the gen to top them up) to meet our needs.
Our needs? 220v Water pump. Efficient (480kw/yr) GE fridge/freezer <-and that can be shut off, if needed.
Our extras? Lights, TV, Washer(110), fans
Our biggest surprise? There was so much power coming down in the full sun over this last summer that we were able to use a stand up window vented air conditioner - for the few days it got over 90 up here - and the batteries didn't drop off 100% while using it.
I'll post some pics later, and happy to answer any questions. I think I still have the spec sheet somewhere on everything in the system, and can post more particulars if anybody wants.
And since you're probably curious as hell - the 'parts' ran just over $12K and the 'labor' was $4K. The labor included not only the install - but the design, ordering, receiving, hauling everything way up here, and working with us to do it spread out over several months...as we got the needed infrastructures built.
All comments welcome.
When I met my husband (2015) he'd already had and lived on the 8 acres for about 6 years, built a small one-room cabin by hand out of scrap lumber, donated windows, etc. He hauled water from a lake nearby, filled drinking water jugs at friends, and for power - propane stove for cooking, woodstove for heat, a little windmill up on the high spot that had recently seized up (high windstorm), an old generator to charge up 2 car batteries, and a 1000w inverter to run a couple lights and a TV for a few hours a day. We lived like that for a year; loved it.
Our second year, we decided to make this place our permanent home...and to 'improve' it to make life a little easier so we could stay here when we got really old & feeble, lol, in our 60's now. Briefly considered having power run in - but it would have been over $35K for this far out, so nope. Mostly though, just wanted to stay 'un-hooked', so stand alone system was the choice.
First was to have the well drilled - so we'd know depth & therefore pump requirements... and what kind of power was needed to run it. Ended up at 200'. Too many options/choices...and my knowledge was general rather than deep enough to make a good selection - so I called in a pro to help design based on our needs. Over the summer of 2016, we built an addition on to the cabin and incorporated a 'power room' in that, for the battery bank (16 Rolls 6v, 428AMH, configured for 24V) and all the component parts. Also built a treated 4x4 framework for the 9-panel array (crystalline, 235w each), which is 100' up above the cabin.
Though comfortable doing all the house wiring, etc, we decided to have this system installed by a pro. We did all the build & trenching; he did the hookup. Also having him come up once a year to give everything a good check-over; we maintain the 2 ton (lol) worth of batteries, checking every 6wks for h2o levels, topping them off, and if they need to be equalized we do that then. Been over a year now, so far all good.
It was likely an over-build. I dont care, even though the pro said we could get by with a smaller system. The main thing was and is - sufficient watts coming down the hill to keep an oversized battery bank charged (it only dropped once below 90% after a week-long rain last summer, so we fired up the gen to top them up) to meet our needs.
Our needs? 220v Water pump. Efficient (480kw/yr) GE fridge/freezer <-and that can be shut off, if needed.
Our extras? Lights, TV, Washer(110), fans
Our biggest surprise? There was so much power coming down in the full sun over this last summer that we were able to use a stand up window vented air conditioner - for the few days it got over 90 up here - and the batteries didn't drop off 100% while using it.
I'll post some pics later, and happy to answer any questions. I think I still have the spec sheet somewhere on everything in the system, and can post more particulars if anybody wants.
And since you're probably curious as hell - the 'parts' ran just over $12K and the 'labor' was $4K. The labor included not only the install - but the design, ordering, receiving, hauling everything way up here, and working with us to do it spread out over several months...as we got the needed infrastructures built.
All comments welcome.