Brad Abdul

Thanks so much for the breakdown! 1.5 hours of sunlight in winter is a scary thought. Sounds like I'm going to have to consider some alternatives as well to make it more feasible.

Holy smokes, this is all great info.

Thanks so much!!!

That's awesome, thank you so much for the info!  Do you have any suggestions on panels in the States that I can look into? I'm close to the Maine border, so it might be an option to pick up or have them shipped to a P.O box out there.

John F Dean wrote:It would be good if we could get a better idea of your location both geographically based well as exposure to the sun in terms of land contour and trees.

A generator is a good idea as a backup. I would suggest a dual fuel.  

Yes, definitely! We will be moving to New Brunswick, Canada. We'll be close to the Maine border in a place called Howard Brook. I've tried to look at average sunlight hours and such, as well as wind speeds for a potential turbine down the line but I couldn't find any reliable resources to estimate those. If you have an idea of where I can leverage that info, that would be great!

Hey all!

I've been trying to figure out solar power for a little while now and it's been a struggle. There's a lot of lingo, a lot of equipment, and a lot of environmental considerations to take into account but I'm hoping that all you seasoned Permies will be able to help me through.

To start, we calculated that we will need about 1500 watts per day across all our electronics (phone chargers, iPad charger, DC fridge, lights, fans, television, wifi router, etc). From what I understand—and, please, correct me if I'm wrong—what we need is a battery bank that can provide that wattage, and an energy system that can efficiently produce the energy for those batteries.

Solar power seems to have a lot of considerations and plenty of opinions surrounding it. However, I did source this set from Renogy: https://ca.renogy.com/renogy-new-600-watt-24-volt-solar-premium-kit/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwiqWHBhD2ARIsAPCDzakZCwWR3iDLJRRFP0JWa_gJVOUBV2_NPXIEYfiTdLIBNrFNezC674UaAvdtEALw_wcB and it seems to make sense for what we need? Thinking this system can generate 600 watts per hour (give or take, once converted to AC) of pure sunlight, I would only need a handful of hours to fully charge batteries and be functioning comfortably within my total usage. I don't know if this is a good set, if my thinking is correct, or if this is a solar set that is meant to be a grid-tie system (which I have recently learned is very different from off-grid solar).

Additionally, we thought the use of a propane generator as a backup would be a good idea, however, I'm unfamiliar with the generators, if they are an efficient/cost-effective means as a backup, and if they would just charge the battery bank the same way as the solar panels?

Any other thoughts for producing this kind of power in a cost-effective way?

In short:

HELP!

Thanks, all!  

Hey all! I've been doing some research into different energy options to run a tiny home off-grid. It looks like solar is just the common Avenue with the odd wind turbine thrown in to supplement in the winter and on non-sunny days. That said, I have no clue what sort of set up I would need in order to run a tiny home. There won't be much to it—a refrigerator, lights, charging devices like phones etc and that's really about it. I plan on running the rest on propane where possible.

Does anyone have suggestions on how much capacity I should be looking at for that kind of demand?

Thanks!!

That's a good point! I don't think we've got a lot of risk in the earthquake department, we're building inland in New Brunswick, so not commonly known for earthquakes. Doesn't mean that it's not something to consider to have good ties.

Thanks for the advice!

Hey! I'm not 100% sure how the installation will be done but I could imagine a crane would be the most logical method. There is a slight slope from South to north on the property, so factoring a path for water is definitely something to consider.  Thanks so much for the info! I like the idea of working smarter, not harder!

Okay awesome. Yeah, the builder advised that the crawl space is typically something like 2 feet and is skirted for insulation and protection from elements. I think he mentioned something like a plastic drop sheet to contain moisture as well.

Okay, that's great, thank you so much!

Thanks! We were thinking of possibly doubling up on slabs and slapping some wet concrete between them to bind and let cure. The thought was to have something a bit thicker to take the weight of the structure but I'm not sure if that would be necessary with a structure this small.