Solar Suggestions for Tiny House

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!!

Hey Brad,

We installed this system on our small house (384 sqft) coupled with a 20 kilowatt flood lead acid battery bank so effectively 10 kilowatts.  I would start by making a load calculation spreadsheet to give yourself a rough idea what you need.  

Load calc spreadsheet is key.

So is insolation info for your site. Can't know what you need in terms of panels or batteries without knowing how much sun is available to harvest.


I have a 2100w array and a nominal 9.6KW 24V LiFePO4 bank. In the rainy PNW, it`s barely enough in midwinter for fridge, lights, laptop, and power tool batteries up to electric chainsaws; in summer it`s plenty for that plus slowcookers, a few growlights, 3/4HP irrigation pump, etc.

(Or at least it was, until my Sinopoly batteries began showing signs of very premature aging. Not sure what I'd do next time, but not likely these...)