solar off grid cabins and cottages

7/30/2019 Solar Off Grid Cabins and Cottages

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Off-Grid Solar-Electric Systems

Although they are most common in remote locations without utility grid service, off-grid solar-electric systems can work anywhere. These systems operate independently from the grid to provide all of a household’s electricity. That means noelectric bills and no blackouts—at least none caused by grid failures. People choose to live off-grid for a variety of reasons,including the prohibitive cost of bringing utility lines to remote homesites, the appeal of an independent lifestyle, or thegeneral reliability a solar-electric system provides. Those who choose to live off-grid often need to make adjustments towhen and how they use electricity, so they can live within the limitations of the system’s design. This doesn’t necessarilyimply doing without, but rather is a shift to a more conscientious use of electricity.

r Off Grid Cabins and Cottages http://www.wsetech.com/offgrid.php

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Off Grid Homes

Off Grid living

Stand Alone Solar Systems

with Generator backup

More Info

If you would like a free design contact us with a description of your project [email protected]

Heat your existing Cabin or Cottage Domestic Hot Water with Solar

Checkout $897 Sale Price

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Solar Water Heating


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Let us do a free design analysis for your cottage

To do a solar design and financial analysis of your home or buildingRequire the followingYour geographic locationHow many persons living in your homeWhat you are currently using for heat source, natural gas, electricity , propane, oil, woodSize of home or building Number of floorslook forward to doing your free analysis

If you would like a free design contact us with a description of your project [email protected]

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WSE has been involved with several off grid applications like the one below on a remote island in northernSaskatchewan.

Each application is a bit different but the concepts are much the same

WSE is also partnered with Vereco Net Zero Homes and would be happy to design and build your your nextnet zero off grid cottage or cabin

Below is some examples of a cabin on a remote island in Northern Saskatchewan

This particular design was for summer usage only

On Demand Water

The cabin is about 150 feet from shore and about 50 feet above the water.

The first pump is placed as close to the water as possible. A 12 volt deep cycle battery is positioned near the pump. The battery to connected to the main battery source with 12 gauge wire. An on/off switch is requiredto turn off when not requiring water.

The battery is connected is connected to the solar panels using 12 gauge wire to trickle charge the battery. Insome cases a small 20 watt PV panel could be used to charge the batter instead of stringing the 12 volt wire.


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The second pump is at the cabin supplying the cold water supply and the WSE47-20 solar hot water heater.The pump is connected to the main battery supply thru an on/off switch.

The WSE47-20 incorporates a float valve which turns off the water supply when the 140 liter tank is full.

The WSE47 -20 supplies the hot water for your hot water needs

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Low Cost Solar Domestic Water

Heating for your Cabin

This system is a dream come true for cabin owners thatwant a low cost solar domestic water heating


The third pump supplies the hot water to the cabin.

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Installed 2 - 100 watt solar panels and connected thru 30 amp solar controller.


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25 Watt 12 volt Thin Film Panels on sale for $62.50

WSE can do free analysis to determine your PV and battery requirementsPlease check the WSE Polysun analysis of a cabin in La Ronge Saskatchewan using 2,000 watts a day

link to analysis


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Solar Controller

Ensures battery doesn't overcharge from Solar panels

Includes battery gauge

PV voltage

Battery voltage

Charge current and wattage


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Favorite Battery

6 volt 220AH

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The Freedom HF Inverter/Chargers are the smallest, lightest, and least expensive

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Living on Remote Island in Saskatchewan with all the Solar Toys


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The WSE Aluminum Strip Light is a great product that works in many different applications.

The Aluminum Strip Light is a 12VDC unit and is available in both warm white and cool white, as well as50cm and 100cm lengths.

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Off-Grid System Sizing

The size of an off-grid solar electric system depends on the amount of power that is required (watts), theamount of time it is used (hours) and the amount of energy available from the sun

Be Energy Conservative

Being concersative plays an important role in keeping down the cost of a photovoltaic system. The use of


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energy-efficient appliances and lighting, as well as non-electric alternatives wherever possible, can makesolar electricity a cost-competitive alternative to gasoline generators and, in some cases, utility power.

Cooking, Heating and Cooling

Conventional electric cooking, space heating and water heating equipment use a prohibitive amount of electricity. Electric ranges use 1500 watts or more per burner, so bottled propane or natural gas is a popular alternative to electricity for cooking. A microwave oven has about the same power draw, but since foodcooks more quickly, the amount of kilowatt hours used may not be large. Propane, wood or solar-heatedwater are generally better alternatives for space heating. Good passive solar design and proper insulationcan reduce the need for winter heating. Evaporative cooling is a more reasonable load than air conditioningand in locations with low humidity, the results are almost as good. One big plus for solar cooling: the largestamount of solar energy is available when the need for cooling is the greatest.

Lighting

Lighting requires the most study since many options exist in type, size, voltage and placement. The type of lighting that is best for one system may not be right for another. The first decision iswhether your lights will be run on low voltage direct current (DC) or conventional 120-volt alternating current (AC). In a smallhome, an RV, or a boat, low voltage DC lighting is often the best choice.DC wiring runs can be kept short, allowing the use of fairly small gauge wire. Since an inverter is notrequired, the system cost is lower. When an inverter is part of the system, and the lights are powereddirectly by the battery, a home will not be dark if the inverter fails. In addition to conventional-sizemedium-base low voltage bulbs, the user can choose from a large selection of DC fluorescent lights, whichhave 3 to 4 times the light output per watt

of power used compared with incandescent types. High quality fluorescent lights are available for 12- and24-volt systems. LED lighting is improving rapidly and already meets or beats the light output andefficiency of fluourescent lighting.

Refrigeration

Gas powered absorption refrigerators are a good choice in small systems if bottled gas is available. Modernabsorption refrigerators consume 5-10 gallons of LP gas/month. If an electric refrigerator will be used in astandalone system, it should be a high-efficiency type. Some high-efficiency conventional AC refrigeratorsuse aslittle as 1200 watt-hours of electricity/day at a 70º average air temperature.Major Appliances

Standard AC electric motors in washing machines, larger shop machinery and tools, swamp coolers, pumps,etc. (usually 1/4 to 3/4 horsepower) require a large inverter. Often, a 2000 watt or larger inverter will berequired. These electric motors are sometimes hard to start on inverter power, they consume relatively large

amounts of electricity, and they are very wasteful compared to high-efficiency motors, which use 50% to75% less electricity. Astandard washing machine uses between 300 and 500 watt-hours per load, but new front-loading models useless than 1/2 as much power. If the appliance is used more than a few hours per week, it is often cheaper to pay more for a high-efficiency appliance rather than make your electrical system larger to support a lowefficiency load. Vacuum cleaners usually consume 600 to 1,000 watts, depending on how powerful they are,about twice what awasher uses, but most vacuum cleaners will operate on inverters larger than 1,000 watts since they havelow-surge motors.Small AppliancesMany small appliances such as irons, toasters and hair dryers consume a very large amount of power whenthey are used but by their nature require very short or infrequent use periods. If the system inverter and batteries are large enough, they will be usable. Electronic equipment, such as stereos, televisions, VCRs andcomputers have a fairly small power draw. Many of these are available in low voltage DC as well as

conventional AC versions.In general, DC models use less power than their AC counterparts

Designing Stand Alone PV System

Living off the grid is a romantic ambition for some, a practical necessity for others. But whatever your motivation for off-grid living, cutting the electrical umbilical cord from the utility shouldn't be taken lightly.Before you pull out the calculator, size up the realities and challenges of living off the grid. Then, onceyou're stand-alone system.Design ConsiderationsDesigning a stand-alone PV system differs substantially from designing a batteryless grid-direct system.Instead of meeting the home's annual demand, a stand-alone system must be able to meet energyrequirements every day of the year. The PV system must be able to keep the battery bank charged-or include a generator for backup-because once the last amp-hour is drawn, the lights go out (see "Backup

Generators" sidebar).Efficiency first! This long-standing mantra for PV system design still holds true and is especially importantfor offgridsystems. Every $1 spent using energy efficiently is estimated to save between $3 and $5 on PV systemcosts. As a system designer, it's virtually impossible to mandate wise energy use by the end user, but we can


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specify efficient appliances, such as Energy Star refrigerators and clothes washers, and strategies, such asshifting loads to non-electric sources during times of low solar insolation. For more on efficiency andload-shifting.Energy Consumption and the Solar Resource. Carefully comparing the home's daily and seasonal energyusagewith the daily and seasonal availability of the sun will help prevent energy production shortages. Thisimportantstep involves a careful analysis of the home's changing seasonal load profile and the corresponding solar resource

throughout the year. Paramount to this analysis is the presence or absence of a backup charging source, suchas agenerator. If a backup charging source is not incorporated, the designer should choose as the design targetthe time of year when energy consumption is expected to be highest and the solar resource at its lowest-usually during thedepths of winter.Without a backup generator, a PV system must produce every watt-hour required, at all times of the year.This isoften a tall task during the winter months and typically results in a costly system that is oversized for therest of theyear. For this reason, stand-alone systems without a backup charging source are often limited to smaller,nonresidence applications, such as seasonal cabins.For systems with a backup charging source, more design flexibility means designers can use averageconsumption

numbers and peak sun-hour values. For example, they can choose to size the system at a time of year whenenergy consumption is not at its highest or lowest, but in the middle-say, a typical day in the fall or spring.Inaddition, they might use the specific location's average solar resource. Using the average for bothconsumption andsun-hours will strike a good balance between an affordable array size and generator run time. If minimalgenerator run time is desired, the array and battery bank may need to be upsized based on moreconservative consumption and sun-hour values. a prerequisite to energy design and production.

Size it Up: A Case StudyWho: The Ackerman-Leist familyWhere: Pawlet, Vermont, approximately 3/4 mile fromutility serviceSolar window: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.Average daily solar resource: 4.6 peak sun-hours*

System backup: 4 kW backup engine generator System voltage: 24 VDCProjected energy use (AC and DC): 2.2 kWh per dayExpected avg. ambient temperature for batteries: 60°FRecord low temperature: -35°FDesired days of autonomy: 3Desired battery depth of discharge: 50%Battery: 6 V nominal, 225 Ah, deep-cycle flooded lead-acidPV modules: 12 V nominal, 80 W STC , array tilt equal to thelatitude (43°)Charge controller: MPPT, 60 AArray mounting: Pole-mount*Peak sun-hours are based on Concord, New Hampshire,values, which more accurately reflect the site's latitude andweather patterns.

Step 1: Estimate Electric LoadDetermine the amount of energy (kWh or Wh) that will be consumed on a daily basis. If it is for a home notyet built, thiscan be a very involved and time-consuming step. A designer will need to work closely with thehomeowner/builder to realistically estimate the daily and seasonal energy requirements.The power (W) of individual loads and their estimated energy consumption (Wh) can be tallied to calculatethehousehold's average daily load. This step will help identify opportunities for efficiency improvements and pave the wayfor sizing the system components. The table below lists the electrical loads found in theAckerman-Leist household. The family heats their home with wood, cooks with wood and propane, uses a propane refrigerator, and heats their water with a solar thermal system and a backup propane boiler, sothose are not factors in the load analysis.According to the table, daily household loads average 1.8 AC kWh and 0.36 DC kWh (from the chestfreezer), totaling almost 2.2 kWh a day.

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Battery Bank Sizing

The average daily load is then used to calculate the battery requirements. The batteries must be able to storethe total daily load, in addition to the extra energy lost by inverting from direct current (DC) to alternatingcurrent (AC). Dividing the AC average daily load by the inverter efficiency (90% standard), inflates theaverage daily load that the batteries must store to account for efficiency losses from the inverter.While inverter manufacturers will commonly list "peak efficiency" (generally ranging from about 92% to95%), weuse a more conservative 90% to account for the fact that the actual operating efficiency depends on the ACload, which is constantly fluctuating. Hence, an inverter will rarely operate at the load level which results in peak efficiency.

The battery bank's ambient operating temperature is also taken into consideration, since temperature affectsa flooded lead-acid battery's internal resistance and ability to hold acharge. As temperatures fall below 80°F, battery capacity is reduced. A battery temperature multiplier table can be used-check with the batterymanufacturer for their specific correction factors.Days of autonomy is also an important design criterion, as it dictates how many days the battery bank willneedto sustain the average daily load when there is little or no sunshine to recharge it. It's a compromise betweenhavingenergy during overcast spells, how much time the generator will run, and the added cost of a larger battery bank. The more days of autonomy desired, the larger the battery bank.Generally three to five days of autonomy provides a good balance. Keep in mind that the larger the battery bank, the larger the PV array will need to be to recharge the bank sufficiently on a regular basis-or the morethe generator will be needed to pick up the slack.The last major design criterion for sizing batteries is the depth of discharge (DOD). While deep-cyclelead-acid batteries are designed to discharge 80% of their capacity, the deeper they are discharged on a regular basis,thefewer charge/discharge cycles they can provide over their lifetime. When choosing a DOD, strike a balance between longevity, cost, and the significant hassle of replacement.Many system designers will specify a 50% DOD to be used in the worksheet. Because several days of autonomy areaccounted for, which increases the battery bank size, the actual depth of discharge duringsunny weather will often be less than 20%. The DOD design value can greatly affect the cost of the battery bank. (For simplicity, the numbers from the load table have been rounded in the following equations.)(1,800 AC Wh Avg. Daily Load ÷ 0.9 Inv. Eff.) + 360 DC Wh Avg. Daily Load = 2,360 Wh/day2,360 Wh/day ÷ 24 DC System Volts = 98.3 654.7 ÷ 225 Ah individual battery capacity = 3 parallel battery strings (rounded up from 2.9)24 V system voltage ÷ 6 V battery voltage = 4 batteries inseries3 parallel strings x 4 batteries in series = 12 total batteries

The battery calculations indicate that a battery bank made up of 12 of the chosen 6 V, 225 Ah, floodedleadacid batteries will provide adequate storage to meet daily energy requirements, inverter efficiency losses,operatingtemperature effects, days of autonomy, and the desired average depth of discharge. The number of batteriesor series strings of batteries connected in parallel should be kept to a minimum, preferably three or less.This minimizes the chance of unequal charging from one battery or string to the next.While using higher-capacity batteries would have resulted in fewer parallel strings, the Ackerman-Leistschose lowe rcapacity batteries for budgetary reasons.Avg. Ah per day 98.3 x 1.11 battery temperaturemultiplier x 3 daysautonomy ÷ 0.5 DOD = 654.7 total system Ah

Batteries are rated by their capacity in amp-hours and at the rate that they are charged/discharged. In mostPV systems, the appropriate Ah rating to use is based on a discharge over 20 hours. Unlike shallow-cycle

vehicle batteries, deep-cycle batteries in PV systems are charged and discharged over 24 hours, and theweather, level of solar irradiance, and energy usage patterns all influence the charge/discharge scheme.In this system example, the battery could provide 225 Ah of stored energy-if discharged 100% over 20hours. If it were discharged faster, the capacity would be less, and vice versa. Be sure to check with the battery manufacturer, as they provide battery-specific Ah capacity values based on different


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charge/discharge rates. Choose the 20-hour rate when sizing and selecting batteries, unless a specific load profile dictates otherwise.

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Solar Panel Array Sizing

Now that we have calculated loads and storage, next calculate the array size in watts, and the number of PVmodules needed. The array calculations must include Wh per day (calculated from the average daily load),the location's solar resource, expressed in daily peak sun-hours, battery efficiency losses(about 20%), module temperature losses (about 12%), possible array shading, and a conservative deratemultiplier to account for things like wire losses, module soiling, and production tolerance.Peak sun-hours are the equivalent number of hours per day when solar irradiance (intensity) averages 1,000watts per square meter, as derived from the National Solar Radiation Database(http://rredc.nrel.gov/solar/pubs/redbook/).

Dividing the Wh required by the location's peak sun-hours leaves us with the initial PV array watts needed.For this sizing example, the solar data for Concord, New Hampshire (at 43.2°N) provides the closestestimate of the solar resource for Pawlet, Vermont (at 43.3°N) at an array tilt angle equal to latitude. Sincethis system is using a backup generator, the average daily peak sun-hours can be used (4.6), as the generator can cover energy shortages during periods of low insolation or high energy consumption-or both. If lessgenerator run time is desired, the array size must be increased or daily energy consumption must be reducedappropriately (or both).Battery efficiency: Since batteries are not 100% efficient in converting electrical energy into chemicalenergy and back again, the array size must be increased to account for energy lost in the storage process. A

common battery efficiency is 80%.PV temperature losses: Module standard test conditions (STC) ratings, which are based upon a celltemperature of 77°F (25°C), don't reflect real-world operating conditions. To account for losses due tohigher cell temperatures, a derating value of 0.88 can be used. This assumes an average daytime ambienttemperature of 68ºF and an estimated cell temperature of 122°F. (Another way to calculate temperaturelosses would be to use the specific module's maximum power temperature coefficient, in conjunction with acell temperature based on the record high daytime local temperature.)Shading coefficient: Although 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. is often considered the ideal solar window, site-specificshadingshould always be evaluated for the whole day. Even moderate shading can have a substantial impact onarray output. In the case of this sizing example, with a shade-free solar window of 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., anaverage shading coefficient of 0.90 was determined with a Solar Pathfinder array siting tool.Derate factor: A 0.85 derate factor (from NREL's PVWatts online performance calculator) accounts for other system losses, including module production tolerances, module mismatch, wiring losses, dust/soiling

losses, etc. Anexperienced designer can adjust this value to reflect conditionsfor your specific site. See the table for asummary of these values.

2,360 Wh daily load ÷ 4.6 peak sun hours ÷ 0.8 battery efficiency ÷ 0.88 temp. losses ÷ 0.9 shading

coefficient ÷0.85 system derate = 953 W peak array953 ÷ 80 W STC individual module = 12 modules needed 48 V nominal array voltage ÷ 12 V nominalmodule voltage = 4 modules per string, 3 strings totalThe resulting 12-module array will have a capacity of 960W STC, rounded up slightly from the 953 Wspecified in the calculations. Although the DC system voltage and the battery bank are 24 VDC, this arraycan be wired at a higher voltage of 48 VDC, because of the "step-down" feature of the charge controller being used. Since the modules are nominally rated at 12 V, they will have to be wired into three series-strings of four modules each.If these calculations seem conservative, it is because they are. It is imperative to design a system that willoperate reliably and efficiently-and that will produce, on average, the expected amount of energy required.In other words, it is the designer's job to give the system manager/homeowner a realistic idea of what toexpect


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