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goteborg avatar image
goteborg asked

Guest Cabin gets all the solar

Hello! I am building a small guest house (195 square feet / 18 sq meters) behind my home, and want to add a system like this:

*Tied to grid via 30 amp shore power plug-in similar to an RV, but don't want to feed the grid

*Guests can stay and enjoy life 'off grid' using solar and battery, and if battery gets low or there is a need to use appliance that requires more than batteries can provide, just plug in shore power

*If my home loses electrical power temporarily this is a type of backup shelter

I'd like to use Victron components. Based on my initial research is this ok?

1/ two solar panels on roof

2/ Victron MPPT 100/30 charge controller

3/ Victron Multi Plus Compact 12/2000

4/ Victron’s Venus GX

5/ Victron's BMV-700

What kind of AC/DC panel (fuse box) is appropriate? Any suggestions regarding the specific type of batteries to use for this?

Thank you for any advice!

gridfusesbattery manufature
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1 Answer
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snoobler answered ·

It's very important to conduct a thorough analysis of the anticipated energy consumption of the building and the available solar conditions. Once you have both of those worked out, you can design an appropriate system.

Without these, you're just guessing and the chances of you designing a system that works as desired is very poor.

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goteborg avatar image goteborg commented ·

Thank you Snoobs. The new backyard cabin will be vacant most of the time, with no energy consumption at all other than topping off the battery bank. The roof is flat and there are some trees to the northeast blocking the sky but the entire view south and west is wide open with no obstructions. Lots of clean open sky. Here in the Pacific Northwest USA the annual generation capacity of a 1kW system is 1000kWh.

I want the cabin to be have fully charged battery(s) so that when someone comes to stay, they can turn on lights, make coffee, charge phones, it would be nice to have LCD displays to indicate consumption. Ideally the battery bank would be similar to what we had in our RV; just one house battery could keep our lights on for a week.

There will be a plug-in also, such that when someone is staying there a basic extension cord will provide power also. The solar/battery scheme is novelty is some sense because there is this grid extension cord, but I want to have a shelter in case of power outage and I want to have solar to increase awareness and as a stepping stone to perhaps converting our home in future.

Given this, would you suggest an appropriate setup? Thank you!

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