Off grid solar power for occasional living

Dubsey

Hi all,

We are looking at creating a glamping type accommodation in Donegal for summer weekend rental and for us when we travel up.

The unit will be in quite a senic location which comes with the added problem of not being near an electricity supply.

The question I have:

Is it possible to install a solar powered system to provide all of the power needed via batteries?

Thanks for any info.

D

The short answer is yes but not between November and March.

The long answer depends on your specific requirements and seasons of use.

Dubsey

Thanks.

So plan would be to use it every weekend throughout the summer months and then possibly one or two weekends out of every month thereafter.

Doable.
with back-up Gas Cooking.
and an alternative heat source


I'd recommend a small 6KVA honda diesel generator remote started by a 2kVA > 6kVA Inverter Charger Combi. in low battery State of Charge.
~2kW Solar + DC Charge Controller & ~ 40kWh Battery.
Throw in a loada switchgear and copper to boot.

That'd cover most everything.

You could simplify a lot. Lights and 24V might be enough and very inexpensive.

Merrion

You could add small (500W or so) wind turbines - they're about same price as solar PV cells per W.

If you are going to get your heat from this set up then needs lots of power and lots of storage - for just lighting / entertainment much easier.

If heat is needed then maybe look at a phase change heat "battery" rather than a chemical battery for storing that part - a 14KWh one rocks about €5k and has near zero lifetime degradation whereas a LiOn is far more expensive and tends to have shorter lifespan and significant degradation over use. Disadvantage is they only store heat, not electricity.

Wind isn't always optional and it's about 6 times the price of solar I find when I compare watts in the battery.
A lot of wind turbines never produce their peak rating.

Off grid heat source = light a fire.