OFF-GRID SOLAR POWER by Wood Liam

Author:Wood, Liam
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-07-03T00:00:00+00:00

Solar System Planning and Design for a Shipping Container Home, Tiny House, or Any Off-Grid Home

In their effort to minimize their dependence on materialistic possessions and free themselves from relying on the state for power, many homeowners will choose to live off-grid in remote homes located on the outskirts of the city. These smaller remote homes may be tiny versions of normal houses or cabins. Despite their size, these remote homes still require electricity for lighting, heating, bathing, and cooking.

Key Questions to Ask Before Building

When designing an off-grid solar power system for your tiny house or cabin, there are some important questions that you need to answer before making any major decisions. These answers will help you curate your system depending on the specific electrical requirements for your home.

How Much Electricity Do You Intend to Generating?

Typically, tiny homes will use much less electricity than the amount used in larger homes. Nonetheless, each tiny home’s load will be different due to how each household decides to live, the appliances that are used, and the number of people living within the home. To save a lot of money, you will want to generate as much electricity as possible. This means that it is good to have as many solar panels as you can afford.

Are You Installing a Roof-Mounted System or a Ground-Mounted System?

Decide where the system will be positioned before anything else. If you intend to mount the solar panels on the roof, it is important to check whether the roof receives an ample amount of sunlight. Also, if the roof is strong enough to hold and handle the weight of the solar panels without compromising its integrity, alternatively, you can choose to mount your solar panels on the ground. These ground-mounted systems will require extra racks as well as extra mounting equipment. Lastly, make sure your panels are slightly tilted to capture maximum sunlight.

How Many Batteries Will You Need?

Since you are using an off-grid solar power system, you will need to purchase a certain number of batteries to store excess solar power. The cells will form an indispensable part of the system because they will allow plenty of electricity during the night or when the weather conditions are not favorable for powering solar panels. If you are going to purchase batteries, consider storing them indoors as they are sensitive to extreme weather fluctuations and can wear and degrade fairly easily when having to adjust between freezing and hot temperature regularly. Many suppliers will sell complete solar kits that include batteries that you can install in your home (this will remove the hassle of having to decide on the number of cells you have to buy).

Battery Capacity (Lithium Technology)

However, the values of efficiency and depth of discharge will be different as you can draw more from this type of battery, and it has a higher efficiency compared to lead-acid technology. Let us have a DoD of 90% and an efficiency of 90%. Remember that these are only hypothetical values and are a bit conservative considering the developments in energy storage, especially on lithium-ion.

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