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Salty Craig
Member
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# Posted: 20 Jan 2015 08:33pm
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keljohnso
Two weeks at my cabin feels like 2 hours!! The time flies.
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slgerber
Member
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# Posted: 6 Feb 2015 11:35am
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Hi Kelly,
I've been researching off-grid solar power lately for my own cabin and I just wanted to point out an issue that might cause an electrical problem for you. It appears from the photo (and in the video) of your battery charging system that your cabin DC loads are running straight off your battery. The problem with this is that if you accidentally leave a small DC load turned on for a long time, like while you are away from the cabin, you could potentially discharge your batteries down to near 0% which could completely ruin the batteries. Different types of batteries have different maximum depths of discharge such as 80% or 50%.
I think the solution is to connect your DC bus bars to the DC load terminals on your charge controller. This way the charge controller will take care of disconnecting your battery if it reaches a dangerously low level before the battery is permanently damaged. Your inverter could possibly cause the same problem but most inverters have an automatic low voltage disconnect so it shouldn't be a problem unless it is a really low end model that doesn't have this important feature.
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keljohnso
Member
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# Posted: 6 Feb 2015 04:03pm
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Thanks slgerber!
Right now I have 2 sets of batteries and only 1 set is connected to solar. The other are gel batteries that take a different controller so I charge them with a charger.
The only thing running off the batteries connected to solar is the water pump and an inverter. I manually turn off the inverter when we leave.
The gel batteries power the lights and have a 30 AMP breaker on the circuit that I manually open when we leave.
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Purplerules
Member
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# Posted: 6 Feb 2015 10:53pm
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Just love this set up. The decks are fantastic. You guys sure did all of that fast.
Was it mostly the two for you or did you have help? Anyway, you will have many good memories made there. Cabin is much better than camper!!!
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keljohnso
Member
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# Posted: 7 Feb 2015 09:02am
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Thanks Purplerules! Yeah, it was just the wife and I. Nuttin' to it! We have about $6K in the property (3.25 acres) and around $6K in the building/decks.
It started off as a $1200 shed kit and kinda grew from that...
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