Let There Be Light!!

Every day without an ounce of thought we walk into a room, flip a switch, or perhaps ask Alexa, to turn on a light. We give little thought to how our electrical power is generated. Electricity in the U.S. is relatively inexpensive and as a result we tend to overlook the process involved in generating the electricity or the impact it may have on our environment.

We've owned our property since 1999. During that time we have burned gallons of white gas in our Coleman lanterns. Burning candles may be romantic but try actually reading by one and it will be a short lived romance! We are also collectors of flashlights and we are well-qualified to write reviews on how well they perform at -30F. During our building process we used a Honda 3500 watt generator for running our larger tools and for charging batteries for our cordless tools. New developments in lithium batteries have resulted in some pretty amazing cordless tools.

We've grown accustomed to not having power in our shack, but we wanted to add more creature comforts to our cabin.

For our remote property grid tied power (that power that comes with the beautiful green boxes) was simply not an option. After a lot of research we installed a 2.66Kw off grid solar system. We have 9 SolarWorld 290 watt solar panels, which are ground-mounted next to the cabin. We chose a ground mount system because climbing up a ladder onto the roof in the dead of winter to pull snow and ice towards you with a roof-mounted system just did not seem wise. The downside of the ground mount is that the panels are more visible as you approach the cabin.

For those of you versed in solar systems, here are our Off Grid Solar Tech Specs:

• 9 SolarWorld 290 watt panels
• 4000 watt Magnum Pure Sine Wave Inverter MSPAE4024
• Midnight Classic 150 Charge Controller
• 8 Crown CR430 6v batteries wired 4x2 for a 24v DC system 860Ah
• IronRidge Ground Mount 
• Honda EU2000i backup generator for battery charging when the sun's not shining

We ordered the package above (except the generator) from Wholesale Solar online. We bought the inverter and charge controller factory prewired. Wholesale Solar tech support was awesome to work with!

The IronRidge ground mount system mounts on 3" galvanized steel pipe (purchased locally). The pipes weighed in at 120 lbs each. Drilling four 12" holes in rock was no easy task but we lived to tell about it. (Thanks Wayne!!) Mixing the cement to fill those holes was relatively easy since Mkay is a proud owner of a bright orange cement mixer gifted to her from her loving husband a year previously. True love ...

Ground Mount Solar Panels

The batteries are stored in a custom sealed box (gray box in the picture below - Mark built it at home in his copious spare time) in the basement (controlled temperature). It's power vented to the outside to exhaust the hydrogen gas during charging. The exhaust fan is programmed and controlled by the charge controller. Midnight has the worst product documentation possible (!) but their YouTube videos are helpful.

Custom Battery Box, Inverter, Charge Controller, Power Vent

All that was left was to figure out all the wire sizing, correct wire type, which conduit to use, how deep to bury it, torque settings for screws and bolts, concrete encased electrode grounding, labeling, NEC required disconnects, etc, etc ... and your "good to go"!!

We wired the entire cabin ourselves and ... sitting down ... we actually PASSED the electrical rough in inspection with only a couple minor changes required. <<Insert happy dance here>>

Next it was time to install the breakers into the main electrical panel, which is fed by the inverter. Coming off a high from the rough-in inspection, what could go wrong??? Well Mark plummeted 30,000 feet as he struggled to understand how combination Arc Fault breakers work. As it turns out, if you wire them incorrectly they DON'T work!!! I was tripping AFCI breakers faster than dog snot sliding off a freshly sliced onion. The fault diagnostics indicated a fault to ground. Later I figured out that the fault was between my ears - I had misread the AFCI installation instructions! I read them TWICE. Regardless, Mkay has enrolled me in a ESL course for improving my engwish.

Main Electrical Panel 100A 24 Space

After most of the summer doing some sort of electrical work, imagine for a moment what it was like for Mary Kay and I to be in the middle of Superior National Forest as we switched on our basement lights for the first time! It was AMAZING!!! Amazing to have light! More amazing that our off grid solar actually worked!!! 

Although we will not have a monthly electricity bill, our electricity is not "free." The system has the obvious initial monetary costs. The batteries have a limited lifetime of charges. The PV panels have a 25-year warranty but they are made using precious metals. Bottom line: off grid solar also has monetary and environmental impacts.

Only time will tell how we did at sizing our off grid solar and electrical needs. We'll need to put the system into use to see how we manage across multiple seasons. For our latitude we have a mere 2.1 sunlight hours for generating solar per day during the winter. 

Now go turn off your lights ...

Fall Pic (Photo Creds to Courtney)

The Insulating Crew Sporting Tyvek Suits & Masks