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Cabin Solar Power
Cabin solar power is an ideal way to preserve your local environment and also help out in the global push towards greener energy. The initial cost of solar panels shouldn’t scare you away from installing a solar power system on your cabin. In fact you don’t want electricity run from a grid to your remote cabin, it may be cheaper to install a cabin solar power system.
Solar panels on average have a warranty of about 20 years, so after the initial investment your panels work to pay themselves off. By placing your panels on the roof you will most likely gain the maximum sunlight exposure and produce the most amount of electricity. Depending on the size of your cabin you may be able to get by with a low wattage system and this will lower costs, but if you’re powering a large home or cabin with TVs, air conditioners, and electric stove or dryer, you will definitely need a more expensive system. Also depending on the market, solar panel installation may increase the value of your home.
As mentioned before, after the initial investment, your solar panels will work for a very long time without needing any maintenance. As far as installation, that handyman can do it himself and many of the businesses that sell systems have kits with step by step instructions that make installation even easier.
Solar cabins make excellent solar powered dwellings in that they don’t have all the luxuries of a regular home and don’t require the amount of electrical support. Also with a cabin comes the remoteness and high expense of connecting to a grid. In most cases it would be cheaper to install a solar system instead of paying for the grid connection and the electricity that comes with it. One solar panel on the roof will be able to run lights, and with the future LED for homes you could run allot of lights. If the cabin is placed in the middle of the woods surrounded by trees, you won’t get the exposure of sunlight needed to run a cabin solar power system. With all these factors in mind it will take planning to decide on a wattage you want installed on your cabin. This can be done by knowing what the cabin appliances will be before you install your system. If in the future your appliances are more than what you planned on, the system can easily be expanded by adding more panels. To avoid disappointment and blackouts you will want to match your system, if you consistently drain your batteries till they are empty this will also shorten battery life and increase the expense of your system. To match your system you take the amount of watts an appliance or light bulb uses and multiply it by the time it is used for. So a 1200 watt air conditioner runs for half an hour, it just used 600 watt hours. By adding all of these appliances together you will find how many kilowatt hours you need and plan accordingly when purchasing your system.
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