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I’ve learned a lot from this forum and Will’s videos and wanted to share what I built for our off grid cabin. It is extremely modest compared to many others here but the important thing is that it is working very well for its intended purpose. It has been running in the field for six months and...

My dad told me this at the dinner table one evening. Son, do you know how to catch a polar bear? No dad, how do you catch a polar bear? Well, you go to the North Pole and you cut a hole in the ice. Then you spread peas around the hole. When the bear comes to take a pea, you kick him in the ice...

Last week I installed a Pioneer 9,000 BTU Diamante mini split. I am going to write up a separate post on the installation experience and lessons learned, but in short, it works well and I am really happy with how it turned out. I am especially impressed with its low power consumption. It can...

After seeing stories of mini split installations on this forum (especially @timselectric) I decided to install a Pioneer 9,000 BTU system in our off grid cabin.This isn’t a step-by-step guide, just some of my impressions and notes for the next person who may be considering the same type of...

One year later I laugh now when I reread "I don’t have immediate plans to make changes to the system." Ha! So after a year, I decided there *were* some changes I wanted to make. The refit was a lot of work, but having lights that operate with flick of a switch, outlets where they're needed and...

I did several upgrades this year but I think my favorite thing was a stack of pressure treated 2x4s. I used those to build new panel racks so I could relocate them from the front of the cabin to the roof of a nearby shed. That cleaned up the look of the property by a lot and the panels perform...

Um, yes, actually! I am going up in two weeks to check it out, then stay for a few days. I do really think there is something not quite right with the way the recharge is happening and I want to get to both of those batteries and check them out. Plus I forgot to put the brake on the windmill...

I think I have figured this out. When it turned really cold, it also was very cloudy for the first few days, all day. When it's cloudy/rainy, my panels only generate about 40 watts/hr. My system overhead (router, antenna, Victron components) is about 30 watts. In short, that did not leave enough...

The rural phone coop provides wireless broadband service and I was lucky enough to be in a spot that has line of sight to their equipment office down in the valley. Straight line distance is about 3/4 mile. They put a high gain antenna on the cabin and one on a pole outside their equipment...

Does it have to be electric? Is propane or LNG an option? May not be practical in that particular area but thought I'd throw the idea out there in case it hadn't been considered.

Thanks for the feedback. Your input and comments from others have all been very helpful in clarifying my thinking.

Just thinking out loud here. I’d appreciate any thoughts you might have about this: I want to expand my solar set up with additional storage and a few more panels for a faster recovery time. I currently have 6 x 100 watt panels going into a Victron 100/30 amp charge controller. The controller...

Thanks! Not that I expect anyone to really see it, but if they do AND they can read, I wanted to make it as plain as possible.

Thank you for this feedback. I wasn't sure about achieving ground for the solar panels by connecting to the sub-panel in the shed. I will amend the plan to just run the solar panels to those grounding rods and I will look more at the NEC grounding requirements for the sub-panel.

After a couple of days of cloudy cold weather, the area where the cabin is located had a sunny day. Still cold, but sunny enough to warm up the "winter room" of the cabin to 60F. In the late afternoon near the end of the charging day, suddenly the batteries started charging. Since the room...

Yes, I think that is what I would prefer.

Well I guess I am fated not to get an answer to my question...I registered and filled out the Ask A Question form but the Captcha blocks the button to Post. Tried a couple different browsers, tried tabbing through the fields to select the Post button, all to no avail. There is obviously a lot of...

What you're looking to build is similar to what I did. Solar for Internet, WiFi and a few security cameras. I built it so I could selectively turn off components to preserve power in the event the area has a large snow event or a long string of cloudy days that could potentially drain the pack...

Yes, since this is a graph of the inverter's 120V output, the gaps are expected because the inverter was off and voltage was zero. Other graphs of other aspects of the system are complete because there was enough power from the panels to run the Cerbo.

Thanks for the reply - I chose a heavy gauge extension rated for 20 amps and installed an inlet on the side of the cabin.

Thank you RC, I believe this is on the right track regarding the peak VA load. Appreciate the thoughts and the schematics. Very helpful!

Thanks for the feedback. Is there an alternative you would use for generating hot water? I appreciate the calculation. That is very handy to know.

Two reasons, I suppose. It's easy and it works. Also because I control them remotely with the Kasa power strip. They all use so little power, there's little waste in the conversion.

Currently I have two batteries in parallel, wired together that then go directly to my components. As part of the revamp of my layout I want to add a busbar for everything to connect to. I'll also be adding a third battery. As far as equally charging and discharging, am I correct in thinking...

The driller said the static water level was 160 feet. That is something I need to confirm on my next trip because that was 5 years ago. I will check out the link, I overlooked that before. Related to what OzSolar mentioned about hot water, do you have an opinion or suggestion on the best...

I’m trying to understand if I have a problem or if my system is operating as expected. In brief, I have two SOK 206 AH heated batteries in parallel charged by a Victron 100/30 solar charge controller. The system is installed in a remote cabin where temps this week have fallen below 32 F. Today...

You are still correct about this. I found that the KS300 did not. I had only been looking at power used on the 5 outlet strip. I found later the 3 outlet doesn't have that feature.

That sounds right. Impedance was the word I was looking for. I wonder if there is a certain amount or if any amount would trigger it, e.g. tripping the breaker on a small circuit. It would be interesting to try but I would not go about it in the same way.

I would be interested in hearing how this is working out for you. I have a windmill-driven pump that I am considering converting to solar and I have looked often at the RPS system. They have a lot of info on their site but I'm interested in getting some firsthand accounts from owners who've...

That is a good observation, thank you for bring that to my attention. So if I allow the inverter to perform the N-G bond then I do not want a bond at the service panel, would that be correct?