Cabin Improvements

[PackerBacker]

Closed on the small cabin and acre that butts up to the corner of our 79 acres yesterday. We are pretty far removed from civilization out there so no electricity or running water but there is a septic if we did. There is a sandpoint with hand pump, wood fireplace and lp for heat. They used camping lanterns for light but house is wired for electricity.

Looking for recommendations for good generators and possible a solar panel setup if anyone has any experience with either they would like to share.

 

[scott44]

Congrats on the cabin

 

[PackerBacker]

Congrats on the cabin

Thanks...we were working on plans to build on our land this fall but decided it was in our best interest to own the rest of the 80 and not have some random neighbors that we would have to deal with.

 

[scott44]

Thanks...we were working on plans to build on our land this fall but decided it was in our best interest to own the rest of the 80 and not have some random neighbors that we would have to deal with.

Good thinking, you never know who you'll get for neighbors.

 

[dipper]

Congrats, pics?

 

[SD51555]

Be sure to look at a Tesla Powerwall as u gather ideas. I have no experience with one, but it looks real interesting.

 

[mikmaze]

imho, stay off the grid, use a generator. Taxes for my place would be half of what they are now if I had only know before hand. But hey, when you get busy, you don't always have to time to look into every little detail. Look for a broken light set for a jobsite, or night ball games, should have plenty. other than that, solar, batteries, and a tank to store water drawn slowly from the sand point. top notch filtration for drinking use, even ice cubes, as few mixed drinks are made strong enough to kill all the little nasties.

 

[PackerBacker]

Congrats, pics?

Pics will be coming next weekend. The wife dragged me down to the in-laws in Chicago right after closing. She wasn't to pleased after she told me she was getting a new house before I got a cabin. Thought it wise to just get in the car.

My big issue will be that I have 4 daughters. If they are like their mom, going to need to get a working shower. I'm thinking a generator, solar and batteries should be able to run a little water pump and heater, correct?

 

[Jim Timber]

I'd invest in a dual voltage set up. A deep cycle battery that you can maintain with solar, and a generator you can use on demand for doing more current/voltage intensive tasks. Run your lights off the low voltage side, run your pump off generator, and get a propane fridge and water heater (or go wood boiler if you have the trees to feed it). You can put a fire box under a regular water heater if you want to save some bucks. The generator can also top off your batteries when you're there using them more than the solar can keep up with. 6 people in a cabin is going to take a big solar array for a stand-alone system, but you should be able to keep things lit without much trouble using LEDs.

 

[tooln]

Congrats on the cabin.

 

[nwmn]

that's sweet, I agree that the best neighbor is yourself. congrats and enjoy!

 

[mikmaze]

remember when shopping for a generator, well pumps use 220 volts, unless you can make a cistern setup and 120 volt pump from that to plumbing.

 

[MA VT Flatlander]

I installed 12 volt LED lights in my camp works good. My camp is wired for a generator also but I hardly use it. Makes to much noise for me.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

34 yrs. an electrician. My camp has 3 of us electricians in it. We have a propane - fueled generator 175 ft. away from the cabin under cover with power lines & control lines running underground into the cabin. 200 amp service panel is inside the cabin and gen. can be started remotely from the cabin. We went with separate propane tank for the cabin & one for the gen. Cabin has gas hot water heater, stove and interior lights to keep gen. use to a minimum. We also have electric lights - we can go either way, but mainly use the gas lights unless full crowd in rifle season. We like the quiet of using gas lights.

We're currently discussing adding solar to cut our propane $$$ spending for the generator. It gets more expensive every year. The gen. gives you " on demand " dependability. Solar depends on amount of sunlight and very good batteries. Winter stretches of dark dreary weather may hamper you solar-wise, so I wouldn't rely on that strictly. For off-the-grid cabins, I'd want 2 sources of power - generator for " on demand " power, and solar for just lights, etc.

For lights and a pump ( make sure the gen. puts out 120 / 240 volts so you can run your pump ), and maybe a fan or hair dryer ( women ) - I'd get a Honda 7500 watt portable ( on wheels ) generator. 7500 watts will be enough for those things and a few more, possibly a small refrig. for when you're there. ( better to be a little bigger than too small wattage-wise ). It will have handles that swing out like a wheelbarrow and it can be pushed to your location and set up permanently or taken out when you leave. Gasoline fuel if portable. I think they run about 10 - 12 hours before re-fueling. If it's a permanent installation, I'd recommend a Generac generator with propane as fuel. Before buying a gen., consider all your future plans for the cabin's use and any soon-to-be improvements and additions that might add to your electrical needs.

Contact a QUALIFIED electrician to help you make your choice and with any installation needs. Codes vary from state to state and in different localities.

 

[PackerBacker]

34 yrs. an electrician. My camp has 3 of us electricians in it. We have a propane - fueled generator 175 ft. away from the cabin under cover with power lines & control lines running underground into the cabin. 200 amp service panel is inside the cabin and gen. can be started remotely from the cabin. We went with separate propane tank for the cabin & one for the gen. Cabin has gas hot water heater, stove and interior lights to keep gen. use to a minimum. We also have electric lights - we can go either way, but mainly use the gas lights unless full crowd in rifle season. We like the quiet of using gas lights.

We're currently discussing adding solar to cut our propane $$$ spending for the generator. It gets more expensive every year. The gen. gives you " on demand " dependability. Solar depends on amount of sunlight and very good batteries. Winter stretches of dark dreary weather may hamper you solar-wise, so I wouldn't rely on that strictly. For off-the-grid cabins, I'd want 2 sources of power - generator for " on demand " power, and solar for just lights, etc.

For lights and a pump ( make sure the gen. puts out 120 / 240 volts so you can run your pump ), and maybe a fan or hair dryer ( women ) - I'd get a Honda 7500 watt portable ( on wheels ) generator. 7500 watts will be enough for those things and a few more, possibly a small refrig. for when you're there. ( better to be a little bigger than too small wattage-wise ). It will have handles that swing out like a wheelbarrow and it can be pushed to your location and set up permanently or taken out when you leave. Gasoline fuel if portable. I think they run about 10 - 12 hours before re-fueling. If it's a permanent installation, I'd recommend a Generac generator with propane as fuel. Before buying a gen., consider all your future plans for the cabin's use and any soon-to-be improvements and additions that might add to your electrical needs.

Contact a QUALIFIED electrician to help you make your choice and with any installation needs. Codes vary from state to state and in different localities.

Thanks Bows - great information. I will look into both generators but I know we will be putting in something permanent.

The rest of your post is a lot of the details that I need to think about. My uncle is an electrician and have a client that does solar installs. Each said they will help out but need to know what I want to run on electricity and what can be run on propane. Greatly appreciate your insight.

 

[PackerBacker]

Wish I had some magical advice that works for the Mrs. but I just resorted to bribery. She gets to look at new houses now. Just wonder how long I can drag out the "looking" before I have to actually buy.

Here is a few pictures my insurance guy sent me today to make sure he was in the right place.

This is the non-roadside of the place. Going to look at getting rid of the vinyl siding, redoing the roof line and adding a screened in porch.


This was the original brick bunkhouse. There is sleeping quarters to the right of the door and the left side was the living/kitchen area. The guys we bought it from were using for equipment storage. Going to look at how to put a bigger door on the end of the left side so I can get equipment in and out easier. We are thinking the right side may be were we put a generator or turn it into a skinning shed.


The inside is one big room plus there is a basement where they had most of their sleeping quarters.


View from the door. The first time I met the guys we bought it from, I had a Jameson shirt on and they made a comment that they couldn't afford the expensive stuff. I had a bottle put on the table for them with a note. They should be stopping up to pick up some of their stuff this week so hopefully they see it.


The gratifying part of the whole thing is that the guys are 82 and 74 years old. They said the upkeep was getting to be to much but they still wanted to be able to come up and bear hunt in the area. When we made the offer, we included the stipulation that they can continue to use the place for as long as they are able. They were shocked that we would even offer. They must be taking us up on it cause the insurance guy asked if it was my hunting truck in the yard. Looking forward to learning what the old timers have to share.

 

[bueller]

Some shallow well pumps run off 120 volts.

 

[dipper]

Looks nice. I don't mind the siding and shingles look good

 

[EOB]

Congrats on the cabin. We used to run our cabin off a generator. Here is a little about my experience. When we built the cabin we wired the place like it was on the grid and installed a Generac 10Kw propane generator, to power everything when we were there. We ran a propane fridge, stove and water heater. Used wood for heat. We did not have any other type of 12 volt lights or solar power. We had the generator wired so it could be turned on from inside the cabin. When we needed lights or power we turned it on. The 10Kw was big enough to run the water pump and anything we needed. Toaster, pizza oven and coffee maker took the biggest draw and running a couple toasters and two coffee makers on busy mornings made it pull pretty good.

Our generator was a Generac, basically a whole house stand by generator. I won't recommend it. Pro's - cheap for the kilowatts you get, propane bulk tank, simple to turn on from house ( hard to find wiring directions for this). Con's - very noisy, maintenance and longevity. At first the noise didn't seem that bad, after running it then turning it off to to sleep you really begin to understand how loud it is. The other thing is we always new when someone got cold and came back early from hunting. We could hear it from well over a half mile away. Maintenance, every 200 hours you have to change oil and filter, not that big of deal. Then every so often it would start hard and back fire. This meant the valves needed to be adjusted. This was a pain in the butt. The more hours we put on it the quicker the interval became on the valve adjustment. At about 2000 hours the generator started getting weak. It basically always ran at full throttle and barely ran the well pump. It took us about four years to get to 2000 hours.

I would estimate that we spent over $1000 per year on propane.

We spent the money and ran electricity a half mile back to our place. Sure is nice.

Generac now makes a model designed for off grid use. Not sure it would be any better, basically the same cheap Generac engine with has a bigger oil reservoir which allows it to go more hours between oil changes.

Solar, batteries and inverter would be nice and green but the dollars add up pretty fast and batteries have to be cared for.

Good quality diesel generator would be my recommendation. Need the low RPM diesel. It has a nice low pitched hum. High RPM gas and diesel is too noisy for this guy.

 

[PackerBacker]

We spent the money and ran electricity a half mile back to our place. Sure is nice.

That is not an option for us. I think it is something like 16 miles to where the power lines end. Not looking to drop that kind of coin for a shack that might get used a month out of the year. I will be up at the land most weekends but my parents have a place on a lake about 25 minutes from the property so outside of hunting season, I plan on staying there.

My uncle deals with diesel generators that he converts to run off cow shit for the big farms so he has been trying to steer me that way.