🏡 Better Homes Off grid solar shed build

[Eagle]

Suddenly decided I needed to build a shed this fall, after I brought my golf cart home from the camp ground. Can't fit it into the garage with all the other stuff in there (Foxbody, General, Deere zero turn, 15 years of misc collected other shit)... So of course the obvious answer is to build a shed. Nevermind that I've wanted to build once since day 1 in this house... but this year was the year.

Village only allows a max of 150sqft, so I went 12x12 w/8' walls and a 8'x7' roller door. Used plans I found off the internet and built it with materials from my fav store lately (Menards) for less than half of what TuffShed wanted for the same shed w/o a roller door.

Slammed the shed in within 7 days of having the idea to stand up a shed, complete with permit, material transport, and finally construction (only 3 days to build) with the help of a couple good friends who really put in a ton of work with me.

Once the shed was built, I did NOT want to trench power out to it from the house. Can't really explain why... but I think it was this solar bug I've had for a few months now. Sunrun had almost talked me into a 68 panel lease awhile back, which got me looking into solar systems lightly and more so looking at my Comed bill which is stupid @ ~$275/mo. So rather than add to that, I decided to slap a solar system on the shed.

Click to read more...

 

[Jimy Bilmo]

Sounds like you need a shed, about 60x80.

 

[Eagle]

So I started looking around at "solar generator" kits, which seem sleek and nifty as they're all self contained and can come in decently sized systems... but the sleekness definitely comes at a premium. So I kept searching...

Long story short I ran across shopsolarkits.com and started browsing their DIY kits. I had taken a bit of time to do a really basic power survey: I wanted to run interior and exterior LED lighting, a beer fridge, and Christmas lights. All in, I was @ ~185w with everything on. So I called in and spoke to someone who advised on sizing and got me into a 2400w all-in-one inverter and 2 12v 200ah batteries good for 5300kwh. Panel wise, they sold me 4x 200w panels, which I wish now I would have gone a bit bigger... but they're working for the load I have at present.

 

[Eagle]

Sounds like you need a shed, about 60x80.

Dude, you know it. Wish that was possible! Sadly, that's like bigger than 50% of my entire lot.

 

[SpeedSpeak2me]

Used plans I found off the internet

Hey, um, buddy, pal, friend I've never actually met.... Can you point me in the direction of those plans? I need to build a new shed to replace my 30 year old 8' x 8', and that looks like it work just fine for me.

 

[Eagle]

No sooner I get the panels on the roof in series I had to have a meter attached to them to watch the voltage they were making as the sun went down. I'm still geeking out pretty softly to the whole system. Its been crazy fun.

On the note of nerding out on data: when I called in to order, I asked the guy how to solve the issue of this "kit" not having any integrated monitoring or nifty phone app to watch the system. He pointed me to this rasberry pi based thing that connects to the inverter via USB and pumps out enough to keep me busy. It runs software from https://solar-assistant.io/. It puts itself on the internet and links through a DNS record they create and host for you during setup of the device. Simple and it works. ?

 

[Eagle]

Hey, um, buddy, pal, friend I've never actually met.... Can you point me in the direction of those plans? I need to build a new shed to replace my 30 year old 8' x 8', and that looks like it work just fine for me.

Here you go! https://myoutdoorplans.com/shed/12x12-shed-plans-free-pdf-download/

 

[DEEZUZ]

Pissed that you pulled a permit

 

[Eagle]

Next dilemma... the shed it outdoors. No heat. The batteries are lifepo4 chemistry... and the BMS shuts off the batts at 32* F. So that's nifty to find out after the fact.

Hop on the google machine and start looking for how to keep my batts warm. Oddly enough, there's not many answers out there on this in my short journey. Most guys posting about this issue are RV'ers. Their solutions generally involved moving the batteries to heat or using a tank heater to warm the batts.

This lead me to build my own warmed battery shelter. I got a 4x8 sheet of 2" pink solid foam insulation (good for R10) and built a box large enough to stuff the batteries into AND hold a seedling warming mat in the bottom. The mat is triggered by a controller that runs off 110v, so I can monitor it from the solar monitoring system (in terms of draw and how often its running).

 

[Eagle]

Pissed that you pulled a permit

Well I'm running for the President of the Village... so I sorta gotta follow the rules.

 

[Eagle]

aaaaanyway, I just put this warming shelter box thing in today. The temps outside were single digits, but the box seemed to do a great job keeping the batteries to requested temp. At first I was running at 65*, but knowing they don't need to be kept that warm, I knocked the temp down to 50* which allowed the warmer to have to run far less often. During charging, the warmer hardly was triggered at all. As soon as the sun went down and my draw is a whopping ~15w (christmas lights and the rasberry pi basically) the batteries do not make as much heat, so the heater is running more often now. Looks like about every ~15min it runs for 2min or so and pulls ~40w.

 

[Eagle]

While looking at sizing the shed solar, I wanted to better understand my home electricity use so I looked into monitoring for that. I'd been looking at https://sense.com/ for a loooong time but never found the novelty of a monitor worth the coin until now. Really enjoy the device now that I've had it installed for a month or so.

If I exclude the hot tub draw, my solar shed could run enough power to damn near run my whole house during the day.

Getting all this done and dialed in (eventually) will likely lead to me installing a system on the house and connecting to the grid.

Speaking of connecting, it would seem that I cannot connect this inverter according to Comed's policy (which is just copied from CA as it turns out). Or I guess I can't without getting its certification from the manufacturer to show it meets their standards.

HOWEVER, I can still file for the 30% solar credit even off grid, so i'll be doing that!

 

[Eagle]

Those that remember me might notice I still have my 2019 Ram 2500 w/nearly 63k miles on it

And that I've got a new dog. His name is Hank. He's 11mo and a complete ball of energy. Will play fetch for eternity I'm pretty sure. Lost both Fred and Rusty mid-last year, unfortunately.

 

[SpeedSpeak2me]

While looking at sizing the shed solar, I wanted to better understand my home electricity use so I looked into monitoring for that. I'd been looking at https://sense.com/ for a loooong time but never found the novelty of a monitor worth the coin until now. Really enjoy the device now that I've had it installed for a month or so.

If I exclude the hot tub draw, my solar shed could run enough power to damn near run my whole house during the day.

Getting all this done and dialed in (eventually) will likely lead to me installing a system on the house and connecting to the grid.

Speaking of connecting, it would seem that I cannot connect this inverter according to Comed's policy (which is just copied from CA as it turns out). Or I guess I can't without getting its certification from the manufacturer to show it meets their standards.

HOWEVER, I can still file for the 30% solar credit even off grid, so i'll be doing that!

I’ve been thinking about getting a monitoring sensor, since it seems that for as little as I’m doing at home during the day I’m using more electricity than I would expect. That device might help me narrow it down, and doesn’t look too hard to install. Good find ??

 

[Eagle]

Literally took 5min to install the Sense in my panel. It takes a little while to learn your loads and really relies on them power cycling to finger print them. Loads that never shut off (IE: computers, cable boxes, etc) really never finger print, unfortunately.

Slick device for sure tho. I would recommend it!

 

[Trinten]

Have you considered doing a weather-sealed container and burying your batteries about 30 inches under ground? Temp would be around 45 degrees at that depth (in most of Illinois) during the winter. National Weather Service has data on temps at various soil depths. I know that would add complications for running the power back into your building, though it does resolve needing to consume power to keep the battery warmer going in their new enclosure.

This is really cool. Getting all that done in a week is crazy. Especially with permits! Did they have to do the pre-build and post-build site inspections?

 

[Eagle]

I'm in Wonder Lake - post build inspections aren't really a thing. They really only want to vet your plans and collect the revenue.

Interesting idea on burying a battery box. If I was running ragged close on power I would definitely consider it... however I've got plenty to spare so I'll run the 40w heater for now. I wonder what kind of box is out there that I'd consider sufficient to commit to the safety of $2000 in batteries. ?

 

[DEEZUZ]

I would think keeping them trickle charge and just being on a pet safe warming pad would be good enough

 

[OffshoreDrilling]

Fun little project Eagle

Have you checked out the emporia vue? I think it’s a lot better than the sense.

 

[Eagle]

I looked at most of them before I bought the sense. I'll have to check this one out.

 

[OffshoreDrilling]

I don’t like the sense because it’s using an algorithm to figure out what each load is. The emporia has a CT for every circuit.

 

[Aircal]

This is why I remain a member here. Incredible talent abounds! Great build and post. Awesome job !!!

 

[Flyn]

No matter how big you make your shed, you will always want bigger after you load it up. I wish my shed was double it's size now.

 

[torquelover]

That lumber you have loaded on the truck looks great! Did you have to dig through every pile or were they all in pretty decent shape?

 

[boostedguy05]

It was all fucked up at first, then it saw Eagle and straightened out.