Wiring for OffGrid - 120 or 12V

Re: Wiring for OffGrid - 120 or 12V

Hello nansrun!
I have not been around here very long and people more knowledgeable that me will certainly chime in time but I'd like to share my own experience on the subject...

It highly depends on where you see your cabin in, say, 2-5 years from now. In my case, the cabin was already (poorly) wired for 12V and there were 12V lights throughout when I bought the place 2 years ago. The previous owner had used "table lamp" wiring and the lights barely did the job. I believe it was a case of too small wiring and too long a distance between batteries and users.

Before I go on, you should know this about me: I'm excessive in every project I undertake. The other thing I was thinking is that 12V stuff is not readily available at every hardware store so I would/could not be able to procure all of the exact stuff I would want for whatever specific application I had in mind. To me, that was the clincher for going 120V. And I'm happy I did.

However, mostly due to my excessiveness, this was not cheap. When I'm all done, I will have spent 7-8000$ for my off-grid system (24V 430Ah batts, 4000W pure sine inverter, 1500W PV and all the other expensive stuff you don't plan for, like the support, d'uh...). But, to me it was worth it to have the satisfaction of having a cabin in the middle of nowhere that has all of the small stuff that we don't think twice about at home like flicking the light switch, plugging in a radio, charging the cordless drill, etc.

All of that came about because I made a plan of where I wanted to go and how I would get there. My biggest advice would be to do exactly that: make a plan, look at it in every which way, change it as many times as you have to to eventually get to a place where you are going to be happy with what you have. Paper is cheap. Off-grid is very expensive.

Good luck! I hope you have as much fun with your project as I have. Listen to the folks here. They are very knowledgeable and helpful.

Cheers!!

Re: Wiring for OffGrid - 120 or 12V

This discussion has come up many times and was just discussed at great length a couple of weeks ago.
The general opinion is to stick with 120v since all of the 120v devices are generally MUCH cheaper than 12v ones.

Also, with 12v you have more of an issue with voltage drop so you need to use larger (more expensive) wire throughout the home. Plus the additional 12v panel, breakers, etc. Just double the management in my opinion.

Some of the smaller inverters are not all that bad as far as idle draw. And some people use 2, one for the big loads that is in "sleep" mode all the time and another small one for the general lights, etc. If you don't have any big loads, you could get by with a small one and the idle losses would be minimal.

Re: Wiring for OffGrid - 120 or 12V

Cariboocoot wrote: »

Trying to keep 12 Volts at 12 Volts over long wire runs can be problematic. The Voltage drop ...

Actually, trying to keep 12 volts at 12 volts over SHORT wire runs can be problematic. That 12 volt nominal may range from 11.5 to 16 volts depending on the other loads, battery SOC, battery temp, and where in the charge cycle the battery is at. Thirty percent swings in voltage does not agree with all 12 volt bulbs, appliances, etc.

--vtMaps