About My Solar Array, Battery Bank, Winter Power Source & Water Setup

The things I run and their power consumption:
Laptop - Lenovo Y510P with cooling fan throughout course of day (approx 30w). Internet - Ethernet no router (5-10w) & Freezer 5cu' 115v 1.2a Danby (800w surge 40-80w cycle)
Others in order of most used:
Stereo (10-15w), lights (8w per LED bulb), phone (7w), water pump (up to 90w), hot water tank (40w), rechargeable batteries: AA/AAA x4 (5w) for cordless tools (70w), blender (2-300w), piano (40w), dryer only used when gen is running (250-370w), slowcooker (125w on low 195w on high)

Tips:

• Leaving your freezer off overnight actually costs more power than keeping it plugged in

• I do not require a fridge because I just make a bowl of ice in the freezer and put it in a cooler every 2 days

• Don't drain your batteries past 50% or below 12v if you can help it. Ideally not discharging past 70% will prolong their life

12.6 volts = 100%
12.5 volts = 70%
12.3 volts = 50%
11.4 volts = 20%

The actual resting voltage of a battery will settle 12-24 hours after being removed from the charger.

Battery bank consisting of 8x 6volt 232 AH deep cycle batteries connected in series.

*Keep your batteries charged up overnight if they are stored somewhere cold/lacking heat, it will prevent them from freezing. Do not do what I did and not have the means to accurately gauge the state of charge. I'm sure my batteries would be providing me much more than they are now had I known what I was doing when I got them. But alas I was sort of thrown into living offgrid which will be explained in a future post.

3x 300 watt solar panels installed on my trailer roof - ideally they would be positioned on an angle during winter. They are only producing 100-200watts at this time, when it's not cloudy. During summer I think the highest was 600w I'll be sure to update on this in the future when I get a better handle on things. During spring/summer/fall I have more than enough power with this setup to supply my demand.

MPPT Charge controller and fuse box

100 amp smart charger - for charging with a generator

Inverter housed in a piece of skirting

Current generator I'm using temporarily, definitely not ideal. Was trying to obtain a honda 3000is inverter generator since they're great on gas, quiet, electric start, durable and easy to work on. But they're also very expensive. Was previously using a honda eu2000i but it wasn't quite powerful enough to run the smart charger. I've since learned though that the charger only consumes high wattage when the batteries are very low/upon initial start and then quickly drops down to 500watts going down as low as 50watts when the batteries are nearing full charge. So I may just go back to the eu2000i (it's definitely my favourite unit thus far) but have a more powerful/cheap gen as backup just to get the charger going when needed. The eu2000i can run 8-9 hours on roughly 3-4$ worth of gas. Current gen costs twice as much to run 6hrs.

The generator I was using last year. These are pretty decent but this model was too powerful for what I needed and I ended up spending a lot more on gas. 5$ worth of gas lasted roughly 4 hours.

My first generators - all champions. The reason? They send you free parts! Learning my way around with generators was fantastic to begin with this brand. I only still have the small one, currently requires major repair. It served me well over the past couple years though. You can run it 10-12 hours for about 5$ worth of gas

A 12v RV pump is wired directly to the batteries and pumps water from a 330 gallon IBC tote located through the hole behind the wall in an insulated box to the main plumbing of the trailer. It is 7.5amps max so it takes up to 90 watts

I've spent a little over $4000 cnd on this setup. $1600 on the batteries, $800 on the charge controller, $370 on the smart charger, Approx $200 on cables, $200 on fuse box & breakers, $150 shipping and $750 on the panels (which was an excellent deal)

I hope you found this useful! I welcome any advice from those more knowledgeable who've been doing this longer. I am still in the process of learning as I've only been off the power grid for 2 years. Ultimately I find batteries to be terribly vexatious things at times and look forward to the day we have something better for both storing and producing electricity when solar is not available.