In 2022 my wife and I purchased 20 acres near the top of a mountain just NE of Sandpoint, ID. Our current home sits on 5-acres lower down in the valley below the 20-acre parcel, and with the large influx of people Idaho saw moving in during covid, our 5-acre plot started feeling cramped. What was once a remote and secluded area surrounded by wilderness was now feeling like a neighborhood. We decided to start a transition to the new mountain property for good.
There are no utilities at the new property but that didn’t worry us. What we do have there is a lot of trees, some flat building sites, and a year-round creek. We had planned to build a completely off-grid homestead from the very beginning. We started off by selecting where want to build our cabin. I have always wanted to build my own home so we decided that we would build a small cabin for our family to live in for a few years before transitioning it to a guest house, and we would have a contractor build a main house. I also knew I would need a shop building for wood and metal working and space for all the other tasks that needs done when maintaining a homestead.
Once we decided on the cabin build site, and eventual permanent home site, our next step was power and temporary living quarters. Since we weren’t sure exactly what we were building we decided to start with a power shed that would house all the equipment, and we could run AC power from there to all the other buildings. I worked with every one of our sales and tech reps to brainstorm the best system for us.
Since I didn’t know how much power we would eventually need, we had to make sure whatever we decided on was scalable. My wife Mary wanted it to be easy to maintain, and I wanted the ability for remote monitoring and programming. Those points all led us to Victron components with our “house brand” Eclipse LifePO4 batteries. We initially opted for two 48V 3000W Multiplus II inverters (I-VC-MP2-483000) running in split phase to provide both 120VAC and 240VAC power. We had purchased and hauled up a large RV for a temporary home, and wanted to provide 240VAC power to the RV and have the ability to run air conditioning. Once I started building, I quickly decided I wanted to double the possible output and run four total inverters, with two in each leg running in parallel. This not only doubled our potential power output, but also offered redundancy. If one inverter goes down I can electrically isolate it, and with a quick reprogramming of the remaining inverters I can continue to operate at lower wattage output but still 240VAC until the bad inverter is repaired or replaced. I had already purchased a pair of Midnite E-Panel Lite power centers (C-MNE175STSLT), one for each inverter. Adding the second pair of inverters meant I would normally need to get two more E-Panels, but a nice feature of this particular model is that they have space for another 175A breaker for a second DC inverter disconnect. I purchased two more 175A breakers and effectively turned my E-Panels into the X2 version (O-MNDC175-X2).
For energy storage, I opted for a bank of the Eclipse 48V 200Ah LiFePO4 batteries. I started with three batteries for 30kWh of capacity, but last year I decided to add another three, making 60kWh capacity. Now that I have them installed, I see there is just enough space to add three more batteries to fill out the space on the floor. I plan on purchasing those later this summer and upping capacity to 90kWh. I went with the Victron Lynx Power In (B-VC-LYNX-PI) and Lynx Shunt (B-VC-LYNH-SHUNT) to parallel the batteries and feed power to the E-Panels and allow for precision power monitoring. LifePO4 batteries do need to be kept from freezing temperatures, so I also installed a small direct vent propane heater in the shed. The heater requires no electricity and keeps the shed around 50 degrees F all winter long.
The power shed went through multiple revisions before it was finally built. We initially planned on a small 8’x8’ shed, but that quickly morphed to an 8’x12’ design as I realized I would need more space for all the power equipment. Once we decided on 8’x12’ we realized we might as well go a little bigger so we would have some storage. That got us to an 8’x16’ design. When we started to prep for the build, I realized the spot we picked was about the best space we had for our solar array. I decided I would expand the shop building and mount the array on the roof. I had already purchased 12 US made Heliene 400W bifacial solar panels (S-HELI-400) so I played with some layout ideas and ultimately decided on a rooftop array of 4 columns of 3 panels each, with them mounted extending up from the roof so they could capture reflected light on their backsides. I used three Tamarack Ground Mounts (S-UNI-GR130) and installed them over a galvanized steel roof with the hope that the roof material will help reflect light up to the panels. The array size meant I had to extend the shed to 24’ long and orient it so that the array was facing south. 8’x24’ was just under the maximum allowable square footage before I had to get a building permit, so we went with that design. Incoming power from the 4,800W array is handled by a Victron 450/100 charge controller (C-VC-SS450100M). The 12-panel array is electrically split into two arrays of 6 panels each. I was originally going to use two Victron 250/100 controllers, one for each array, but Victron provided a demo 450/100 unit. The 450 has dual MPPT inputs, so can handle both arrays, and I still have my 250/100’s so I can always revert to those if I have a failure with the 450/100. Once again, I like redundancy.
Monitoring is handled with a Victron Cerbo (M-VC-CERBO-MK2) paired with a GX Touch 70 Display Screen (M-VC-GX70). We have a Starlink system we take up to the RV when we are staying there, which allows me to connect the Cerbo to Victron’s VRM Portal for remote monitoring and programming. When we are living down at our 5-acre property the Starlink comes with us, and I use a Victron GX LTE 4G-A Cellular Modem (M-VC-GXLTE-4G) to keep the Cerbo connected to the VRM Portal over a cellular network. Other monitoring includes several sensors connected to the Cerbo via Bluetooth. I have four Mopeka Pro Check Wireless Tank Sensors (M-MPKA-PRO-CK) that allow me to monitor propane tank levels for both the RV and the power shed. And a handful of Ruuvi Bluetooth Sensor Kits (M-RUUVI-SENSOR) allow me to monitor temperature, humidity, air pressure and movement in both the shed and the RV. The Cerbo allows me to connect to the VRM Portal allows me to monitor my system from any internet connected location in the world.
Future Improvements:
- The Shed: Construction isn’t finished. I still need to paint or stain the exterior and finish trim work. I also plan to reinforce the post and pier foundation. The shed weight has grown considerably and I want to make sure it stays stable. Additionally, I plan on installing a lean-to off the south side of the shed and use bifacial panels for the roof. This will allow for more charging capability and offer more dry storage underneath. The bifacial panels will allow for some natural light in the lean-to as well.
- Hydro Power. Our property does have a year-round creek with approximately 100’ of drop. I will eventually install a micro hydro system to help charge the battery bank during the low sunlight winter months.
- EV Charging: I purchased a Chevrolet Silverado EV and plan to charge it from our home system when excess power is available. Victron’s programmability allows for that to happen.
- Expansion: If I decide I need more power in the future I have a few options. I can either swap out my four 3000W inverters to newer 5000w or 10,000W models (with upgraded wiring and breakers), or with a pretty quick rewiring and reprogramming I can make all four existing inverters run in parallel on a single leg of 240VAC and add four more inverters for the second leg for 24,000W of output. I can always add more solar as well, and run multiple charge controllers in parallel.
Things I would have done differently:
Not really much. If the Multiplus II 48V 5000W inverters were available when I started this project I would have used them instead of the 3000W model. The 3000W model was the largest at the time so that’s why I went with them. They run flawlessly and still provide a lot of power. Other than that “missed opportunity” I am extremely happy with everything in the system. It was a lot of fun to install and I learned a lot of hands-on knowledge. I look forward to tinkering, tweaking and expanding the system in the future.