My little 12VDC cabin .

[BigAl]

Ok . I did a thread about the big house in Panama so now heres a little one on the 12VDC cabin that I have on the same property .

The little 2 person cabin was built to keep the wife and I comfy while I built the big house . It is modeled after a ships cabin on a cruise ship . Very compact !!!.
Anyway when I first built the cabin I ordered a complete KIt with 1- 60 watt panel, One inverter , and one charge controller from a solar supplier in Panama City and had it shipped over to my island by air . It cost about $1000 at the time . It was a VAC system at the time also. I installed it myself and used just a 12V deep cycle battery to maintain power . The little 400 watt Inverter crapped out after 1 year so I installed another and it also crapped out in about a year . Now these inverters were cheap ,not the kind I have on the big house .
At this point I realized that I only ran lights and one fan on VAC and everything else was DC .The little cabin was all wired in 12 gauge wire and no wire runs to lights /appliances exceeded the needed wire size/wattage which is the main problem when using a straight 12VDC system . So one day I deleted the Inverter hooked up a male plug to the one battery bank and plugged it into the AC plug on the wall .I also installed a master 12VDC fuse inline . I changed the light bulbs from a low watt AC type to 12 VDC low watt ones . The screw in bases on the lights are the same . I then installed a rotating 2 speed DC fan much like you see in the big Semi Trucks . Thats it ... I flipped the light switch and the system worked perfect with no problems . Its been this way for almost 7 years now and it is still working great . I finally added a second deep cycle battery this past year as we decided to rent it for short term vacation rental .This insures the fans can be used all night when it is warm in the cabin . My water pump is straight DC powered and the stove, tankless water heater and refrigator are all Propane powered . Heres are a couple pictures . Its small and cozy !

 

[Trakternut]

Pretty sweet li'l luvshak ya got there!! You're also an inventive son-uv-a-gun too!
Good Job!

 

[Bamby]

Nice looking little cabin you've got there Al. I've got a little houseboat that's been redone that I've tried to do the same thing with. I'm hoping I can get away with just one battery for the cabin myself. Sometime in the future I may ask for your advice it's nice to know someone has experience with it.

 

[OhioTC18]

Nice cabin Al, any pics of the inside?

 

[fogtender]

That is about the size of my cabin out on the Lake. It is wired for 110VAC, but run off a four battery, 12 volt bank that is topped off with solar panel to keep the batteries up, the inverter is a 2,500 Watt with 5,000 Watt surge that supplies the power from the 12 volt DC to 110 volt AC.

Was just going to go 12V, but the inverter and low 110 VAC watt useage bulbs put out more light than the 12 volts ones do after the inverter loss. The solar panel is about a 55 or 80 Watt panel, but I only use the cabin for a few days at a time and it works great.

Use to be I would have to charge the Batteries before leaving with the generator a couple of hours to keep them from Splitting open in the extreme cold without a charge. The solar tops them off and keeps them in good condition much better than a gererator being run off and on.

Have a wind generator too, but haven't installed it and may not due to lack of steady wind.

 

[BigAl]

Nice cabin Al, any pics of the inside?

Here's a few
The refrigator was not in place when I took these pictures as we had just repainted . The bunks work out great as a lot of surfer types , single photographers or , jungle explorers are the basic type of renters for this place .Bath with tile shower is to the right in Pic of bunks . I'm in dining area taking pic of kitchen area .As you can see it is compact . The bunks each have their own vent window with fans to keep you cool at night . You spend 90+% of your time outdoors under the covered deck so the cabin is basically for sleeping /showering /cooking .

I have a family of slouths that live in the Tree canopy just a 100 feet from here .

Margay cat belongs to a friend and just passed away . Too bad as he was a neat cat and like to use my leg as a scratching post !

 

[Trakternut]

That is about the size of my cabin out on the Lake. It is wired for 110VAC, but run off a four battery, 12 volt bank that is topped off with solar panel to keep the batteries up, the inverter is a 2,500 Watt with 5,000 Watt surge that supplies the power from the 12 volt DC to 110 volt AC.

Was just going to go 12V, but the inverter and low 110 VAC watt useage bulbs put out more light than the 12 volts ones do after the inverter loss. The solar panel is about a 55 or 80 Watt panel, but I only use the cabin for a few days at a time and it works great.

Use to be I would have to charge the Batteries before leaving with the generator a couple of hours to keep them from Splitting open in the extreme cold without a charge. The solar tops them off and keeps them in good condition much better than a gererator being run off and on.

Have a wind generator too, but haven't installed it and may not due to lack of steady wind.

Ya need to log it into FF then. Plenty of wind in here.

A good friend of mine built a new icefishing shanty a few years back. He's got a solar panel with charger on a deep cycle battery. He runs a 12V furnace for heat, and 12V lights in there. He hasn't had to charge that battery in over a year, when he installed the solar panel. He's even left the furnace run for over night when he plans to return the next day to fish. Batts hold up just fine.

 

[EastTexFrank]

Al, that's really cool. Beautiful place, no wonder you love it down there.

I'm no expert in these things so correct me if I'm wrong but there always seemed to be a lot of advantages to a 12 volt DC system in a stand alone application like your little cabin. Did you consider installing a 12 volt, DC system in the big house and since you didn't, why not?

 

[BigAl]

Al, that's really cool. Beautiful place, no wonder you love it down there.

I'm no expert in these things so correct me if I'm wrong but there always seemed to be a lot of advantages to a 12 volt DC system in a stand alone application like your little cabin. Did You consider installing a 12 volt, DC system in the big house and since you didn't, why not?

The needed size of wiring to run VDC appilances for one . Another was all appliances and cieling fans would need to be converted to DC Motors . A house this size would have been expensive (wire/appliances cost wise )to run on all DC . Besides I still would have needed a generator for the Laundry washer . I believe they do have DC units now though .If I ever decided to add Air Conditioning that would have posed a problem also .

If Island power ever reaches my place and is affordable the house is completely ready to be tied into the AC island system, though I can't imagine I would ever want to do that . My AC power is Modified Sine wave and works just fine .

 

[fogtender]

Here's a few
The refrigator was not in place when I took these pictures as we had just repainted . The bunks work out great as a lot of surfer types , single photographers or , jungle explorers are the basic type of renters for this place .Bath with tile shower is to the right in Pic of bunks . I'm in dining area taking pic of kitchen area .As you can see it is compact . The bunks each have their own vent window with fans to keep you cool at night . You spend 90+% of your time outdoors under the covered deck so the cabin is basically for sleeping /showering /cooking .

I have a family of slouths that live in the Tree canopy just a 100 feet from here .

Margay cat belongs to a friend and just passed away . Too bad as he was a neat cat and like to use my leg as a scratching post !

Very neat looking place you have there!

My cabin has taken a few years to get it where it is, mostly due to the location and time frame to get to it. Not having a plane during the last few years cut into my summer access since it was a thousand dollar bill to charter a plane out and back to there. Now that I have the new plane, that will change the access issue a lot and hopefully will speed up the building process.

The furry critters we have around our area are in the thousand pound plus range and some just want to eat branches, and some want to eat the branch eaters...