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I am building a modest cabin and a decent sized shop in northwestern Montana. The build site is completely off grid with no near future intentions of having grid access though we are located next to a state highway. I have little idea on where to start on figuring out power needs. Outside of small household appliances and shop equipment we will be starting fresh. All major appliances were left at our old home. All these usage calculators seem to have widely different power consumption rates, many appliances are used infrequently or very short term. We have been living in a travel trailer for two years so we do know how to conserve everything but we want to live mostly normal again and have most of the convenience of prior on grid life.
Our cabin will be 2 bedroom, 1 bath and about 1800 sq feet. Looking to build a 36x40 shop. I have a considerable amount of tooling and shop equipment from my prior living arrangement and use the shop to fix up and sell vehicles and medium sized equipment. I have electric welders but will most likely sell the majority of my heavy consumption equipment and buy an engine driven welder which would power things like my plasma cutter. Many of my smaller handheld power tools have been supplemented or replaced by gas or battery powered tools. I am a forestry contractor by trade and am used to doing much with little.
We will be drilling a well and also building a large bird enclosure with a tackroom and loafing shed for horses. Our lot leaves alot to be desired in the way of constant sunshine. Our property backs up to usfs land on the east side of use and we don't get an appreciable amount of direct sun until after 11am. I have two small reasonable areas for solar arrays, one appears to be best suited facing south and the other to the west. I am also expecting to have a small diesel generator to augment power production and will have to lean on it heavily during the winter months. I am going to have to do much of the building and construction myself due to the lack of available contractors in the area and inflated pricing of practically everything needed to construct a home these days.
T
Input and ideas would be greatly appreciated in determining power needs and ideal componants selection and placement
Our cabin will be 2 bedroom, 1 bath and about 1800 sq feet. Looking to build a 36x40 shop. I have a considerable amount of tooling and shop equipment from my prior living arrangement and use the shop to fix up and sell vehicles and medium sized equipment. I have electric welders but will most likely sell the majority of my heavy consumption equipment and buy an engine driven welder which would power things like my plasma cutter. Many of my smaller handheld power tools have been supplemented or replaced by gas or battery powered tools. I am a forestry contractor by trade and am used to doing much with little.
We will be drilling a well and also building a large bird enclosure with a tackroom and loafing shed for horses. Our lot leaves alot to be desired in the way of constant sunshine. Our property backs up to usfs land on the east side of use and we don't get an appreciable amount of direct sun until after 11am. I have two small reasonable areas for solar arrays, one appears to be best suited facing south and the other to the west. I am also expecting to have a small diesel generator to augment power production and will have to lean on it heavily during the winter months. I am going to have to do much of the building and construction myself due to the lack of available contractors in the area and inflated pricing of practically everything needed to construct a home these days.
T
Input and ideas would be greatly appreciated in determining power needs and ideal componants selection and placement
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