The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Smallholding => Buildings & planning => Topic started by: DavidandCollette on February 07, 2018, 06:00:33 pm
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This may be a naive question, but we are considering moving onto our land and getting a wooden cabin that conforms to the Caravan Act. Would solar power provide enough electricity?
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You would have to join the camping and caravan club - which would require that no caravan remains on the land for more than 28 days and has to be for the purpose of a holiday and in no way residential?
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I think it can be for 64 days - but has to be unoccupied as a rental for 4 days in the middle.
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In answer to the question though - absolutely yes - with a budget of around 10 grand you could buy panels, converters and storage that would be enough to run a few lights and a TV and radio.
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There is no need to spend £10k. Have a look on here,https://www.facebook.com/groups/sbcampervans/, there are always discussions on the relative benefits of smaller systems.
The cost of the solar panels has come down, the expensive part are the batteries, I think the https://www.tesla.com/en_GB/powerwall (https://www.tesla.com/en_GB/powerwall) is about £3k, but really you have to be generating far fair bit of power to make the cost worth while. You can pick up second-hand batteries.
We have neighbours who live off gird, all on secondhand equipment, its not going to be the same as mains but its doable.
I wouldn't go for a shed, I would get a old horsebox.
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I'm mining bitcoins with any extra energy my panels make in the daytime :) - not much but about £50 a month.
I dont see much point in me exporting it back to the grid - would be nice to have batteries mind and become off grid totally.