Sorry to start a new topic on an old subject, but big decisions are in the balance, so if anyone's got any critical input for a dummy who doesn't know a watt from a volt, it would be appreciated.
The following is a price quote for a solar system. The person giving the quote has a long history in the solar business and lives off grid. He set up the solar system for Lakeland College's research site and they were the ones that recommended him highly. I was astounded at the price.
Well I worked out two options.
1- small cabin includes:
25440 watt/hrs of battery power or 530ahrs of battery at 48 volts .
1840 watts of solar .
Which needs about 12ft x 15 ft of available roof facing south.
Magnum 4000 w inverter
This would give YourMobile power and would need to run generator after 2 days of clouds . Also would need to run generator in part of nov , dec , jan . As for the average usable solar in dec is about 3.4 hrs / day.
Small cabin solar material only $12000.00
My labor is 85.00/ hrs .
Small house is basically double the capacity of above for material only :
$17800.00
Notes: material not supplied
- battery box or vent
- wire from solar panels to battery
- auto gen start
- generator
Let me know how you want to go. You will need a seperate place for your batteries as they vent and require regular maintenance .
At this point I would need to see your place to make any further planning . Phone if you have any questions.
Unless you have no alternative for power, or really, really want to go the green option, I think a much smaller system would get you through any emergency.
It's hard to say if this is good for you or not, as I have no idea what you plan to run on it ie. fridge, electric stove, etc.
Going completely off grid is expensive at the startup...be absolutely sure that you either need something this big or want something this big.
530 AHr of storage isn't bad, but it depends on the battery type - some 'deep cycle' batteries can't be depleted below 50%, which means that your 'real' AHr would be 265, not 530. That would probably be lead acid batteries, which also require maintenance, and topping up a couple of litres of distilled water each month, through those little holes on top, is no joke - it gets old, really quickly! My first set of (700AHr) batteries were like that. They lasted 4 years. I was putting 5-6 litres of water into them each fortnight! To replace them with the same batteries (L16's) would have cost me $12K (NZ dollars), but I went for 500AHr Lithium Yttrium batteries instead, for $16K, and they are no maintenance (sealed) batteries, which can be depleted to 30% and still give 42V, and can be depleted 3,000 times, so even if I use all of the power in the batteries each day, they will last 10 years. (I've gone on about batteries quite a bit, as they are the heart of the system. No sense producing loads of power if you can't store it!)
1840W of PV for 3.4 hours a day isn't going to give you a lot of power, I'm afraid, just over 6KWh on a good day. (6KWh is enough to run a 1Kw bar heater for 6 hours, or a 2-bar heater for 3 hours.) On a cloudy day you'll get a LOT less. Maybe even only 1-2 KWh.
The inverter is okay for size, as your house could draw up to 4Kw at a time, which is all burners on a stove, pretty much. That also limits the size of the gennie you can attach - no sense having a 7KW gennie, if it can only pump 4KW into the batteries.
Battery box, wiring and gennie are all extra, I see, so they will be as much again, I would expect. I'd recommend a diesel gennie - designed to run for hours, and with so few PV panels you will need it, especially in the winter. One thing I noticed when I got mine - the inbuilt fuel tank was less than 20 litres. That didn't last very long, and refilling the tank in the cold / wet / dark is no joke, either. I got an external fuel tank, holding 300 litres, and now I only fill it on warm, dry, sunny days! 😆
If you can get double the amount for 1.5 times the cost of the small cabin, I'd say go for it, if you can afford it. Whatever power you generate and store, you WILL use! 
Thankyou both so much for your input. It's not just emergency usage, I'm thinking of moving into the place now and it has no power. I got a quote from Fortis to bring power onto the property and it was an astounding 17 thousand, which only gets it to the yard... into the cabin is another thing which would require hiring an electrician, getting a meter and bringing the wires in, etc. So maybe 20 by the time it's all done.
To add insult to injury, an old farmer told me that the power company charges a flat fee per month even before you flip any switches, so that even if I was very reserved with my power usage, he thought I'd still be chalking up $400 bills. When I heard all that, my heart sank even further.
The solar guy also told me I'd need to keep the batteries warm, that's a concern because I don't know how I'd manage that considering a woodstove is my main heatsource - what would I do when I'm away overnight or more?
You only need to keep your batteries warm not hot. 😉 That should not pose too much of a problem depending on where you put the system. The apparatus itself will produce some heat so if you use and insulted, vented enclosure you should be all right. Also the panels themselves work at a higher efficiency level when they are cold so no problem there. just remember that you need to keep the panels free from any noticeable accumulation of snow. Placement can help with this. It there any chance of throwing in a small wind turbine to augment your system?