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With the announcement from my employer that we will not be going back to the office full time in favour of a 50/50 hybrid of office based and WFH I have jumped on the garden office bandwagon and have ordered myself a little log cabin.
I've gone for the 45mm wall thickness, and will be insulating the roof and floor having been told that this will be good enough the vast majority of the time. I can insulate the walls at a later date if it turns out it needs it.
I want to use this as an experiment in being able to live off grid so for heating I am looking at either a gas or wood fired heater, then for electricity I'm looking at solar. Does anyone have any experience in doing this, either for a home office of maybe for a campervan or caravan?
What's the best set up for solar powering a laptop for 8 hours a day and maybe 2 hours a day of phone charger, lights, and possibly a small television?
How many Wh of storage will I need if I am going to be using this 2 or 3 times a week throughout the year?
I will be able to run an extension lead down there to charge the battery so the set up doesnt have to be portable.
I appreciate it would be simpler to just run a cable down there, and if this turns out to be too much faff on a daily basis then I will end up doing that but I'm prepared to waste a bit of money on trying to make this work to hopefully learn some lessons to stand me in good stead for any future campervanning.
Insulate the walls as well while you're at the ceiling and floor. It will pay back all year round and reduce the energy you require to heat the place.
Gas or wood fired heater. Make sure it's certified for inside a wooden building and that you have sufficient ventilation otherwise carbon monoxide will be your friend.
Here's a starter for your energy requirements
That’s a fair whack of power. If you can run mains, I’d do that.
I’ve just done a small solar setup for lights only in my garage but its on the other side of the road and an independent grid connection would be into the thousands plus standing charges.