Solar powering a garage?

[rarebreed]

Has anyone tried using solar power to feed their detached garage instead of hooking up to the house power? If so, what does it generally cost to set up and any issues with it?

My garage is a 20x20 with no power currently. Just looking for an alternative.

 

[ForceFed70]

I don't know of anyone who has tried it.

I do know a lot about solar, and have a cabin in the woods with a solar system.

Long story short: The only time solar makes sense is if hooking up to the grid is not an option. Otherwise, it's cost prohibitive unless all you're trying to do is provide some basic lighting with it. Everything about solar is expensive (panels, inverters, batteries) and batteries need to be replaced every 5 years.

 

[LutzTD]

with the increase in availability of LED lighting you can have a very well lighted garage with a small system. Couple 12v deep cycle batteries and a small cell and dc/dc converter will be enough. If you want to actually work out there, then you will have to scale up according to your needs. If its not often you could get by with more batteries and an inverter to run a drill or such every so often. If you want a/c or a fridge or some other large or parasitic load solar will be expensive for you.

 

[rarebreed]

It's close enough to the house where I can run power off the main breaker of the house, but don't want to spend $1000 + to have it wired.
Most of the power I would use in that garage would be lights, garage door opener, fan, grinder, 135 mig welder and a turbine sprayer at some point.

 

[ForceFed70]

It's close enough to the house where I can run power off the main breaker of the house, but don't want to spend $1000 + to have it wired.
Most of the power I would use in that garage would be lights, garage door opener, fan, grinder, 135 mig welder and a turbine sprayer at some point.

You'll spend at least $3000 on a solar system to be able to run that equipment and you'll still be limited with power at times. plus $1000 every 5 years on batteries, etc.

A decent "golf cart battery" will cost you $200 a piece. You'll want at least 5 of them to handle the demands of a welder and that's assuming you're doing smaller welding projects.

Trust me - you're WAY better off connecting to the house power.

 

[Fixin'Stuff]

Spend the thousand bucks to run power to the garage. You'll be glad that you did.

 

[Falcon67]

I figure I could run the shop, most things comfortably, on a 5500w generator. So that's about $8000 more or less in panels, batteries, charge controllers, grid tie unit, etc. Probably not worth doing unless I win the lotto.

 

[HOTFR8]

A few topics on the GJ show solar. I have a UPS system that runs my office. The bigger system runs the property and exports power on good days.

1/2Cup also added solar to his place so that is two topics you can look up.

 

[wyliesdiesels]

It's close enough to the house where I can run power off the main breaker of the house, but don't want to spend $1000 + to have it wired.
Most of the power I would use in that garage would be lights, garage door opener, fan, grinder, 135 mig welder and a turbine sprayer at some point.

Did u get quote for $1000 or where did that price come from?

How long of a run are we talking here?

 

[jimreed2160]

I know this is a far cry from what you asked but I recommend micro solar as an interim step to give you some relief. And what is micro solar, you ask?

Get some of those solar security lights. They are on ebay for about 20-30 bucks. You can mount the solar panel outside and run the cord through a gap in the garage door. Or you can drill a small hole for the wire. Set the lights to come on for 30 seconds to 1 minute when they detect motion. This will be a welcome and convenient greeting when you go into the garage.

Not a final solution, but something to consider as an interim step.

 

[altersaddle]

I looked into solar for my workshop, but came to two conclusions:

1) There is still a significant cost to the materials, and
2) You can't run any sort of stationary power tools off a battery for any length of time.

My plan was to install one or two panels, giving me about 250 watts, which is (at peak!) 1/3 horsepower.

To put it into perspective, here's a fellow who has managed to run an A/C unit off solar power:

https://syonyk.blogspot.ca/2016/07/solar-shed-summary-my-off-grid-office.html

That's at an outlay of $6-7,000 (for the panels, charge controller, and battery bank) and the ONLY draws on that system are A/C, lights, and several computers.

That being said - I think you could run the lights, garage door opener, and possibly a bench grinder off a solar system. The fans, welder, and turbine sprayer would gobble through your available battery really quickly.

 

[Falcon67]

To put it into perspective, here's a fellow who has managed to run an A/C unit off solar power:

https://syonyk.blogspot.ca/2016/07/solar-shed-summary-my-off-grid-office.html

I'm not claustrophobic but I'd get tired of that tiny hut pretty dang quick. And he picked a lousy AC unit for it. He'll be lucky if that F-bomb AC unit even work next year.

Some what of a hack job on that overpriced garden shed, but interesting for the electronics.

 

[rarebreed]

Did u get quote for $1000 or where did that price come from?

How long of a run are we talking here?

The wife called the electrician that is contracted to wire all the new houses for the builder that is building in our neighborhood and that's what they quoted. For reference, the garage is within 10 feet of the side of the house and the main breaker is on the back wall of the attached garage. I'd say maybe 150' or 200' max run coming up out of the breaker box through the attic and back down the wall and out to the detached garage where the panel will be mounted. Not sure if these pics helps with the distance, but the conduit for the breaker box in the new garage was installed on the back wall.

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[dave*99]

Find an electrician that will let you do much of the grunt work. Pay him to do the parts of the job you are uncomfortable with.

That detached garage needs to be powered from the house. Especially if you ever sell the house.

 

[James-W]

I don't think you will be very happy with the performance of a small solar setup and I don't think you will be happy with the cost of a solar setup large enough to handle all the things you would like to do. In other words, my suggestion is that you spend the $1,000 and run power from the house to the garage.

 

[rarebreed]

I hear ya, just trying to keep the cost down and did not know if solar would be cheaper. It appears it will be much higher up front to setup.

 

[wyliesdiesels]

The wife called the electrician that is contracted to wire all the new houses for the builder that is building in our neighborhood and that's what they quoted. For reference, the garage is within 10 feet of the side of the house and the main breaker is on the back wall of the attached garage. I'd say maybe 150' or 200' max run coming up out of the breaker box through the attic and back down the wall and out to the detached garage where the panel will be mounted. Not sure if these pics helps with the distance, but the conduit for the breaker box in the new garage was installed on the back wall.

U were quoted $1000 to install what size feeder for the garage?

Solar will cost way more than that....

Depending on the size of the circuit, $1000 is cheap...

 

[Marctrees]

Get quotes to feed a 220 v 60 amp panel in the garage minimum if you got some future welding ideas.

The right way to do it if you want more than a few lights and regular outlet. Marc

 

[bgarrett]

For my workshop in the country I have solar for lights and other light duty but my Compressor is a Gordan Smith with Model A engine, my welder is gasoline, powered by Onan, then of course oxy/acetylene and I have a Honda e3000is portable generator for grinders, drill presses, etc. So Solar is ok but I make no attempt to run everything off of it

 

[TegTypeR]

My set up is similar to bgarrett.

I've had to go down the route of solar for my garage and it works well.

It doesn't have to be expensive. I sourced all of my equipment from eBay (new from China), paying £80 / $100 for the panel and £100 / $125 for the batteries. The expensive part was the inverter which was around £300 / $350.

I've used the same principles as wiring a vehicle, so all the parts are cheap and readily available.

A lot of these "off grid" systems that are sold by companies are over priced and they work on consumer fear of new technology / the unknown.

However, looking at your picture, the garage is so close to your house that it would be worth running power from there.

 

[theoldwizard1]

I figure I could run the shop, most things comfortably, on a 5500w generator. So that's about $8000 more or less in panels, batteries, charge controllers, grid tie unit, etc. Probably not worth doing unless I win the lotto.

I bought a lightly used 5500W generator for $300 a few years back. Still lightly used !

 

[sberry]

This is 10 ft away from line power. Run a fuggin wire, it cant get any easier. Even an extension cord would be a no brainer here;.