Tiny houses are fantastic accommodations for anyone that’s looking to downsize their lives and live simply. By reducing the amount of space you have, you naturally have fewer material objects and less to worry about in the long run.
This idea of minimalistic living comes with a wide range of benefits, including a lower cost of living. By shifting to a smaller home, you can instantly save money on power bills as you consume far less energy. This is a simple lifestyle that can be great for the environment.
Another way of making tiny houses more sustainable is installing solar panels and getting all of your energy needs directly from the sun. As solar technology has improved over the years, you can harvest more and more energy over time without much loss at all. This system is perfect for anyone looking to run their tiny homes off solar, but how much do you exactly need?
Why Do People Use Solar for Tiny Houses?
On both small and large scales, people are converting their electric systems over to solar for countless reasons. Solar is much more affordable than it once was and creates more energy from the same amount of sun. With incentives happening in so many different places, it’s hard to not convince yourself to move to solar.
Tiny houses are the perfect setup for a solar setup. Because of their size, tiny houses use far less energy than most and can be built to save on energy even easier than ever. In general, there’s less space and smaller appliances to power, making it easy for solar to run the entire house.
Additionally, there’s a lot less hassle with a solar setup when doing it on a tiny home. The movement of power from one place to another is a shorter distance, you need fewer panels for a smaller space, and you don’t need to worry about the high level of watts required by larger appliances like washing machines and refrigerators.
Instead, you are likely powering smaller and more compact refrigerators that are designed to use less energy overall. With fewer lights and lower energy demands, solar is the perfect solution for a tiny house.
Save on Electricity Bills
Converting to solar will quickly reduce your electricity bills in any home. In a tiny home, you can reduce your electricity bill drastically, sometimes ending with a positive net outcome rather than actually paying money. Selling your solar back to the grid can end up being slightly profitable if you’re doing it right.
Eco-friendly and Safety
Electrical systems are powered by several different environmentally-destructive methods that are further destroying our climate and world as we know it. Solar power is a clean and renewable energy source that also provides a safe source of electricity. Rather than a large scale of power lines, smaller solar systems are more localized and safer for everyone.
Increasing House Value
Nowadays, everyone is looking for homes that have solar installed. They recognize the overall benefits and want to start off with solar already set up. By installing solar in your home, you can easily add to your home’s value while saving money all year long.
Living Off the Grid
Living off the grid has a huge appeal to those that love an isolated lifestyle and even to those who still want to be connected. Depending on the grid for all of your power can be dangerous as you no longer have control when things go wrong. By going off the grid, you have power at all times, no matter what power lines have gone down in the recent storm.
How Much Solar Power Do You Need For a Tiny House?
The solar power required for a tiny house depends on factors like energy usage, appliances, and location. We can preliminarily estimate the result by 2 simple methods:
- Check the current electricity bill of your tiny house;
- Count the energy consumption of all electrical appliances in the home and the running time of each appliance, and add up results.
These ways you can determine the amount of electricity required for your energy needs and thus how much solar energy your tiny home will need.
On average, a well-designed tiny house might need around 200 to 600 watts of solar panels to cover basic needs like lighting and essential electronics. This conservative estimate suits houses with minimal energy consumption.
However, if your tiny house uses more appliances or has specific energy-intensive requirements, such as running power tools or larger devices, you might need additional solar capacity. Customizing your solar setup based on your individual energy needs ensures that your tiny house remains powered efficiently and sustainably. Consulting with a solar professional can help you determine the optimal solar power system for your specific situation.
How Many Solar Panels Do You Need for Your Tiny House?
A setup of two 200W solar panels will quickly get you the power you need for a small home. If you are using a bit more energy, or want some energy security, you can add in a third panel for comfort and safety.
In general, it’s good to have around 800W of solar panels for a tiny home so you can ensure that you have enough breathing room to use energy as you please rather than constantly monitoring the system.
How to Build a Solar System for a Tiny House?
One of the best parts of putting a solar system on a tiny house is that it’s incredibly simple to do and there’s no need to pay an installation company thousands of dollars just to get solar power.
A Growatt solar generator can be set up in almost no time at all by just about anyone out there. These systems are simple and can be moved around at all times, making them user-friendly and portable while still being highly efficient.
Identification and Selection of Suitable Solar Power Generation Systems
The start of the process is to figure out exactly what solar generator you want to put on your tiny home. This will come down to how much power you require, your budget, how you use the system, and if you are hoping to expand it in the future. Once you find the right system that checks all of your boxes, make the purchase and you can get to it at home.
Choose a Suitable Location for Installation
Finding the right location for the solar system is important because you can harvest more sun if the panels are in the right spot. South-facing slopes tend to be the optimal location for solar panels, as the sun is the most powerful from the south and will provide the most consistent light from that direction.
Pay attention to your surroundings and try not to worry too much. These systems are highly portable so you can easily move them around and try different spots out.
Wire the Solar System
The Growatt systems are incredibly simple to set up and have working in an instant. Once the panels are in the right position, it’s as easy as plugging the panels into your portable power station. From there, you can wire the power station into the tiny home’s mainframe and have the power directed into the house rather than operating off the power station at all times.
Test and Power the Device
Finally, you need to just test the device. This is as easy as turning it on and reading the input from the solar panels and trying one of the several outlets to see if everything is operating right. Let the solar panels work and charge the power station so you can have power when you need it.
The Simplest Solar System for Tiny House
Growatt solar generator kits are some of the most simple systems out there for a tiny house. They are easy to install, lightweight, easy to move around, require little maintenance, and have a huge number of outlets so everyone can use the power station all at once.
There are a load of different options from the VITA 550, INFINITY 1300, and the INFINITY 1500 that can meet all of your basic needs and then some.
As we all know, there may come a time that you want to expand and turn your tiny house into something a bit larger. When more power is in demand, you can always expand the system by connecting multiple power stations together and drastically increase the storage capacity as well as the overall power output of the system.
With these three systems you can easily cover what you need in a tiny house and have solar power ready on hand for all of your basic daily needs. A solar generator kit has everything that you need in order to get everything hooked up and running in no time at all.
Final Thoughts
Tiny houses are an excellent opportunity for someone to move toward a more sustainable and minimalist lifestyle. In that home, the need for power will always be there, but a solar generator is the perfect solution. Solar power allows you nearly-endless energy without the guilty conscience of sucking from the grid. A reliable system will have you powered when you need it and never let you worry about power outages again.
