
Solar Shed Summary: My Off Grid Office - ValG
https://syonyk.blogspot.com/2016/07/solar-shed-summary-my-off-grid-office.html
======
sandworm101
Here is the one I made. Seven years on and it's still rock solid. My only
regret was not putting it on a skid. Heat is a wood stove (total overkill).
The solar panels aren't much, but keep the lights on in the winter.

[https://ssl.panoramio.com/photo/18231117](https://ssl.panoramio.com/photo/18231117)

------
PebblesHD
That is simply one of the coolest projects I've seen this year, one which I
have long dreamed of replicating in my lovely bit of land in outer dural. I'm
thinking a shipping container or prefab shed with a nice internal wood frame
for the insulation would do quite nicely. My only concern is that for some
reason, solar panels are incredibly expensive in this particularly sunny
country... That and my internet tops out around 5mbps 2 feet from the modem,
not sure what 500ft of underground cable or range extender will do to that.

~~~
jon-wood
You can get relatively inexpensive hardware that will do point to point
wireless links at over a gigabit a second, so you could probably work
something out on that front. Probably even make do with a cheap directional
antenna and a wireless access point on each end.

~~~
gaius
The old pringle-can microwave gambit.

------
VLM
One of the "joys" of living in the USA is every municipality has a different
building code enforcement scheme, so WRT

"As my structure is too small to require permits or inspections, I don't need
to abide by silly bits of code. I'm not concerned with room-to-room fire
spread resistance in a single room office. The 1/2" plywood goes up similarly
to the foamboard ..."

Humorously code where I live is 3/4 ply counts as an actual firestop! If he
had installed a slightly different product he would have been legal. Note that
my state is not exactly a victim of droughts and wildfires and your state's
codes are correspondingly different.

Likewise home insurance is regulated at state level and its important to
understand the insurance coverage difference (if any) between built to code vs
built under a permit. Also insurability. The city might not be able to legally
knock down a little shed, but if the insurance guy refuses to insure the
property thats almost as bad.

There is one interesting illegal problem in that if you do outright illegal
work at the same quality level or better than a pro, then if someone bad ever
happens (and why would it?) then its going to be extremely easy to pencil whip
it as grandfathered or unrelated. On the other hand once you get into the
habit of shoddy workmanship then inevitably 1) You're gonna be involved in an
unfortunate claim 2) its gonna be really hard to claim its grandfathered work.

------
hawski
Very cool project. With literal hacking :)

Author did this alone and many times underlined that some things were tough or
he couldn't have done it differently, because he did all by himself. I am
wondering if that was a conscious decision to not bother his friends with his
personal projects or maybe he likes to keep his Legos to himself.

~~~
pjc50
A fun game is to look in the background of the photos and speculate on how
many miles away his nearest neighbor is. I'm not even sure how far the shed is
from his house.

------
adrianN
This reminds of of Joey Hess, who has taken this a little further.

[https://usesthis.com/interviews/joey.hess/](https://usesthis.com/interviews/joey.hess/)

~~~
ClashTheBunny
And Bruce Hauman: [http://rigsomelight.com/2013/09/09/frameless-geodesic-
dome.h...](http://rigsomelight.com/2013/09/09/frameless-geodesic-dome.html)

I believe he said that he built it on a friend's property.

------
teddyc
My wife converted our shed into her sewing studio. She had previously worked
out of our kitchen but it was tough with little kids in the work space.

Her studio is insulated, as well. She put drywall up and installed a "normal"
door.

Running electrical conduit was not an issue. A single 20 amp circuit powers
everything, which includes sewing machines, lights, computer, and A/C/space
heater.

I had to setup a second wireless access point for internet access, I chose a
cheap router that supports PoE and openwrt.

------
luxpir
Motivating post.

I recently moved to a paid-for office because I haven't got it together enough
to frame up a home office over the last few years (playing the new child card
for that one). It doesn't cost a great deal, is a decent address, has gigabit
access and free international phonecalls. Also the chance that I'll network
more here. And motivation levels have definitely been bumped back up after 10
years at home.

I'm good enough in it, but the aim is to get a 5x6m office up at the end of
the garden by the time the lease is up here. Hopefully taking my new contacts
and motivation into it.

Plus it'll be nice not to commute 20-30 mins each way. Again.

------
awjr
Such a cool project. I would have considered cladding the walls in pine
cladding to soften the look. It's a very 'practical' space.

The other thing I would have done is off grid my house and run a cable up to
the "shoffice". I see having a reliable electricity source key to working
productively and this setup would concern me in the winter.

One option would be to install a small wood burner (say the type used on
narrow boats) to remove the need to use electricity to heat the shoffice.

~~~
pjc50
> run a cable up to the "shoffice"

The author says twice why he doesn't want to do this: difficulty of running
trenches in basalt. Also it's not clear how far away the shed is from the
house.

------
cbanek
I was just looking at some of the sheds sitting outside of Home Depot
yesterday thinking of the same thing. This is such a great result, I'm glad to
know it's not just possible, but it's awesome!

------
alex_young
Looks great, but I can't help but wonder if a DC heat pump wouldn't be a
better option. With solar + inverter + AC cooling aren't you working against
yourself a bit thermally speaking?

------
chatmasta
Where does the Internet come from? It would be cool to hook up a satellite
uplink for truly "off the grid" living. :)

~~~
asd
In the comments he replies with: "Wireless bridge to the house. I've got a
pair of Mikrotik Lite2 units up for now."

and

"Rural wifi. 15/2 for $100/mo. It works"

------
Arbinv
Good job man.

