Minor upgrade to a solar system

[Drew]

Hi folks,

The straw bale cabin is comfortable and livable, if not quiet finished.  I can come in at night with a flashlight, hit a switch, and have CF light and classic rock from an iPod in a JBL ring welcome me.  This is a huge jump in civilization.  It's also great not tripping over the chop saw.

The electricity comes in via a 15 watt Sunforce panel, through a 7 amp charge controller, and into one of my Xantrex 400 battery/inverter things.  The line from the controller goes out under the door to the panel outside.  Cheesy as Wisconsin, but it works.

What I want to do is upgrade the PV cell to one of their 80 watt units and connect it to a couple deep cycle batteries inside the cabin.  My 7 amp controller should last a while and I can get the inverter easy.  My quandary is around the proper way to put the whole in my beloved cabin so as to minimize intrusion by water, bugs, air, county inspectors, and other noxious vermin and elements.

First of all, the joint is on a post and beam foundation.  I gots crawl space.  My first thought was to find a point inside the cabin near an exterior wall and drill a hole the width of a piece of narrow PVC.  I then put in an elbow and run it to one of the posts and down a bit above the ground.  I fish the PV wires trough it to the inside setup.  I can then cap the outside opening with inner-tube rubber or spray foam.

Is there a better way to do this?

Gracias,

Drew

[NM_Shooter]

Consider running hard conduit from your panel down to an LB for penetration through your wall.  Caulk around the access hole that the LB feeds into, and you should be good to go. 

Congrats on the power.  I'm not quite there yet (but close).

[Drew]

NM_Shooter, I like the hard conduit.  Does it react poorly in soil?  And what's an LB?

And just open your eyes reeeeaal wide.  That's what we did before lights!

[MountainDon]

LB box...



Removing the cover plate permits easier access to feed the wires through the wall. The conduit irself and be clamped to the wall with a couple of conduit straps.

The grey carlon (and other brands) conduit is rated for underground use.

Keep in mind that for wire runs through conduit the wire must be rated for wet use, like THHN/THWN OR OTHER.