Have five acres where we've built a hobby farm and recently added a 3/4 acre pond...  We decided to sell our camper and camp at home where it is much more peaceful, we first was going to put our pond on the backside of the lake and wire it like a camper (only DC and LP)....We later decided to put it upfront facing the back so when we sit on the porch we aren't looking toward the house (projects/work).  Now that it is 100yrds from my barn I'm considering running power to it, but wife says no..... what do you guys think?  I'm fat and love AC. LOL

Get some kerosene lanterns and call it good.  I remember as a kid sitting in the house after a big storm and breaking out the old glass lanterns until the power came back on (which was usually several hours!).

That and a little potbelly stove for the cool nights.

Thanks man.... There will actually be a small wood burning stove in there.... so just thinking about lights and cooling in the summer.

solar   LED lighting

power that bitch up

Our cabin came with  45 watt solar panel system, it has been awesome.I think  the charged 12 volt battery will run the cabin lights for something like 148 hrs.Well worth it.

Too hot, use a battery and inverter for a fan, open the window, enjoy hearing the crickets or cicadas when you are out there.
Sounds like you can cool off nice when you jump in the lake.

Don't know how big it will be or how it will be constructed, but you can always add the wiring later in a baseboard chase.

I would not run grid power to it.



If out there on some seriously hot and muggy nights a window ac unit and a generator would cool things off and then I would shut it down during the night.



Friend lives with the girlfriend at the front of a road and house is on city water and grid power.  Long trail through woods and on gravel road gets you back to his cabin that has no city water and no grid power, they don't go back that far or we would probably at least have running water.



Spring, fall, and winter are great at the cabin.  The summer nights can vary.  Since we usually try to work on projects I do better working in cooler weather anyway.



His cabin is in the woods and has enough windows we can get decent airflow so some summer nights it is not bad but sometimes it is just so muggy and hot I can't stand it.



And having the pond to hop in would be nice, but to me I could see  going home to the real house on those nights.



But I do have a window ac unit and I got one of the tractor supply generators in that other thread and it should run the ac without issue so I would use that to cool things off if the rule is no going home to the real house.



Depending on project generators are brought out anyway due to no grid power back there.



Depends on how you plan to deal with things.



One fella does not care how hot it gets, he tends to always be cold and prefers summer to winter.



I prefer winter since a woodstove keeps the cabin warm and I can layer up easily.

Here's your answer:

Cabin Power


Short of that, it depends on what you want to do there.  Probably a few solar panels and a couple of batteries plus all the other stuff you'll need would make for a comfortable life style.

Steven Harris talks at length about options to power a cabin. www.solar1234.com

I have a family hunting camp, about 60 years old now.  No electricity just a wood stove...there is nothing better. You could run gas and have lanterns installed.  A buddy has this, as well as a gas cook stove, and its pretty cool.

My cabin is being wired as we speak.  I plan on having a generator hookup until I get it on the grid.  

Bought the Woodstove last night.

If the only market appeal to the property is as a vacation property, i.e., few people would consider living there year round, I'd go without. I would consider wiring the cabin IF doing so would make it more valuable should you ever decide to sell it.  In that case if it were me, I'd wire it up to code and power it with a generator if and when I "needed" electricity and leave the grid hookup to some future owner.

Thanks for the input guys....  A few years ago, I built a really small cabin out under some pines out front for the girls to have a "craft shed".  I wired it and just left a pigtail outside where they can drag an extension cord to it and told them once I build a garage out by it I'll pull permanent power.  I'm kind of leaning the same way here... maybe batteries and solar for lights, but maybe a couple outlets wired and a pigtail to plug in a generator if AC is needed....  I have several generators, so this is not an issue....

Thanks again!!!!

I think you should send the wife away on a two day vacation.

And while she's gone, bury some conduit, and run a 220V, 30-50A run out there to a sub panel.  

Then you can run A/C, space heaters, whatevs.