Roughly Cottage is a remote cottage accessed by a rough track. Completely off-grid this charming shepherds cottage draws water from a spring and has very limited power for lights, and operating the boiler. Power is from Solar Panels and a small wind turbine.
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Roughly Cottage is available to rent as a holiday cottage.
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Click Here to find out more.
Our involvemnent with Roughly started a few years ago when we installed a battery monitor, MPPT controller and a custom built control box. The batteries were lead acid and had just been replaced, like for like, by the owners. Early in 2020 the batteries failed once again. Lithium would have been our first choice but during the winter the temperature drops to well below 5C and during the closed season there is no heating or excess energy available. Instead we installed a Lead Carbon battery bank along with a Smart Battery protect.
Our latest project is to further upgrade the system. Because the property is a holiday cottage, an Ultraviolet Water Purification system will be installed. This has increased the power requirement and we will be installing a further four Victron Solar Panels.
Whilst the cottage is very remote with no power, or phone signal, Borderlink have managed to provide an internet signal, beamed from a nearby hill. The upgrade will see the Control unit replaced with a Venus GX and a further four Victron Solar Panels. The old Marlec wind turbine regulator will be replaced with a Victron Solar Regulator. This is slightly experimental and will hopefully provide us with details of the yield from the Wind Turbine.
This installation will provide both the owner, and us with invaluable information on the performance of the system. The project is due to take place in the next few weeks and photos of the installation will appear here along with data from the system shortly.
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In January 2021, a small Multiplus inverter and a further solar regulator was added. This has left the original system looking in a poor way. So, we returned to rewire the whole system. A new backboard and trunking give the installation the professional appearance the Victron equipment deserves.
