Solar energy for Game Lodge / Guest Cottage

City life has become so congested, polluted and noisy that many of us are looking to visits and holidays in the bush and game lodges and remote guest cottages are growing in popularity.

Many game lodges, especially in South Africa and Africa, are situated in private reserves and national game reserves. Often there is little or not access to the grid fed electricity to these game lodges so alternative forms of power are required. Renewable energy sources such as solar energy are great in this regard.

Generators have been outlawed on many of these reserves and solar power becomes one of the best choices.

Many game lodges have thatch roofs, which mean that the solar panels need to be free standing as placing solar panels on top of the thatching can cause the thatch beneath the solar panels to rot.

This has lead to the development of what we commonly refer to as a solar power station.

The total number of solar panels required to power the game lodge (which can be determined by clicking on the solar calculator) are placed together in solar panel arrays on special mounting brackets, placed on poles in a sunny, open clearing as close to the guest lodge or game farm as possible.

A suitable room or storage area inside the game lodge must be allocated to allow for the placement and storage of all the batteries, the solar regulators and inverter.

From the inverter, the AC power output becomes the ‘mains’ supply of electricity for the game lodge, providing power for the lighting , cellphone and camera battery charging etc.

Hot water on game lodges will often be provided by gas or solar geysers (link)

Drawing water from a borehole can be pumped by means of a solar pump. This is an independent solar system, with its own array of solar panels, charge controller and specially designed solar pumps.

The size of the solar pump, the number and size of the solar panels is determined by the depth of the well or borehole and the distance and gradient to the water storage tank. The sum total of these distances in meters is referred to as the lift

Typically, where your Game lodge has no access to grid- fed electricity or mains,

Your solar system will need to be larger rather than just adequate, as you can’t flick a switch and get power if the system fails or has too little power.

Starting/planning a solar system for your game lodge can be done in stages:

Let us say that we start with a solar system that will provide power for a couple of TV’s, DVD, DSTV, a few radios and cell chargers and say 20 x 15W lights:

In this first stage we will include upfront an inverter that will accommodate future needs as well.

Stage 1:

• 8 x 80W solar panels
• 4 x 20A regulators
• 10 x 102A calcium batteries
• 1 x 3000W 24V true sine inverter
• 8 x panel roof mounts or pole mounts (Especially if your Lodge is thatched)
• Cables, connectors and flex
• Installation

Stage 2:

The following components would all be added to those already installed in Stage 1

• 2 x 80W solar panels 
• 1 x 20A regulator 
• 2 x panel roof mounts 
• Cables, flex and connectors 
• Installation 
• 2 x 102A calcium batteries 

Stage 2, would allow the addition of a single door fridge.

Stage 3 could be a duplication of Stage 2, thus allowing the addition of a small chest or single door freezer as well.

 Stage 4:

• Hot water can be generated through the installation of a 200l solar geyser system.
• A hot water solar geyser system comprises typically of:
• A thermally insulated hot water tank/geyser
• Solar heating panels or tubes (Heat collectors)
• In some cases a small electric pump for circulating the water
• A small PV solar panel to drive the pump.

Stage 5:

Pumping water from a borehole will require a separate solar pump system,

Comprising of the following components:

• Shurflo 9325 submersible pump
• 70W PV solar panelsp
• solar power optimizer
• 8.5mm2 , 2 core cable x Xmetres
• Divcast                                                        

The number of solar panels and size in a solar pump is determined by:

• Depth of well
• Total lift to tank
• Number of litres required daily.