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Couple relaxing on a sunny deck among pine trees with a portable power station running a grill and a cooler

Off-grid cabins

The right kit for the cabin. Not the biggest one.

A weekend cabin needs about 220 W of panels and a 1.7 kWh battery in Maryland. A full-time home needs about 4,920 W. Pick your state and how you use the place.
Size my cabin kitThe three sizes

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Your cabin, your state

2. How you use it

A full-size fridge, Wi-Fi, lights, a laptop and a TV: about 3.7 kWh a day.

Sized for December sun in Baltimore (2.20 kWh a day per kW of panels) and 3 days of battery with little sun, using lithium at 85% usable.

Panels

1,660 W

5 × 400 W

Battery

13 kWh

3 days of use

All-in-one stations that can carry it

Prices are for the station and add-on batteries only. Panels are extra.

Kits you can buy: part-time cabin in Maryland

Complete kits from each brand's own store: the power station, batteries and that brand's own panels. One button puts every item in the brand's cart; you review and check out on their site. Prices checked Oct 26, 2026 and they change.

Disclosure: We may earn a commission if you buy through these links. It never changes our recommendations. How we make money.

*Prices and specifications are from each manufacturer's US website, checked , . Prices change often, sometimes daily during sales; the seller's page is the final word. Cycle ratings are the maker's own figures, measured to different end points, so treat them as rough guides.

The three sizes

Example load lists, sized for December with 3 days of lithium storage (85% usable). Panel size runs from the sunniest December in our model to the darkest. For your own list, use the off-grid solar calculator.

Off-grid cabin solar kit sizes for weekend, part-time and full-time use
UseA dayPanels in MarylandPanels, sunniest to darkest stateBattery
Weekend cabinLights, phones and a 12 V compressor cooler instead of a fridge492 Wh220 W120 W to 2,150 W1.7 kWh
Part-time cabinA full-size fridge, Wi-Fi, lights, a laptop and a TV3.7 kWh1,660 W900 W to 16.0 kW13 kWh
Full-time homeFridge, freezer, well pump, furnace blower, microwave and the rest11 kWh4,920 W2,670 W to 47.3 kW38 kWh

All-in-one station or component system?

All-in-one power station. Battery, inverter and solar charge controller in one box. Plug the panels in and go. It suits a weekend or part-time cabin, and you can take it home in an outage. The limit is how many watts of solar it accepts.

Component system. Separate panels, charge controller, inverter and battery bank. It scales to a full-time home. Check with your county about permits before you buy. The US Department of Energy notes that the equipment besides the panels, such as batteries, controllers and inverters, could be half the cost of a stand-alone system.

Our sizes assume you use the cabin in December. A summer-only cabin needs fewer panels; the battery size stays the same, because it depends on use, not sun.

Off-grid kit makers

For component systems. Kits and prices vary too much to list one; take your panel and battery numbers to them.

For vans and RVs, see Camper Volts.

Solar data updated .

Frequently asked questions

What size solar kit do I need for an off-grid cabin?

It depends on what you run and where. In Maryland, a weekend cabin with LED lights, phone charging and a 12 V compressor cooler (about 492 Wh a day) needs about 220 W of panels and a 1.7 kWh battery. A part-time cabin with a full-size fridge and Wi-Fi (about 3.7 kWh a day) needs about 1,660 W and 13 kWh. Both are sized for December sun with 3 days of storage.

Can a portable power station run an off-grid cabin?

For a weekend or part-time cabin, often yes, if it takes enough solar input. The cheapest one we track for a weekend cabin in Maryland is the EcoFlow DELTA 3 Max at $899 when we checked. A full-time home (about 11 kWh a day) is beyond any power station we track: it needs about 4,920 W of panels and 38 kWh of battery, which means a component system.

Is a fridge or a 12 V cooler better for an off-grid cabin?

For weekends, a 12 V compressor cooler uses far less power: about 282 Wh a day on a hot day (Dometic CFX3 35 spec) against about 2.3 kWh for an average kitchen fridge (EIA). If you live there or need the space, a full-size fridge is fine, but it sets the size of the whole system.

Do the kit prices include solar panels?

No. The prices we show are for the power station and any add-on batteries from the maker's own US site on the date we checked. Panels, mounts and cables are extra, and prices change often.

Why does the same cabin need a bigger kit in some states?

Winter sun. In December, 1 kW of panels makes about 4.05 kWh a day in the sunniest state in our model and 0.23 kWh in the darkest, so the panel size for the same cabin varies by about 18 times. Battery size depends only on use and days of storage.

Estimates only. Real needs depend on your appliances, site, shade and snow. Prices and specifications are copied from makers' US websites on the dates shown and change often. See our disclaimer.

Sources

  1. PVWatts v8 solar model (National Laboratory of the Rockies, formerly NREL, run via its PySAM package) on NASA POWER hourly weather — monthly output per kW by state, average of 2015-2024 hourly weather; 1 kW DC fixed roof mount, 20 degree tilt, facing south (180 degrees), standard module, 14% system losses, 96% inverter efficiency, DC/AC ratio 1.2 (PVWatts defaults except tilt). Checked against the PVWatts web API for eight states: within 8%, 3% on average.
  2. US DOE Energy Saver, Estimating appliance and home electronic energy use (archived copy) — watts × hours a day ÷ 1,000 = kWh a day
  3. US DOE Energy Saver, Balance-of-system equipment for renewable energy systems (archived copy) — balance-of-system equipment (batteries, controllers, inverters, wiring) could be half of a stand-alone system's cost; size batteries for cloudy weather, with a backup generator
  4. EIA Residential Energy Consumption Survey 2020, table CE4.6.EL.ST — refrigerators: 839 kWh a year per household
  5. EIA Residential Energy Consumption Survey 2020, table CE5.3b (detailed electricity end use) — separate freezers 570 kWh, most-used TV 210 kWh, microwaves 107 kWh a year per household
  6. Eugene Water & Electric Board, Generator sizing considerations — running and starting watts: well pump 1/3 HP 1,000 W (+2,000 W to start), furnace fan blower 1/3 HP 700 W (+1,400), refrigerator/freezer 700 W (+2,200), microwave 1,000 W, laptop 60 W, phone charger 20 W
  7. US DOE Energy Saver, Energy efficient lighting fact sheet (2021) — a 1,100-lumen LED screw-in bulb uses as little as 9 W
  8. EnergySage, How many watts does a Wi-Fi router use? — 5 to 20 W; we use 10 W
  9. TidBITS, iPhone battery-life tables — iPhone 16 battery 13.84 Wh; we use 15 Wh a charge to allow for charging losses
  10. Dometic CFX3 35 specifications — 0.98 Ah an hour at 12 V on a 90°F day
  11. EcoFlow DELTA 3 Max product page — checked October 15, 2026
  12. Bluetti AC200L product page — checked October 26, 2026
  13. Anker SOLIX C2000 Gen 2 product page — checked October 26, 2026
  14. Bluetti Apex 300 product page — checked October 26, 2026
  15. Anker SOLIX F3800 Plus product page — checked October 26, 2026
  16. EcoFlow DELTA Pro Ultra product page — checked October 15, 2026
  17. Anker SOLIX F3000 product page — checked October 26, 2026
  18. EcoFlow DELTA Pro 3 product page — checked October 15, 2026

Keep going

Photo: Jackery Power Station on Unsplash (Unsplash License).