A hut you use yourself and a hut you let out are different electrical problems. You ration power without noticing - you know the forecast, you know the battery, you put a jumper on. A guest paying two hundred pounds a night does none of that. They leave the lights on, charge four devices, and expect the kettle to work at eight in the morning after three grey days.
That difference, not the appliance list, is what decides the size of the system. Get it wrong and the failure is not an early night - it is a refund and a review.
Why guests change everything
An owner treats an off-grid hut as a system with limits. A guest treats it as a hotel room that happens to be pretty. Neither is wrong, but only one of them is your problem to design around.
| Behaviour | You | A paying guest |
|---|---|---|
| Lights left on in an empty room | Rarely | Routinely |
| Devices on charge | One or two | Four to six |
| Checks the forecast before using power | Yes | Never |
| Response to a flat battery | Shrug | Refund request |
The practical consequence is simple. Take your own realistic daily figure and double it, then make sure the battery holds three days of that number, because the thing you are insuring against is a run of dull weather across a back-to-back booking.
What a hut actually uses
| Load | Draw | Guest use | Energy a day |
|---|---|---|---|
| LED lighting throughout | ~40W | 5 hours, some left on | ~200Wh |
| Phone and tablet charging | ~15W | Four devices | ~60Wh |
| Kettle | ~1,500W | Four boils | ~160Wh |
| 12V compressor fridge | ~45W avg | Continuous | ~480Wh |
| Water pump | ~50W | Intermittent | ~30Wh |
| Typical guest day | — | — | ~900Wh |
The fridge is the surprise. It is the smallest number on the list by draw and the largest by consumption, because it never stops. If you can live without one, or use a cool box in the shoulder months, you halve the system. If you cannot, size around it.
The kettle question
Guests expect a kettle, and the wattage frightens people unnecessarily. A 1,500W kettle sounds impossible on a battery, but it only runs for about ninety seconds, so a boil costs roughly 40Wh. Four boils a day is 160Wh, which is less than the lighting.
What it does demand is an inverter big enough to deliver 1,500W without complaint, which means 1000W continuous with a 2000W surge as a sensible minimum, and a battery whose management system can supply the current. A 100Ah battery with a 100A BMS handles it. A small battery with a 50A limit will simply cut out, and your guest will assume the hut is broken.
Hair dryers, travel irons and fan heaters are the three that catch owners out - all are one to two kilowatts and guests bring them without asking. Either size the inverter to cope, or say plainly in the listing what the hut will and will not run. Stating it up front costs you nothing; discovering it mid-stay costs you the review.
Hot tubs and heating, honestly
A hot tub heater draws two to three kilowatts and runs for hours to bring a tub up to temperature. That is more energy in one afternoon than a large off-grid battery holds in total, and it is not a question of buying a bigger system - the arithmetic does not come back.
Off-grid hot tubs run on LPG or a wood-fired stove, both of which work well and neither of which touches your battery. Electric space heating is the same story, which is why huts that let year-round almost always have a wood burner. Solar runs the lights, the pump and the kettle. Heat comes from fire or gas.
The shoulder season is where it gets decided
Most glamping sites do their business between April and October, and that is fortunate, because those are the months when the numbers work comfortably. A 240W array through the summer produces 800 to 1,200Wh on a decent day, which covers a guest day with room to spare.
October and March are the honest test. Generation drops to perhaps 200 to 400Wh while guest behaviour does not change at all, so you are drawing down the battery a little every day. Three days of dull weather and a full changeover is exactly the scenario that empties a 100Ah battery and generates a complaint.
By December a 240W array on an overcast day might make 50 to 80Wh against a 600Wh load. There is no battery large enough to absorb that indefinitely. Either close for the deepest months, accept manual charging between stays, or run a mains supply.
Sizing it
| Use | Panel | Battery | Inverter | Roughly |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Your own hut, summer | 120W | 100Ah | 600W | ~£434 |
| Let, April to October, no fridge | 240W | 100Ah | 1000W | ~£565 |
| Let with a fridge, shoulder season | 240W | 280Ah | 1000W | ~£755 |
| Year-round letting | Solar alone will not do it - plan a mains supply or generator top-up | |||
Recommended kit
All confirmed in stock on Amazon UK at the time of writing.
ECO-WORTHY 12V 280Ah LiFePO4
Three and a half kilowatt-hours absorbs a run of dull weather across a changeover, which is the exact failure you are insuring against. The 200A management system supplies a kettle without complaint, and Bluetooth monitoring means you can check the state of charge from the house before a guest arrives rather than after they complain.
amazon Check Price on Amazon →DCHOUSE 12V 100Ah LiFePO4
Right if the hut is yours and you use it yourself, where you can read the weather and moderate accordingly. The 100A management system is the important number - it is what lets a kettle draw its full current without the battery cutting out. Two of these in parallel is also a perfectly sensible way to reach let-sized capacity.
amazon Check Price on Amazon →Renogy 1000W Pure Sine Wave Inverter
Pure sine and a 2000W surge, which is what a kettle and a water pump starting together actually need. The remote switch matters more at a let than anywhere else, because an inverter left on idles at 10 to 20W - about 400Wh across a two-night stay, spent on nothing.
amazon Check Price on Amazon →Renogy 120W ShadowFlux Anti-Shading Panel
Rigid, roof-mountable and forgiving of partial shade, which matters when a hut sits in the corner of a field with a hedge or an oak nearby. Two of these gives you the 240W that a let realistically needs. Anti-shading design earns its money when only part of the panel is covered.
amazon Check Price on Amazon →Summary
- Guests use roughly double what you do and never check the forecast first
- Your own hut needs about 100Ah; a let needs 200-280Ah
- A kettle is fine - about 40Wh a boil - but needs a 1000W pure sine inverter and a 100A BMS
- The fridge is the real load at roughly 480Wh a day, because it never stops
- Hot tubs and electric heating are not solar jobs. Use LPG or wood
- March and October decide it - full bookings, half the generation
- Say in the listing what the hut will not run, before a guest finds out
A hut that stays in one place is close to a static caravan electrically, and our static caravan guide covers the fixed-installation side in more detail. If you want more capacity than a packaged system offers, assembling your own works out considerably cheaper above about two kilowatt-hours.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much solar does a shepherd hut need?
For your own use, a 120W panel and a 100Ah battery covers lighting, charging and a water pump comfortably. For a hut you let out, plan on 240W of panel and 200 to 280Ah of battery. The difference is not the appliances, it is that guests use them without thinking about the weather.
Can guests boil a kettle in an off-grid glamping pod?
Yes, with a pure sine inverter of 1000W or more and a battery of at least 100Ah. A kettle is a large draw for a short time, so the energy cost per boil is only about 40Wh. Six boils a day is roughly 240Wh, which is manageable. What you cannot do is run a kettle, a hair dryer and a fan heater at once.
Will solar run a hot tub at a glamping pod?
No. A hot tub heater draws two to three kilowatts and runs for hours, which is more energy in an afternoon than a large off-grid battery holds in total. Hot tubs at off-grid sites run on mains, LPG or a wood-fired stove. Nothing else is honest.
What happens in winter with back-to-back bookings?
This is the case that catches people out. In December a 240W array might make 50 to 80Wh on a dull day against a guest load of 600Wh or more, so you are running down the battery every day with no recovery. Either close through the deepest months, fit a generator or mains top-up, or accept that you will be charging the battery manually between stays.
Do I need building regulations approval for a shepherd hut?
A hut on wheels is generally treated as a caravan rather than a building, which is why the mobility matters and why owners keep the wheels on. An off-grid electrical system with its own battery involves no grid connection and no notification. Once you run a mains cable to it, the picture changes and you need an electrician.
Is it better to fit solar or run a mains cable to a glamping pod?
It depends on distance and heating. Trenching a supply across a field is expensive, and if the pod only needs lighting, charging and a kettle then solar is far cheaper and quicker. If you want a hot tub, electric heating or year-round back-to-back lettings, a mains supply pays for itself and solar will disappoint you.