My reply is based upon the following facts. 1. There is no connection from the local power grid to your cabin. 2. The person that originally wired this cabin, followed the standard practices of the trade and the work conforms to the electrical code, including.......proper grounding of all aspects of the system. 3. And that the existing wiring system in the cabin was set up to receive 120/240 volt AC grid power at some point in the future, if it became available. The way I see it, you have two choices. You can either use a "whole house" transfer switch that will allow you to choose between the existing solar power supply or the genset. OR...... you can simply disconnect the wires from the solar power supply and tape them off inside the main panel for your cabin (fuse box/breaker box). You don't need to actually remove the wire from the fuse box itself. This would allow you to easily reconnect the solar power supply system in the future, should the need arise. The purpose of a transfer switch is to provide 100% isolation between two differing sources of power. So, one way or the other, this isolation must take place. IF you don't isolate the solar system from the genset, then the genset will feed power back into the solar supply. Damage may be done but even if it does not do damage, the solar system is a potential loss of wattage from your genset and you could also have a fire and electrical hazard. Once you disconnect the wires from the solar supply unit, you can install the correct wiring between the fuse box and wherever you are placing the genset. If your panel is a standard residential fuse or circuit breaker panel, then it requires 240 volts plus a neutral wire to connect to the genset. You also need to make sure that all grounding issues are taken care of. Some how, your genset must be grounded to the cabin's system. If you are not sure of how to go about this, then hire a licensed electrician to perform the work. Better to be safe, than electrocuted. You also need to consider that many gensets use about a gallon of gasoline per hour of run-time. If it was me, I would be looking at a diesel genset so that I could install a lockable fuel oil tank in the 250 to 500 gallon size on the property. The thought of transporting several five gallon cans of gas in my car wouldn't thrill me. No matter how hard you try not to, you will spill fuel from those containers. Gasoline is a highly inflammable and explosive fuel. You don't want those fumes inside your vehicle. Having a permanent tank that is refueled by a company with a tank truck has many benefits. Plenty of reserve fuel that is far more stable than gas and no worries about refueling a hot engine.

Thank you very much for your post davidtay. 1. A LED lamp/ strip is more than just the emitters soldered onto some wires (or copper tubing) that are in turn connected to some power supply. My bundled figure for transformers, driver circuits, and wiring may have been a little low, but I think it's close. I didn't break it out b/c I was already a little long-winded. :) I did leave out the cost of copper, though; I'm not sure that's the way I want to go anyway. 2. The LEDs will need to be powered at the voltage (and current) ranges specified by the manufacturer, which may not be 48V. The current might have to be lower than 1A for the sake of longevity. Right, the particular one I mention can be driven at 2A, but it'll last a lot longer at 300mA. I was thinking about driving it at about 700mA. Of course, I would have to design/purchase a driver that will, among other things, step down voltage if necessary and supply the right current to drive at the proper amperage. And, of course, the things burn brighter at 2A than at 300mA, but last longer at 300mA, meaning that you have to buy more to achieve the desired lumens. Definitely a balancing act. 4. The BOM cost goes down when millions of devices are built. However, the manufacturers, especially for something as hot as LEDs, and requiring as much design expertise as they do, set their markups liberally, too. Still, the case can be made (elsewhere) for the value of a purpose-built custom system, when it comes to LEDs, and that case has been made elsewhere, so I won't belabor the point. 5. The wiring and power supply setup for an extensive low voltage system will probably be a significant undertaking. There will be significant design, ... and regulatory hurdles (i.e. - building code) to clear. I believe in most jurisdictions electric code compliance starts at 50V. Anything you do under 50V DC you're welcome to without constraint. Of course code has to apply to the transformers, but generally not after that. At least, those are some of the motivations I've been riding on when trying to decide whether or not to do this.

Sorry David I have to disagree on some points. It is possible to get a large volume of hydrogen with a fairly low amount of amperage but it takes a large plate surface area and they have to be very close together. The problem is with run of the mill materials like stainless... the impurities in the water and metal will eventually foul and short the plates. If you think it is impossible to produce enough hydrogen efficiently enough to compete with the oil usage you are mistaken. The government likes hydrogen as long as it is derived from petroleum products. I have a degree in automotive mechanics and electronic systems and monitored things when I 'tinkered'. Exhaust gas temp.. wideband oxygen sensing along with monitoring the regular computer sensors. I do agree that is not practical to build a hydrogen generator OR buy one off Craigslist or Ebay and think that you will double your mileage or even gain 10% for long term. The materials are not readily available for the average person to obtain to build such a unit for a decent price. I am not any sort of tree hugging greenbody but I do like to have a efficient home so I keep more of my money in my wallet than send it in the mail. I do like testing and trying things or trying to make something better faster or more efficient. If no one did what this gentleman is trying to do or other things people say are impossible we would not have inventors or new breakthroughs and would rely solely on China and other countries. WE need a breakthrough to get away from so much oil usage and that is a fact... dynamic fuels in Canada already has a system for big trucks that works and is installed on some trucks running in the US and it works good. The person who started this topic might be on wrong track but if he does his testing he will figure that out and go from there. If I am part of the holy-grail of the 'over-unity' crowd, at least I am not sitting around waiting for China or some other country to spoon feed me the next technological breakthrough. As far as my testing... I did not error in my measurements... the car got very good GAS mileage along with the water consumption which was slight. Building the plates does not fit into my schedule to make it worthwhile. It can be done... and I hope it is some greasy handed american dropout who builds a system that gets us away from so much oil usage that still allows us to have noisy exhaust and something other to listen to than the hum of an electric motor.

This job is randomly-paid by the whenever-they-have-some-cash-to-spare-they-give-it-to-me method. The opening paragraph of my original post should give you some kind of idea of the situation. It's a friend's house, they just moved in. Myself and his fatherly figure (who is licensed) are fixing things piece-by-piece. So the general idea is, I'm just kinda hanging around, nobody's really doing anything too exciting, so I get bored and go fix something. There's no payment officially involved, but they've been helping me quite a bit with various stuff. --- --- --- --- --- Directly above the downstairs light is a closet. We're going to rip up the floor to get to the wiring, then put a piece of plywood down after. The upstairs light is accessible from the attic. We have no idea where the wires from the upstairs switch go, but I think I can get into that wall also from the attic... So there is already a plan for how to fix this mess.