Panels

4 Home Depot panels for 1200 watts total $1,369.00

60 Amp Solar Charge Controller $450.00

1800 Watt Inverter $433.00

50 Car batteries. ???

So there you have it, around $2,250 not including batteries. If you can find a spot with no shade, facing the sun and south of the Mason Dixon Line, you could charge 50 batteries in a month.

A refrigerator is going to average 100 watts an hour, a chest freezer the same. If you avoid opening the door it can be even less. A laptop computer would use 25 watts, some led bulbs the same. 50 car batteries will keep your chest freezer cold for at least a week. If you get a little sun to recharge the batteries it could go a month. If the freezer is well insulated and weather is cool, even longer.

A weak link in a north 40 solar setup is the inverter. You might even want to keep a spare around, they fail a lot. Instead of buying one big inverter buy several small inverters. One note is that refrigerators and freezers use two to three times the average power to start the compressor. If you have a refrigerator or freezer in your cabin plan on at least 1200 watts for that circuit to cover startup.