Thinking of building this 12'x16' fur shed w/solar panels for lights/heat and would appreciate any advice to improve it.
Good solar panel source would be beneficial also.
Thanks in advance for everyone's comments

The easiest option for solar would be the 4 panel kit from Harbor Freight with a better battery, should give the light you need, don't think you'll get much heat from any solar panel, don't think panels can keep up with an electric heater....other than insulating the heck out of it, and some kind of stove...you should be good.

I'm not going to be help on the solar system you want to install. I can say I built a 16 x 16 line shack we will use every so often and has window facing south east and west. The building didn't cost more then 700$ was used material mostly and not insulated. The other day It was minus degree with highs in single digits. It took one hour to get the shack to 75 degrees and was easy to maintain that temp and could have had it a lot warmer with a small wood stove.

My suggestion is to save your money from solar panels and use another source for lights. Here the shack I built and if insulated it would get to warm in it.
I have a pic of the 1 5x6 foot window and the other side has 2 5x6 window those are plex glass. I know you lose heat from windows but I can tell you if you have sun out it gets so warm in front of those windows it crazy!!! Window are a huge factor in warming that shack. Just my view on the subject.

With solar, you will need and inverter and plenty of battery. Heaters draw quite a bit of juice, LED lights not so much. I have a cabin 16x16 with a 10x16 bedroom/bathroom. I am running 2 280 Amp hour and 1 300 amp hour lithium batteries wire in series with 800 watts of panels. If both ceiling fans and lights are going with the fridge and TV I can maintain power up to three cloudy days. I have a dual fuel backup generator just in case. You might look into a 250-gallon propane tank and use propane for heat.

Unless you are dead set on solar only I would either put in a small woodstove or a blue flame heater that will run off a propane tank. I had a blue flame heater that I heated a decent size shop with that was insulated. It was very efficient on the propane.

I have solar on some buildings. Agree with the comments above. Solar for lights. Stove for heat.

Generate 80 %, of my home from solar. As stated you will need large inverter, and several lithum battries. My inverter, and battery storage is in my garage. Can't let batterys freeze. I have heat in the garage wood stove when I'm home. Electric 240 V overhead garage heater, If Im gone for couple days. Heater and lights run off seperate voltage, from city electric provider, garage is seperate fom home. Plus installed gas generator (used) for heat and backup. As stated by Monster Tom , heater, ac, anything drawing large voltage will drain your batteries, I invested in Generac solar 5 yrs ago

Thank You all for the great information ~ will re-evaluate heating component to be propane.
I need bright lights as my eyes aren't what they used to be.
Again, Thank You all

I have a 18 foot sun room with 16 foot of glass 72" tall. The room has no heat and is often the warmest room in the house. If it is clear out and the sun is shinning it really warms up in there. Add some bigger windows and you are adding solar heat.

My hunting property is off grid. I have 800w of panels on my deer blind, 520 ah of 12v LiFePO4 batteries. Everything that runs all the time is DC (security cameras, networking, point-to-point wifi). I use buck/boost DC to DC converters to get the voltages I need. The inverter is a recent addition, I only turn it on when needed.

For heat, don't plan on solar. It takes far too much power to generate electric heat. A stove is fine. Or a diesel heater I got one on sale for $50. They take around 15 amps at start up but then drop to 1-2 amps when they're running.

I'm a fan of LiFePO4 batteries. For outdoor use they need low temp charging protection (charging below freezing will destroy them).

If its possible to put the panels up a bit off the roof then bifacial panels are beneficial. That means they will generate power when light hits the front or back side. They're only slightly more than single faced panels. You'll get a small beenfit from bifacial at all times, but they're very helpful in snow. Snow will reflect the light back up, so the back sides generate more power, but generating power generates heat. So bifacial panels will melt snow off quicker than single faced.

Wow!!!

Now that's a deer blind, LOL

Looks like you could watch a little tv in there while waiting for that big buck - but maybe that would be getting a bit too comfortable:) You taught me something about solar panels there. Thanks for the info.

nice set up, can we see pic, of inside of the blind,??

I’ll be back down there tomorrow and can get some interior pictures
BTW, it’s a 24” PC monitor not a TV

X2 on the direct solar gain windows on the south wall. Two 5x5 cheap slider vinyl windows(vinyl because of frost/moisture build up doesn’t rot them) are set back in 2x6 framed wall so I can pop in 2” insulation board panels for when not sunny and cold. 1’ gap at top lets in some natural light. Insulation on OUTSiDE of window less interior frosting. Sunny days it’s 60s inside without heat on. Insulating reduces heating/cooling more than anything else. LED lighting saves energy a lot. Every corner of mine has a length of 4” drain PVC with a small fan in each to return ceiling hotter air back to floor keep it mixed. Last year I beefed up the floor jousting and added a 2” interior cement overlay and tiled it with surplus ceramic tile(.25/sq ‘). It made cleaning easier and added a lot off thermal mass for holding direct solar gain and summer cooling by running a crying exhaust fan at night(cooler) pulling air thru floor vent. 90% of my heat loss accrues whenever I open the door

Resistance heating with solar is really only practical if you can be grid tied with elec company and able to bank summer production for heating season(would take a lot of batteries to store a whole summers worth of power). A cost for special metering required. Solar electric heating just isn’t there yet on a cost effective scale that I know of. We’ve are grid tied with a 24 panel array currently.

In the picture of my line shack the windows facing south have an outer window and a storm window inside also. There is 4 inches that separate the double window glass. So, it really heats things up in there with any sun even on a minus degree day.

That’s better for sure. My way was repurposing a couple of used double glazed windows and a couple sheets of surplus 2” blue board from a roofing job. It’s getting pretty ratty after many years in the sun and woodpeckers. Another layer of glazing would make a better view too. Just don’t get to use mine for much more than storage lately to make the investment.

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