Ampster
Renewable Energy Hobbyist
Round Up is already in our vegetables, fruit, wine and other places, so how will a little more hurt. /sNot sure why so many are bummed out about using a little round- up to keep weeds away from the array .
Round Up is already in our vegetables, fruit, wine and other places, so how will a little more hurt. /sNot sure why so many are bummed out about using a little round- up to keep weeds away from the array .
Doesnt work in Indiana. But stuff grows here like crazy. Cracks in sidewalks will have 12 inches of weeds. Probably why farm yields are so high here.works for 30 years for me (and probably tens of thousands of others) in multiple states, lmao
he got too many animals for his amount of land, goats are generally pretty passive with the land.
Compared to stationary, building out a tilting support system capable of withstanding worst case winds & snow, is quite a bit more complex and costly in my own experience. Stationary doesn't require maintenance that moving parts do.You would think they would put metal plates on the back side of the panels and have them setup to rotate the solar panel side towards the ground and the metal panels facing the sky when storms occur. Simple long bar that runs thru all the panels that has a motor on the end that tilts them to protect them.
Wouldn't cost that much and completely protect that huge investment from hail damage and handle angle adjustment for seasonal sun angle changes.
works in new jersey and arkansas, so I'm sure it works better there.Doesnt work in Indiana. But stuff grows here like crazy. Cracks in sidewalks will have 12 inches of weeds. Probably why farm yields are so high here.
Sure ... you have convinced me.works in new jersey and arkansas, so I'm sure it works better there.
Good to know, now you can join the thousands of other arrays with white rock and the millions of miles of road.Sure ... you have convinced me.What was I thinking spraying roundup on weeds that don't really exist. Now to convince all of the farmers in the US that Roundup is totally unnecessary and we don't need to spray those weeds because they don't really exist. Tell them that you can save them millions by eliminating unnecessary spraying. This is all in our minds.. obviously.
Good luck!
I’m with you… BUT sometimes stuff happens ..I got caught in a hail storm on a country road last summer …small to very large hail.. never seen nothing like it… I was in my Ram truck driving about 40 ….it got so heavy I slowed down a lot to lessen the impact on the truck … it got ridiculous….Well, since ya asking, I would rather "not get hit" LOL.![]()
What's the saying? If you can't dodge it Ram itI’m with you… BUT sometimes stuff happens ..I got caught in a hail storm on a country road last summer …small to very large hail.. never seen nothing like it… I was in my Ram truck driving about 40 ….it got so heavy I slowed down a lot to lessen the impact on the truck … it got ridiculous….
I thought it would break the glass…I stopped and parked in an empty church parking lot and just sat there watching it smash me all over…
what are ya Gona do…?
it was loud as bullets ….when it was over there was so much hail you couldn’t drive .. it was like ball bearings an inch deep on the road…
When I got home I discovered the only dents were on flat panel part of the truck body relative to the direction of the hail falling…( uhhh , straight down) All dent's were on the flat part of the hood and flat roof…The angled windshield survived… A Ram has a lot of rolled curves and rounded curves on hood and body … the flat areas took all the impact… the angled body curves deflected the hail and no damage …
In my opinion , Angled pv panels will survive much better the more they are angled from the sky…
vertical would be ideal im guessing..
But , as you say , if you can avoid getting hit by a car…….. or hail I would say that’s a better scenario.
J.
In 23 years at our homestead, we have had hail only a handfull of times. The one time it was big stuff, I put her car inside the shop, and parked my RAM under a big pine, no damage luckily.
I tilt the PV up for winter, at 72-degrees this is pretty steep, and I have to imagine hail wouldn't have damaging effect, at least the size of hail I have seen.
I was thinking about how those Olympic Ski Jumps fall hundreds of feet, but land on a steep slope, which gradually slows them, without getting killed. Unlike if they landed on a flat area. Maybe my steep PV angle would also reduce the impact of hail on the glass.
Yes, that’s what worries me and why I’m using a cover that will stop most hail..my panel's tilt from flat to verticle , but they would be toast if angled up in a strong storm…Tilting it up would definitely lessen the impact. I would be tempted to add some aluminum channel across the top edge to keep it from getting dented up if you are in a heavy hail area.
However the problem with tilting it way up is that around here, high winds often occur just before hail storms. However, If the panels are well supported that probably does not matter.
I only have small 65W folding panel for experience but it doesn't contain any glass like a regular hard panel and pretty sure hail will just bounce of itI'm putting in an EcoFlow Delta 2 Max with the 400w flexable panels at a cabin. This will be a fixed installation. Here in WA state we can get some hail, about marble size max, but nothing like in Texas (I grew up in Texas and remember it). I'm planning on mounting the panels to a piece of plywood that lets me adjust for the solar angle. If I covered the panel with a plexiglass panel would that affect the output of the panel and how much? Has Will done a video on that?
Yes, it will likely reduce the output. I just cleaned the pollen off my panels and picked up an extra 60W per panel.... In my experience the flexible panels don't reach their rated output anyways, so you'll want to measure power before and after the plexiglass to see. Also plexiglass doesn't hold up in direct sunlight. It will get worse as the plexiglass degrades.I'm putting in an EcoFlow Delta 2 Max with the 400w flexable panels at a cabin. This will be a fixed installation. Here in WA state we can get some hail, about marble size max, but nothing like in Texas (I grew up in Texas and remember it). I'm planning on mounting the panels to a piece of plywood that lets me adjust for the solar angle. If I covered the panel with a plexiglass panel would that affect the output of the panel and how much? Has Will done a video on that?