diy solar

diy solar

Post your Ground Mount Setup

Hedges said:
Too much tilt and the two rows will shade each other.
I think best use is East/West tilt for morning & afternoon.
Then tilt the entire trailer to the South.
Click to expand...
Yes, the front and rear are too close. I lowered the front panels but the angle as shown is the steepest that doesn't shade in winter. I haven't bothered tilting them this spring/summer. I didn't move the back row up yet because I'm leery of the wind from behind and hitting the fence behind. Another pretty easy solution is to chop some off the front uprights and reweld. I wish I had as much time as all the ideas available. A tracking array would be great for a little more early & late output, auto-dumping for snow with steeper winter angles.
 
Ah, had I paid enough attention and saw the DC Solar sticker, I might have picked that up. I remember them because of the Nascar fiasco.

But, honestly, I figured there was a neighbor/town dispute that put someone in jail.
 
I think I have posted this before. It is my snow country mod for the DC solar Trailer. The lower row of panels are stock. I welded up a bolt in set of taller rear mounts and made sure that when I swung the rear panels up that the bottom lined up with the front row. I also tied the two sets of panels together with aluminum angle. It really stiffened things up. I get plenty of snow and this set up allows the snow to slide down to the ground some of time and easy to rake when it sticks. I run my snowblower in front of it when I am doing clean up so the snow does not get too deep. Its definitely not optimal winter angle although reflection off snow helps a bit. It would take me about an hour to make the panels pivot again if I had to move it. At some point it will move over to a new house and get stripped for parts and build new adjustable mounts but in the short term it is easier to leave it together.

BTW, the 4 panels on the house have been up and running for more than 20 years.


dc trailer mod.jpg
 
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daklein said:
People went to jail for this ground mount. Welded braces on the panel mount arms so at least the front panels could be mounted lower for less shading of the rear panels. A little sketchy as far as supporting the panel frames widely enough, but send it. The miscellaneous panels on the ground were all free, my favorite are the 5x 64w Solarex from the 1990's still going. Everything is on old used enphase m190/m210 microinverters, on a single 15a circuit back to shed and house. The location in the garden was the cleanest look for the yard, but it's shaded by trees by mid-afternoon. A dream is to make this a two axis tracker: put actuators for tilt, move the back row up for less shading, add wheels to rotate around vertical axis, and drive around the yard where there's clear sun all day. More system pictures: https://photos.app.goo.gl/q1euFhioH266nPvW9

View attachment 174583View attachment 174584
View attachment 174585
Click to expand...
I modified one of these also & mounted it to a boat trailer for a portable stay atray... now has 8-390w Canadian Solar bifacials. It has worked fantastically the last 6 months. Love aspects of it & plan on duplicating parts for my full 54 panel system next year. However, even with modifications I'm having some minor shading issues on the north rack now that is almost winter.
 
My initial plan was for regular a ground-mount setup, likely with vertical poles and commercial racking. However, I found out that my rural zoning required a "Special Land Use" permit that would cost $2-3k minimum, requiring approval of the Township Planning committee, etc... But they were clear that any roof-mounted solar was only governed by regular building and electrical codes. So I delayed my solar installation by a year and decided to build a single-slope 'RV Carport' for my panels - it just 'happens' to face almost due south and accommodates a 30 deg. tilt with racking from SnapNRack ;). And my trailer now has a nice home when we are not camping!

IMG_0299.jpg
Once my 'Ground Mount' structure was in place, I installed 24 445W Canadian Solar Bi-facial panels and connected them to a Sol-Ark 12k inverter. I have many more pictures and some (hard) lessons learned on the electrical / wiring side, message me if you would like any additional details about my 10.7KW system!

imagejpeg_0.jpg
 
rd400f said:
Hi
My ground mount here in South Island New Zealand.
150mm x 2100 wooden post rammed in place.
Unistrut rails.
View attachment 174106

14 x 410 watt panels in place and just waiting on last two panels to arrive.

View attachment 174107

Thanks
Richard
Click to expand...


Finally got the last of the solar panels fitted.

panels.jpg

Was a long job and not without problems.
A wind storm ripped 5 panels off the top of the array and broke one of them.
Scratched up a few of the others.

Broken panel.jpg


Now I have extra steel straps added to make sure that doesn't happen again.

straps.jpg
Next job is to dig a trench and run conduit and cables into the small shed behind the array.
Thanks
Richard
 
Can you explain why the clamps failed to hold the panels against wind?

There are top clamp systems used for most rooftop mounts. Also bottom bolts.
I've always been a little nervous about top clamp. Some DIY versions have looked worse to me.

My ground mounts are all bottom bolt through clips (Unirac), except for a mount between chain link fence and wall I cobbled together with top clamps & rails (also commercial mounts.) But I was short some end clamps and kludged those.
 
Hi
I only had 5 out of the final 8 panels on the top row.
So I had not put on the last "end" clamps.

Just the end clamps on the start of the top row and all the middle clamps.

I think that the wind must have started that last end panel moving which loosened the nearest
set of middle clamps.Then they started to come of one after another...sort of unzipping.

Another thing was that I had placed 1mm thick plastic shims between the clamps and the panel frames.
These may have made it easier for the clamps to work loose.

I had checked the array that morning as the wind had got up and everything was as solid as.
Looked out the wind that evening and all the top row were gone.

Surprised and pissed me off I can tell you.

So I ended up losing one panel as per pic and it looks like the rest are ok.
Expensive exercise getting a single replacement panel shipped.

So we get these wind storms reasonably often in the season but my property is quite sheltered from them.
That just means that the wind swirls around now rather than coming in straight.

Lesson learnt and I am hoping that the extra steel strapping will stand up.
Thanks
Richard
 
Walked 20 acres last night, didn't see a power line anywhere remotely close to where I'd plan to build and smiled the entire time.
My mind is racing, thanks to the inspiration in this thread, on how I'll put together my ground mount arrays while making best use of the natural landscape.
I should slow down and wait to see if my offer is accepted...

Photo looking West.
 

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42OhmsPA said:
Walked 20 acres last night, didn't see a power line anywhere remotely close to where I'd plan to build and smiled the entire time.
My mind is racing, thanks to the inspiration in this thread, on how I'll put together my ground mount arrays while making best use of the natural landscape.
I should slow down and wait to see if my offer is accepted...

Photo looking West.
Click to expand...
Good luck! Sending hope!
 
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