yodamota
Solar Enthusiast
I wonder if the ballast makes the panels run cooler in these bucket arrangements?
Sollega Ballast Ground Mounts (Iron Ridge Supplier)
- Thread starter Will Prowse
- Start date
ksmithaz1
Solar / EV Junkie
Yes, not in DIRECT sunlight for 50 years as stated. Paint helps a lot.
Zwy
Emperor Of Solar
If you say so........
I received an engineering report with my 16 panel mount, this is the force just at ground level on each pole.
Not even discussing uplift.......
AZ Solar Junkie
Maricopa, AZ
Glad to hear that. I have some Powerfields on order ?
Zwy
Emperor Of Solar
Only one row, would take some serious real estate if one wanted a 25Kw array.
doksinc
New Member
SunBallast.com sparked my interest, and yes I'm located in FL . So a low ground mount ballast system worked for me. This couldn't be any simpler of an install, by myself I installed 2 rows of 12 in one day. Was a bit of a pain to get through permits, but company was very helpful with engineering stamps.
cs1234
Solar Wizard
- Joined
- May 9, 2022
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- 2,303
Where I am in Texas, anything you put INTO the ground is going to shift something awful from the ground cracking apart. In the summer I can have 6" wide cracks form in the ground that are 4' or more deep! My yard looks like The Grand Canyon is trying to form some years.
I would rather take my chances with the plastic buckets than a pole/post in the ground.
How much was it per watt/hour? delivery cost?
doksinc
New Member
I honestly did not dig that deep into the math. My turning point was pricing the iron ridge system. Once I locally was able to price the 2" galvanized pipe for completion of project.....I was left shocked with the price of just materials. SunBallast system cut my mount cost down by more than 50%. No brainer for me....and an easy install. They were located in Clearwater, FL....no delivery. Had a company drive down with a trailer and deliver to my property.
ksmithaz1
Solar / EV Junkie
You put a house on this? 6" is a really big crack. I've never seen anything like that in my life, but if I lived where the ground cracked apart randomly with 6" wide cracks 4 feet deep, I'm pretty sure I would sell the place and move. No way in hell I'd build on it. Florida sinkholes come to mind as well. A wise man builds his house upon the rock.
sunshine_eggo
Happy Breffast!
I do. I have some experience with drag force calculations. This is just engineering.
16 panels... this is one panel a couple feet off the ground. Watch this...
8828#/16 panels = 552# per panel
The 8828# is based on equivalent flat plate theory with a drag coefficient of 1.0 and angle of attack of 90°, i.e., the wind is hitting the panels standing FULLY VERTICAL.
This approach is an absolute worst case in all regards, loads on a tilted array will ALWAYS be less.
https://diysolarforum.com/threads/panel-mount-at-30-ft…-in-the-wind….34370/post-438797
This isn't relevant in a typical case. If the panels are tilted at less than vertical, the wind load diminishes, due to the reduced cross sectional area presented to the wind. So an array tilted at 45°is only going to see a horizontal component of about 50% and from THAT reduced load, a smaller component will be uplift.
Given that the ballast mount is at an even shallower angle, it's subject to both less wind and lifting loads. With 550# of balast in it, you can take that 120mph rating to the bank. Again, this is just engineering. Sometimes intuition is wrong.
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sunshine_eggo
Happy Breffast!
Whelp... how about...
How much solar do you have?
and
About how much was the total cost of the mounting?
doksinc
New Member
Whelp....how about I just post.....
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Easier for me to just post where I found them. We installed 3 arrays with 12 panels each for a total of 36 panels. Easy peasy. I have zero affiliation with the company, just a great experience.
cs1234
Solar Wizard
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It's been happening more and more here with drought conditions in central Texas every year. Don't move here. We have no water.
It sucks that all the builders put houses with slabs on this type of land. I can see evidence of foundation damage on many of the houses in my neighborhood. I just had to have my foundation leveled recently.. house is about 20 years old. Talk about some seriously noisy racket. Impressive that it can be done I suppose, but wow.
Presumably, you need to water the foundation. But not too much, or that will also damage it. Gotta be just right. Watch those water restrictions though that last during the hottest driest parts of the year.
It does have rock, limestone, but it's about 2'-3' down.. and obviously not a solid shelf.
Ennis437
New Member
Not for us Floridians!! Flat is our heaviest months for electric usage!
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ksmithaz1
Solar / EV Junkie
Something about a multi-variant analysis. A 50' cactus buried a foot in the ground can handle a 100mph wind no problemo. I'd say 120MPH is generously under-rated because the way the panels mount the wind cannot really get underneath to create the sail effect. A tornado goes over kiss everything goodbye anyway. If you really have 150MPH winds simply put a lattice between your posts mounted to Z bracing to break up a direct gust of wind. ie remove the "catch".
ksmithaz1
Solar / EV Junkie
10-15 degrees off is not going to cost you much. It just isn't. Now this was not super scientific, I'll admit, but I put two rows of panels in my back yard propped on block at different angles last summer for a week at a time, just to get a rough optimization before I put in my ground mount. I really was having trouble measuring the difference between the ones at 30 deg and the ones at 10 deg (~Optimal). After rocking, and facing this way and that, my best guess was it might cost me ~5% worst case, maybe, if I noticed anything at all. Now the farther off the equator you get the steeper those bad angles get, but at least here I'd just shoot for the middle and run with it. Optimal here is ~7/30/54.
My biggest array is 14500KW flat on my 2/12roof. That's < 10% I was still able to get over 50KWH from it on 12/21, with the angle off over 40 degrees! The best I saw in July was a double that right at 100 KWH, darn near perfect angle, and a much longer day. I'm putting up some ground mounts now, I will just fix the angle close to 30, but mounting panels to a giant bucket of rocks or sand, pitched at 20ish, is likely gonna do ya just fine if you live where it's hot.
Nobodybusiness
Collecting the leftovers of the Great Sky Reactor.
Have you not seen the Powerfield Energy ballasted ground mounts?
That’s what I use. Easy setup even for 1 person.
PowerField Energy PowerRack PV solar ballasted ground mount system
Note: We can provide a physical layout design for your array as well as the number and placement of PowerField racks throughout the array. Please contact our engineering team for a complete wind load analysis and calculated ballasting diagram. This rack will only work with modules that have a...
www.solar-electric.com
If you want to demo some I know the COO.
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