Sonotubes for my solar array ...

Kidvic said:

Can I use solid 6 awg along with the PV wiring or should I do something like 6 awg THHN stranded wire?

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Ampster said:

I prefer stranded for longer pulls. For that reason I don't recall seeing solid 6AWG at my usual suppliers.

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42OhmsPA said:

Damn, nice work! They won't be going anywhere.
I'm jealous of the view and excavator.

I busted something in the gear box of my PTO auger on my last ground mount (some idiot replaced the shear bolt with a regular...) so I had to resort to the manual post hole digger and digging bar ... Fun times. The best part was the handle of the wheelbarrow busted after I mixed up 2 80lb bags for the 3rd hole.

I agree with others, run the ground wire back to your main system ground and forget the additional ground rods.

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Subdood said:

Yeah, I get it. I did the mixing in a wheelbarrow usually two bags at a time, and rolled it down the hill about 100ft to the site, and slowly added it in. That took a while, did the back posts first, then the front ones a few weeks later. I had asked local concrete companies how much to deliver and they said they would only do 2 yards minimum and I only needed like a half yard. Plus, there was a fuel surcharge, and less than full truck fees, and I think it would've cost me at least $500. So, being the cheapskate I am went with $100 of Quikrete and did it myself.

I saw 12 posts on there, so I was trying to figure how many panels you could get on the whole thing, so maybe 20 or 24?

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Kidvic said:

You're a better man than me brother. Can't imagine the work you did. I'm using two 44" panels for each frame. My total will be only 12 panels total. If successful I may add a little later.

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SunDave said:

Amazing view you have there.

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Subdood said:

Ok, I thought you could put 4 panels on each mount, guess the ones you have are bigger than I thought.

Oh I'm not young either, just a few months from 60. I made it easy on myself on the concrete work tho. I had the bags of Quikrete in the truck bed, so I'd slide a bag over to the open tail gate, slit it open, and dump into the wheel barrow next to the truck. Slowly add water until I got the right consistency, then roll it down the hill to the site. Had to be really careful using a one wheel barrow, didn't want to tump over before I got there.

Dump in the hole until full, then trowel off the top. I cut parts of a sonotube at an angle so that the point where the post met the concrete, it was at an angle to help drain water away. I used two 50lb bags of mixed Quikrete per hole, but my holes were only 2ft deep, and about 10in diameter. Had to dig those with a pole digger, that was a chore..

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Kidvic said:

I'm almost 75. I think this kind of stuff keeps us young : ) Would like to see some pics of your work ... hope you took some.

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DIY 3.6kW bifacial ground mount system

Hello all, I had posted a thread regarding ground mount grounding and posted a few pics of it. So, I wanted to start a new thread on here showing the progress of my system. We are situated in a rural location NE Kentucky, and wanted to have a supplemental/backup solar system in case of frequent...

diysolarforum.com

Subdood said:

Ok, I thought you could put 4 panels on each mount, guess the ones you have are bigger than I thought.

Oh I'm not young either, just a few months from 60. I made it easy on myself on the concrete work tho. I had the bags of Quikrete in the truck bed, so I'd slide a bag over to the open tail gate, slit it open, and dump into the wheel barrow next to the truck. Slowly add water until I got the right consistency, then roll it down the hill to the site. Had to be really careful using a one wheel barrow, didn't want to tump over before I got there.

Dump in the hole until full, then trowel off the top. I cut parts of a sonotube at an angle so that the point where the post met the concrete, it was at an angle to help drain water away. I used two 50lb bags of mixed Quikrete per hole, but my holes were only 2ft deep, and about 10in diameter. Had to dig those with a pole digger, that was a chore..

Here's how I did the top of the pole holes.

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Loadtoad said:

Re: For mixing concrete, I bought a Harbor Freight electric mixer ten years or more ago. You can still buy them on sale for $200, mine is still going strong. I use the quicktete 80 pound bags and only mix one at a time. Doesn't overstress the mixer, but saves a hell of a lot of work from mixing with a hoe in a wheelbarrow.

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Kidvic said:

First attempt at solar. Here is a few pics of my EG4 Solar BrightMount ground mount work. Trench, anchored sonotubes, 2 cubic yards of 5k psi concrete, epoxy the bolts and mount the frames. Will square them up, run my 6 awg grounding hardware and drive the grounding rods into the ground. Suggestions welcome.

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SunDave said:

Also known as the smart way out. Your math is solid.

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Kidvic said:

I too bought a mixer. Bought mine at Northern Tools. In my younger years I might have done the same. I needed 9000 lbs of mix or 2 cubic yards. 60 fifty lb. bags of concrete at Lowes @ $6.20 per bag came to about $372. I had 2 cubic yards delivered and poured in a half an hour. The cost was $596. I could have saved $224 dollars ... about the cost of a couple of chiropractic appointments : ) I can appreciate the effort in saving money but in my case I took the sissy way out.

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