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My friend set up his temporary ground mount.... Thoughts?

ericfx1984

ericfx1984

Solar Enthusiast
Joined
Oct 10, 2021
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801
This is how my friends temporary ground mount setup... He's got about 1200 watts worth of panels on there



He has three rows of cinder blocks in the front at a single level, as you can see he placed 2x4s through the blocks



He then went three cinder blocks high in the rear... And the blocks are tied together with steel fence wire... He also used steel fence wire to tie the 2x4s to the cinder blocks


Additionally he placed some scrap wood underneath the front in order to raise it up a few inches and hold everything tight


There are three rows in the back same as the front



Once he got the cinder blocks in the back setup he installed the 2x4s up top... From there he put a couple 2x4s joining all the 2x4s together and racked everything up



He says it's temporary... But I'm pretty sure he's been running that way for close to 2 years

I really didn't expect it to stay up very long... He had talked about building a proper amount to get them up off the ground and deal with some shading... But he says it works and the production has been more than adequate
 

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Hard to see if there is any fasteners for the panels to to keep them from becoming air born from the photos. But other than that if it works for him more power to him.
 
Mattb4 said:
Hard to see if there is any fasteners for the panels to to keep them from becoming air born from the photos. But other than that if it works for him more power to him.
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Yeah they are screwed to the wooden rails using self-tapping screws to the metal frame, deck screws to the wooden rails and z style solar panel mounts
 
the bricks in the back that create the title angle could works as ballast if they were at least strapped to
the 2x6s/2x4s that the panel attach to. IMO

Capture673.PNG
 
"Nothing is more permanent than temporary"

The irony is that you've got to build a rack capable of withstanding winds that your site might only experience a few minutes every other year.

2 years a might be a reasonable test but my main concern is not so much about the panels being ruined, but rather a high wind event tossing them through someone's window.

Full disclosure: I've got 2 x 400 watt panels on a "temporary" rack I cobbled together out of Unistrut that have zero ballast and about the same tilt. Starting my 3rd summer without an issue but I know I'm just one thunderstorm with 60 MPH+ winds away from a problem.
 
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OzSolar said:
"I've got 2 x 400 watt panels on a "temporary" rack I cobbled together out of Unistrut that have zero ballast and about the same tilt. Starting my 3rd summer without an issue but I know I'm just one thunderstorm with 60 MPH+ winds away from a problem.
Click to expand...
I'd love to see some pictures
 
OzSolar said:
"Nothing is more permanent that temporary"

The irony is that you've got build a rack to withstand winds that your site might only experience for less than a few minutes every other year.

2 years a might be a reasonable test but my main concern less about the panels being ruined, but rather a high wind event tossing them through someone's window.

Full disclosure: I've got 2 x 400 watt panels on a "temporary" rack I cobbled together out of Unistrut that have zero ballast and about the same tilt. Starting my 3rd summer without an issue but I know I'm just one thunderstorm with 60 MPH+ winds away from a problem.
Click to expand...
Sounds like my redneck setup...
 

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Brett V said:
That’s not a true redneck install.
Where’s the duck tape?
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You got me, I figured the lashing straps and fence stakes made up for it.
The worst/best part is I intentionally put it against that old post because I planned for it to fall down and wanted to stop it before it hit the ground, I love it when a plan works out 😉
 
OzSolar said:
"temporary" rack I cobbled together out of Unistrut that have zero ballast
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LOL, Me too!!
Wisconsin had a severe thunderstorm in my are last night.
Called for 70MPH winds starting at 3 AM!
Im like, son of a....

I had what seemed like a good idea after thinking a while.
I have more than 15 of those 27 gallon orange totes that home depot sells.
I placed 2 under each mount and filled them with water. Did the math on that and I guess it would make it nearly 400 Lbs each.Placed under the back, tall side only. If there was lift, I thought it would be there.
I busted out my knot skills and secured them tight AF with a 2 sets of bowline and truckers hitches for each tote

They didnt move.
I have a security camera on them and I was up at 3 am with my popcorn :)
 
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ScropusGobbleBottom said:
Wisconsin had a severe thunderstorm in my are last night.
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ScropusGobbleBottom, we've had 3 tornados pass by and a number of severe thunderstorm
this season each seemed to be pointed right at me, that's more then I can ever remember and
I'm beginning to wonder if I'm to blame, I thumbed my nose at mother nature by hanging
10 panel 10 feet in the air with a slip shady ballasted ground mount.

IMG_4595.JPG
IMG_4588.JPG

for ballast I just drove a couple of riding lawn mowers under it.

Capture569.PNG Capture540.PNG Capture668.PNG
 
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TommySr said:
we've had 3 tornadoes pass by
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I was watching that storm that day and saw the damage in that area. It does seem that the general Madison and Janesville area is getting slammed by weather events. I HOPE we are done for the year!

I like your ground mount idea! Tho I dont have any riding lawn mowers.
 
OzSolar said:
"Nothing is more permanent that temporary"

The irony is that you've got to build a rack capable of withstanding winds that your site might only experience a few minutes every other year.

2 years a might be a reasonable test but my main concern is not so much about the panels being ruined, but rather a high wind event tossing them through someone's window.

Full disclosure: I've got 2 x 400 watt panels on a "temporary" rack I cobbled together out of Unistrut that have zero ballast and about the same tilt. Starting my 3rd summer without an issue but I know I'm just one thunderstorm with 60 MPH+ winds away from a problem.
Click to expand...
Any pictures?
 
ScropusGobbleBottom said:
LOL, Me too!!
Wisconsin had a severe thunderstorm in my are last night.
Called for 70MPH winds starting at 3 AM!
Im like, son of a....

I had what seemed like a good idea after thinking a while.
I have more than 15 of those 27 gallon orange totes that home depot sells.
I placed 2 under each mount and filled them with water. Did the math on that and I guess it would make it nearly 400 Lbs each.Placed under the back, tall side only. If there was lift, I thought it would be there.
I busted out my knot skills and secured them tight AF with a 2 sets of bowline and truckers hitches for each tote

They didnt move.
I have a security camera on them and I was up at 3 am with my popcorn :)
Click to expand...
Did you record it? Any pictures?
 
ericfx1984 said:
I'd love to see some pictures
Click to expand...
Made with leftovers from other projects, even the solar panels.

Used for a solar water pump in a spare well I have on my property. It can pump up to 4,000 gallons per day

Uni-Strut for the legs.

IronRidge rails are holding the panels and back legs

Gripple Adjustable cable loops from high bay light fixtures are in tension holding the rack upright. Look closely and you can see them.

And I just realized I'm using Wago's pointing upright so they can collect water. Might need to at least fix that.

Like I said... temporary. "if ya squint, it's mint"

I have a design sketched up for a new wooden rack that can hold 8 x 400 watt panels, just waiting on a buddy to get the hydraulic auger fixed on his minisplit to then I can tackle that.



1719424575731.png

1719424836380.png

1719425646043.png
 
This is giving me some ideas. I have something like 3 or 4 2x4's sitting in the garage. I could put these under my panels to angle them up some. Saw a peak of 687W from my 800W setup sitting flat on the ground
 

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A few Duck-bill anchors would improve most of these "temporary" installations...just saying!
I think we can tell just how cheap PV panels are, cause we don't seem to worry as much about bolting them down for 150mph winds! LOL.
 
OffGridForGood said:
A few Duck-bill anchors would improve most of these "temporary" installations...just saying!
I think we can tell just how cheap PV panels are, cause we don't seem to worry as much about bolting them down for 150mph winds! LOL.
Click to expand...
Totally agree, but oh the irony. If only I had the 2" SDS Max Drills or jackhammers and the drive rods... no that's not true I have all of that. I'm just that lazy, once I get back from work the last thing I want to do is drag all my tools back out.

I have boxes of duckbills leftover from jobs. Massive ones as well, 5' long x .250" cables rated for around 6,000 lbs or thereabouts. We screwed around with a 30,000lb excavator trying to pull one out and the excavator couldn't do it, just tipped right over.

Solar Ground Anchoring - How to Install

Solar Ground Anchoring - How to Install
www.gripple.com www.gripple.com
 
I'm surprised no one posted a link to this recent thread:
diysolarforum.com

I think someone tried to steal a panel out of my backyard

So here's the story. I was in the house. I check the monitoring app frequently because my EG4 6500EX tend to shut down due to overheating. Between 11am -1pm is usually when it overheats. This happened at around 12:20pm. As you can see, the weather here in Las Vegas is extremely hot today. While...
diysolarforum.com diysolarforum.com
 
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