diy solar

diy solar

Finally Installing our System (What Have I Done Wrong So Far?)

AlaskanNoob

Solar Enthusiast
Joined
Feb 20, 2021
Messages
907
Thought about putting this in Beginner's Corner, but I suppose it's more appropriate here. After years, we're finally putting things up on walls. Got our solar shed built this summer, put the 160 pound Quattro 15K on the wall along with one of our MPPTs. Since we could only afford the metal for two of our seven custom ground mounts, we won't need the second MPPT until next year. Got the bus bar set up and I tried to size everything to make for short cables.

Later today I'll bring the generator cable up from under the shed along with two relay wires for the auto start and wire those into the Quattro and the Cerbo GX.

I'm waiting on some hardware to fix one of the battery racks, then I'll be able to add the last Pylontech battery and add insulation around the racks along with thin plywood walls around them. Then I will cut the supplied positive cables for each battery and crimp lugs, and mount t-fuse holders on the side of each rack near each battery and connect to the bus. We've had these batteries for more than a year now and they have never been turned on. Fingers crossed they work here in a few days when I finally power them up.

I still need to order a couple longer negative 1/0 cables for the MPPT to connect to the bus bar. And add a block of wood to relieve some pressure on the 4/0 negative cables from the Quattro to the bus bar.

And I need to mount the DC Isolators, put the solar panels up on our almost completed two solar ground mounts, and run the PV wire through conduit into the shed to the isolators and then to the MPPT. Then install the AutoTransformer at the shed and another Autotransformer at the cabin. Then put the t-fuses in the holders.

Then I'll disconnect the Cerbo and the MPPT from the bus temporarily, use a smaller 48V bank to pre-charge the caps on the Quattro, then turn on all the Pylontech batteries which are all individually wired to the bus. Then flip on the Quattro, turn on the Honda EU7000 generator (which later we hope to replace with a larger propane generator), and hopefully charge up all the Pylontech batteries to 100%.

Will finish the second ground mount and paint both to keep the aluminum on the panels from touching steel. Then trench to the shed to run the wires in.

Then I'll trench the 500 feet or so to the cabin and put the huge triplex aluminum wire connecting the Quattro to the autotransformer in the cabin.

Then the electrician will take it from there to do all the AC stuff, panels, and to ground everything.

Figured I'd post some pictures of our install so that generous folks have an opportunity to keep me from burning this place down with my craptastic skills.

install.jpeg

Got one mount installed, and just put in the first beam for the second mount yesterday.

mount.jpg

mount solar south.jpeg
 
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Looks pretty fancy for your location at the ends of the earth. You will know fairly quickly if you have done anything wrong once you start turning things on. I call that time explosion testing. You flip things on and if nothing explodes you did good.
 
Thought about putting this in Beginner's Corner, but I suppose it's more appropriate here. After years, we're finally putting things up on walls. Got our solar shed built this summer, put the 160 pound Quattro 15K on the wall along with one of our MPPTs. Since we could only afford the metal for two of our seven custom ground mounts, we won't need the second MPPT until next year. Got the bus bar set up and I tried to size everything to make for short cables.

Later today I'll bring the generator cable up from under the shed along with two relay wires for the auto start and wire those into the Quattro and the Cerbo GX.

I'm waiting on some hardware to fix one of the battery racks, then I'll be able to add the last Pylontech battery and add insulation around the racks along with thin plywood walls around them. Then I will cut the supplied positive cables for each battery and crimp lugs, and mount t-fuse holders on the side of each rack near each battery and connect to the bus. We've had these batteries for more than a year now and they have never been turned on. Fingers crossed they work here in a few days when I finally power them up.

I still need to order a couple longer negative 1/0 cables for the MPPT to connect to the bus bar. And add a block of wood to relieve some pressure on the 4/0 negative cables from the Quattro to the bus bar.

And I need to mount the DC Isolators, put the solar panels up on our almost completed two solar ground mounts, and run the PV wire through conduit into the shed to the isolators and then to the MPPT. Then install the AutoTransformer at the shed and another Autotransformer at the cabin. Then put the t-fuses in the holders.

Then I'll disconnect the Cerbo and the MPPT from the bus temporarily, use a smaller 48V bank to pre-charge the caps on the Quattro, then turn on all the Pylontech batteries which are all individually wired to the bus. Then flip on the Quattro, turn on the Honda EU7000 generator (which later we hope to replace with a larger propane generator), and hopefully charge up all the Pylontech batteries to 100%.

Will finish the second ground mount and paint both to keep the aluminum on the panels from touching steel. Then trench to the shed to run the wires in.

Then I'll trench the 500 feet or so to the cabin and put the huge triplex aluminum wire connecting the Quattro to the autotransformer in the cabin.

Then the electrician will take it from there to do all the AC stuff, panels, and to ground everything.

Figured I'd post some pictures of our install so that generous folks have an opportunity to keep me from burning this place down with my craptastic skills.

View attachment 165438

Got one mount installed, and just put in the first beam for the second mount yesterday.

View attachment 165439

View attachment 165440
What is the app/website for that sun tracker? That looks like it would be super helpful for placing my ground mount.
 
https://8020.net/

I would build everything with 80/20 if I could :)

I'm a bit ambivalent about them. It's a bit of a learning experience trying to adjust them. I'm sure once I get the hang of it I will like it as much as you. But right now I am finding it frustrating to be spending this much time trying to fix a shelf. A shelf is one step up from a circle, it shouldn't require a Tesla background to fix. Or at least special tools and hardware and flexible finger yoga positions to reach spots.
 
I know what you mean. I have found that building something with the minimum amount of 80/20 components can save money but make for headaches later on. Your racks for example could be much more elaborate with quick release friction adjustment on the shelves, and other do-dads and widgets, but incorporating the feature(s) would make them larger overall and cost exponentially more. And heavier! The extrusion channels themselves aren't too expensive, but all of the brackets and fittings to make a 'sophisticated apparatus' adds up. The best place I've found to window shop 80/20 is McMaster-Carr, though they are rather pricey for everything they sell. I love their App though.
No affiliation with 80/20 or McMaster.. :cool:
 
Nice work so far! I'm jealous of the ground mount and battery racks.
All this talk of 80/20 has me thinking about using some to build fixtures to hold my DIY packs, I was coming to weld up some angle iron frames with scrap I have laying around but the 80/20 would look a heck of a lot nicer.
 
Were all geeks here, right?
Again, no affiliation but if anyone watching is not familiar with Tech Ingredients on YT ...
This family is legit. Early videos show some pulsed dye laser kit built on an 80/20 cart.
That red fiberglass top costs $1900 in a one inch thick 4x8 sheet. And I want one.. Lottery
 
Second custom ground mount in the ground...still need to weld our rotators on the ends, grind and paint.

I'm not looking forward to putting five more up next summer. This has been the hardest part of the whole solar install experience so far.

mounts.jpg

Now the last big hurdle is trenching along side the 600' power cable we put out connecting our solar shed to our cabin, and burying it before the freeze. And before some bears do their curiosity routine which tends to damage things. Was 34F this morning, so winter is definitely coming.

IMG_3876.jpg

And the battery racks are squared away, now just waiting for the EG4 chargeverter to arrive to charge them up. Guy who made and sold us the racks sent us hardware for free to replace the couple screws I lost getting them up here. Long trip to Alaska, then a helicopter ride, bound to happen. While I'm not Zen and don't like when things don't work out of the box (even when it's due to the bumps from getting stuff to our remote location), it wasn't a big deal and they work nicely.

bats.jpg
 
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What is the app/website for that sun tracker? That looks like it would be super helpful for placing my ground mount.

Another thought if you have a heavily forested challenging terrain area like we do and you're looking for a good way to figure out the best place for solar... What we did was we flew a drone to map our property and made a point cloud. Then we put that point cloud into ArcGIS and used the solar tool which simulates the sun (we used Dec 21) and then it color codes your map to show you what spots get the most sun.
 
Got fuse holder temporarily mounted, cut the battery cables to shorten them and put some lugs on them to connect to the terminals on the bus. Got the EG4 mounted and confirmed it charges from the 240V power from my Honda EU7000 by connecting it to a smaller 48V battery system (not the Pylontech). Coming along.

Bat1.png
Bat2.png
EG4.jpg
 

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Batteries and bus bar pretty much complete. Now we just need to add the big t-fuses to the four fuse holders going to the MPPT and Inverter, torque the DC connections to the MPPT and Inverter to spec, wire up the Cerbo GX, and wire the PV wires into the DC Isolator and then into the MPPT. Then we need to add the network cables from the batteries to the Cerbo GX so the batteries can tell the system what they need. And we need to put our solar panels up on our ground mounts and connect them to the PV wire.

Oh, and we need to clean all that dusty dirt off the bus bar. Got some air spray bottles and we'll blow everything with air to try to keep it cleaner.

At that point, we can charge our batteries with our solar panels or the EG4 chargeverter (probably will only use the EG4 to charge one battery at a time since its bus location is not centered at all). Once the electrician connects the AC out from the inverter to our fat cable in the trench and wires our cabin, we'll finally have some relatively big boy solar. Only 7KW of solar to start for now, we'll get the rest of our panels installed when we can either afford more metal for these ground mounts or if we figure out a way to do it cheaper with wood.
 
Didn't think we would get this done before winter, but we did. Cabin and solar shed wired with breaker boxes and supplying AC power, and we got the panels mounted on our two solar arrays. Next summer, five more...

It's super cool to see the ground mount design we made in CAD become a reality and work the way we had planned. But boy was the metal expensive and a whole lot of work to install.

arrays.jpg
 
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