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I don't know if you're anywhere near a Greentech Renewables, but I was close enough to one of their warehouses in Chicago to get free shipping. They also had the best prices of anyone I found around here and everything was in stock. They have places in most major cities if you're near one.

I'd talk to the company about your soil. My guess is helical screws might be better than ground screws for clay.

I've had mine about 3-4 years now, can't remember which. It's fine, I don't think there's a problem with longevity on any of them. It's really more about making the right choice for your soil type. I mentioned above we're on glacial till and it was a mistake for me to choose ground screws. I'd...

When I put in my ground mount I used a few wind numbers to do rough calculations just as a sanity check. A 60mph wind generates 10 psf and a 100mph wind generates 25psf. A flat wall has a drag coefficient of about 2 and a sphere has a coefficient of about 0.5. So I assume a tilted solar mount...

Thanks, I'll willing to pay extra for local support. When I installed the system I have there was a problem with one item. They had a truck out to me the same day with a replacement part. I'm also close enough to get free delivery on everything.

Interesting, I remember joking when I got my panels that the box said designed in Austria (or Germany?), manufactured in China, and assembled in some other country (Korea?). Looks like the Georgia plant was built after I got my panels. I've been happy with my panels, wouldn't hesitate to buy again.

I like the 545W output, I only have so much space to mount these. They're about $250 each, less than I would have thought. I live right by a CEDGreentech, I'll have to see if they carry those.

Thanks, looks like a good option, didn't think I'd get that much power in a panel that size. Hadn't heard of that brand but they have good online reviews.

I'm expanding the 10kW system I have, I want to orient the panels vertically in front of a barn wall that I'll paint white, so bifacial panels seem like a good choice. They will use a different inverter than my existing system so no compatibility needed. Physical dimensions need to be no greater...

I have a ground mount, so the combiner box and disconnect is under the solar panels. My inverter is on the inside wall of an unconditioned barn, the overhead and stall doors are open all the time so it's probably pretty close to your car port in terms of protection. We have a farm and my...

NEC prohibits 2 services to same building with exceptions that don't apply to you. You can only have 2 feeders to same building if the disconnects are both in the same location. The spirit of the rule is to avoid having to know there are multiple disconnects in separate locations to make the...

I like the torque drive adapters, I can use whichever handle I already own that fits best, and it doesn't take up much space in the tool box.

It's $14.50/month here in Chicago metro.

Depending on your local codes, whatever you do may need to be rated for fire. I'd make a piece of flashing to cover the trough and use something fire rated for the penetration. I also use plenum putty inside the conduit to block warm house air from hitting that cold enclosure and condensing...

I'm not an RVer, is the mini split operating while the vehicle is moving or only when it's stopped for camping? If you think about the shock loading the thing had to endure being shipped by boat/truck/train/camel/forklift, I'd say riding on an RV might be the smoothest part of it's life. So as...

I currently have a 7.7kW Fronius Primo inverter grid tied that's 3 years old. I want to approximately double my system to 15kW. Can't decide if I should replace existing inverter with a single ~15kW inverter, or buy a second inverter like the 7.7kW one I have. I'm combining my three strings, so...

They are required if the connected equipment is not listed as suitable for bonding. So pretty much all metal conduit, enclosures and fittings are listed. The other case is if the conduit is serving as the EGC. In that case I think both ends require a bonding bushing.

We have solar powered batteries on the automatic gate openers on our farm in Illinois. Temps typically get well below 0F and have gone as low as -30F in the past few years. I've experimented with a variety of ways to keep the batteries from freezing in the winter. Here is a typical example of a...

I put these Fire extinguisher balls over the battery charging station in my shop. Fortunately I have no first hand experience.

My panels listed the required spacing in the data sheet. As I recall it was about 1/4". I would have expected them to give a value based on your climate and max temp range, but they just gave one value.

Yes that's correct if I used the approach @sunshine_eggo mentioned. And that's much less work than what I was referring to in regards to the conduit, which is to put the west half of the panels on one MPPT, the east half on the other. That would require running 2 sets of wires through the...

These are willow trees so they lose their leaves in winter. Also they're so tall that as the sun gets lower in the sky, it actually misses the canopy of the tree and there ends up being quite a bit less shade in the winter. I've had this 3 years, so I've got some historical data.

Agreed, I'm not missing much, that's why I'm not too enthusiastic about doing much to change things. I'm most interested in understanding what's going on so when I add more capacity I'll get it right.

250-480V Voc=49.13 Vmp=41.2 Mine is 600v, it's the 7.7kW model

This is the plot from yesterday, when I took those photos. The first photo was at 8:38, second at 8:44 and third at 8:56. The sharp increase in slope on this plot begins at 8:45. \ I think if the trees weren't there those low shoulders at the beginning and end of day would be much steeper...

Thanks for the info and explanation. I'm actually very happy with how things turned out, it's paying for itself faster than I had calculated. The install I have is 1/2 our power, if I ever add the second half I'll configure things different, and might go for optimizers. I went for simple because...

Yes, if I'd known then what I know now I would have run the west half into one tracker and the east half into the other tracker because I have the same problem in the afternoon with tree shading. To change things now I'd have to run another set of wires to the inverter and the conduit isn't...

I have 3 strings, each string 8 panels, arranged horizontally and combined in parallel to go into one tracker on a Fronius. Total for all panels is about 10kW. In the morning the first hour or so is shaded and I don't understand why the bypass diodes don't allow for the completely shaded panels...

I never thought to apply 310.17 for anything other than messenger cable. But you're right, this has to be considered free air.

4/0 is only rated for 230A. Is the fuse really 400A?

The biggest problem with old roofs is uplift. They didn't have the prefab hold downs we use now. But if you're doing flush mount it won't make uplift worse so it should be fine. If you live in snow climate panels will reduce the load because they melt snow pretty fast.

I'd use XHHW aluminium. It will be about half the weight and probably 30% cheaper. As mentioned it's more flexible and has tougher insulation. It's also chemical resistant if that matters in your environment.

Here's the instructions for the MrCool units I've put in. I don't know how they come up with these specific floor clearances. As long as there's enough ceiling clearance, why do they care how high the thing is off the floor.

Someone probably banged their head and sued the company. So their lawyers told them to shift responsibility to the homeowner by specifying 8' clearance.

Probably doesn't matter for your application, but the way lumber is graded will result in your laminated beam having a lower structural rating. It's easiest to just think about knots. In a #2 graded 2x6 the knots have to be a certain distance apart. If you glue two of those 2x6 together,you...