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Balcony mount on railings for 100W flexible panel

Jordi

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Oct 13, 2020
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Dear all,

I want to share with you my upcoming design for a flexible solar panel mount.

I live in the Netherlands and would like to harvest some solar from my rental apartment. In this apartment I only have the balcony as possible collection point (see photo). Until now I just had a rigid panel behind the railing and in summer, given the right angle I could harvest sun for quite few hours. During winter I am facing that there is barely no sun and that due to the lower angle of the sun, the railings are shadowing the panel the entire day. In summer this was limited to the last 2 hours of sunlight. Currently in winter I produce at peak 10-15W from a max 100W; ridiculous.

1638184008500.jpeg

In order to solve that, I thought of building a mount to place the panels in front of the railing. The first problem I found is the weight of the rigid panel = 8,1Kg. Such weight on a 4th floor poses the risk of severe damage as result of a mount failure. The winds and rain in this area are very strong. To solve that I considered building a a metallic structure or buying an existing one. My conclusions from research were that or I require a high investment to acquire all the tools for working metal (one time use=waste), or that such mount for balconies are not commercially available and If possible, expensive.

I tried to think of alternatives and considered as solution the combination of a wood mount and a flexible panel. The flexible panel weights less than 2 kg; so I ordered one (see photo). The wood mount I can easily build myself with available tools and can be pretty much reinforced with metallic profiles and paint coatings.
H240d87fd383c4dd78c64bd8517ec597bA.jpg


After making this choice I was thinking of panel positioning. First in terms of cell yield and later in terms of mount robustness (violent weather here).
For cell yield I decided to mount it horizontally because then one line of shadow (8 cells in series) does not deactivate the other 8S cells arrangements.
For mount robustness I have still not decided what to do exactly. I considered putting the panel completely outside of the balcony with the weight being sustained from the top of the panel (100% weight pulled from the railing; left design) or aim for a midpoint; half the panel stays inside the balcony (50% weight pulled from the railing; 50% weight resting on the railing; right design) (see images). In the images you see a wood structure (orange), with a panel, some hinges for panel orientation and fixation to the balcony railing and an adjustable wood base to support the panel inclination. The first design fits better the façade and inexistent use of the balcony. The second setup (right) I expect it to be more stable because the fixation comes from the center. I also think that in case of failure, this second setup gives slightly higher chances for the mount to fall inside the balcony, thus avoiding an accident.

1638187200109.png1638187157590.png

The railings fix and carry the panel weight. The so called based sustains the angle of the panel (adjustable); the base is fixed to the railing with some rope.
The hinges are attached to a fixation body with metallic parts which guarantee robustness and flexibility for different types of railings.
1638188118263.png


Requirements of this mount is robustness, safety, flexibility/adaptability to different railings, angle customization and portability (easy to carry to new apartment).

What do you think? Is this delusion or could it work? Do you think the advantages (higher output) outweigh all the hassle/efforts?
Another possibility would be that I put the panels flat on the railing bars and use more simple ways to fix its position (eg. rope, plastic seals, metallic chain,...) (see example photo). I would loose part of the inclination flexibility but make the building much easier (eg. no hinges required). A fixed flat angle I expect to have a significant impact on the energy production.

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I will build a basic wood structure for sure, but that is to avoid the panel bending with the wind. I will use this type of wood;
123
10x38mm (light but robust enough)

Your review and comments are very much appreciated.
 
What did you end up doing? And how well is it working? The ones in the last photo look like they'd be supported by the metal frames well. And they look nice like that. Just want to make sure they don't break free and fall on somebody's head. Not sure what kind of wind and storms you get there though. We get hurricanes in Houston TX so that can be a little tricky.
 
At first I used the balcony railings to hang the solar panels; it is safer and risk free. But an horizontal, or said in another way, a tilt of 90 degrees is horrible for solar output. Specially where I live (latitude 53).

So now I have placed 2 mounts to provide a tilt of 35-40 degrees and have the 2 solar panels operational.
I am about to make a post about it when I can make photos in a sunny day; in the photo you see the first mount as example.

1644913405183.jpeg

I don't think it will be a long-lasting structure (10 years) but I think 2 years will be pretty fine and before that time comes, I probably already moved elsewhere. What may require more attention is the plastic seals which should be backed up by another less UV sensitive material.

The structure is fairly light (<1Kg) and the panels 2 Kg each. The structure is not suspended by the plastic seals, its weight is supported by the railing and the plastic seals just ensure it doesn't move.

More details in the official post to come no sooner than next week because we aren't getting sun at all. Very depressing...
 
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At first I used the balcony railings to hang the solar panels; it is safer and risk free. But an horizontal, or said in another way, a tilt of 90 degrees is horrible for solar output. Specially where I live (latitude 53).

So now I have placed 2 mounts to provide a tilt of 35-40 degrees and have the 2 solar panels operational.
I am about to make a post about it when I can make photos in a sunny day; in the photo you see the first mount as example.

View attachment 83989

I don't think it will be a long-lasting structure (10 years) but I think 2 years will be pretty fine and before that time comes, I probably already moved elsewhere. What may require more attention is the plastic seals which should be backed up by another less UV sensitive material.

The structure is fairly light (<1Kg) and the panels 1 Kg each. The structure is not suspended by the plastic seals, its weight is supported by the railing and the plastic seals just ensure it doesn't move.

More details in the official post to come no sooner than next week because we aren't getting sun at all. Very depressing...
i would be adding thicker zip ties to that, so ensure it stays in place in high winds. you do live in the Netherlands after all
 
i would be adding thicker zip ties to that, so ensure it stays in place in high winds. you do live in the Netherlands after all
Yes, this is in the Netherlands and tonight we are having winds of up to 110Km/h, so the installation full test is about to happen.
 
thicker zip ties
I wouldn’t trust that at all- Static Object Syndrome.

FWIW I used some zip ties temporarily here in Vermont before I got my rails actually mounted. Turned out VERY temporarily because they broke and got replaced several times before the rails came in. In the end I used brackets and bungee cords which didn’t break. Of course now I’m fully mounted and they have survived winds to 75mph. I do use zip ties to secure my PV wires which keeps the MC4s from breaking in the wind.
 
I wouldn’t trust that at all- Static Object Syndrome.

FWIW I used some zip ties temporarily here in Vermont before I got my rails actually mounted. Turned out VERY temporarily because they broke and got replaced several times before the rails came in. In the end I used brackets and bungee cords which didn’t break. Of course now I’m fully mounted and they have survived winds to 75mph. I do use zip ties to secure my PV wires which keeps the MC4s from breaking in the wind.
Thank you. I will start by adding some extra zip ties and look into some robust cord or else.

Next week comes trial 2; 130km/h wind gusts.

And then the week after apocalypse and the whole world blown away. Bit burnt out from this weather already.
 
Yes, this is in the Netherlands and tonight we are having winds of up to 110Km/h, so the installation full test is about to happen.
same here in south wales.....we got storm eunice on its way with 100kmh winds or in UK speak 60/70mph
 
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