Boilermaker's Solar Journey and Build

[blrmaker]

We have been on the solar journey now for 2 years and decided to share what we have done, where we are, and where we are going. I have posted some pictures and questions over this time but have not put it all together in a sequence for show and tell. This thread will go step by step (for those who are unfamiliar with the process) but will be updated as I get closer to finishing.



Background: We purchased 42 acres in East Texas to move closer to our children. The property already had a 40X60 shop onsite with city water, rural electric, and a well. We moved our camper next to the shop and have lived in it for 2.5 years while we had a house built which finished in February.

After watching some Will Prowse videos on Youtube we started with an entire EG4 kit from Signature Solar. What a good way to start this journey. I used Will’s video to help design the mounting of the inverters inside of the shop and then figured out how to mount the array on top of the metal roof.

 

[blrmaker]

Following the above example, we built a wall in the shop near the load center for the shop. Then mounted cement board and finally added the inverters. 2@EG4 6500EX-48 inverters wired in parallel.

 

[blrmaker]

I started to wire the PV disconnects that were provided by the kit.



I am not sure why but I ended up removing the IMO disconnects and replacing them with DC breakers.

 

[TacoMeat]

If you're anything like me the phrase "it made sense when I was thinking about it" most likely happened.

 

[blrmaker]

Once the inverters were installed then I went to the hot Texas summer roof.

 

[blrmaker]

The kit came with 4@48V batteries which as it turns out were not enough to power my shop over night. I ended up adding 2 more for a total of 30 Kwhr.

 

[blrmaker]

So 3 days before Fathers Day in 2023 we had a brutal storm that knocked out the power grid for my county. My solar equipment worked very well through out the day but by 10 pm the 4 batteries would be low and we had to switch to generators.

The loads at the time were:

• 3 ac units. 2 one the camper and 1 in the shop bedroom. Hot days.
• 3 refrigerators, 1 in the camper and 2 in the shop.
• 2 hot water heaters, 1 in the camper and one in the shop.
• 1 stand up freezer.
• normal lights, tv, and phone chargers.

I even used my 250 amp welding machine during the day with no problems.

The goal for this system is to ultimately have the shop off grid completely and remove the power poles from the yard.

The loads now that we have moved into the house are minimal. 1 refrigerator and 1 stand up freezer.

 

[blrmaker]

Looking for an attachment for metal roofing at the time was daunting. I settled on the Snap-n-Rack pictured below:

 

[blrmaker]

Since we settled on Snap-N-Rack for the roof attachment, we went with Snap-N-Rack for the whole racking system. We used the Ultra rail that worked well except I did not take into account the fact that a metal building does not have rafters, it has purlins that run the wrong way. I ended up using vertical Unistrut to make up for the lack of rafters which allowed the rails to land where they needed. Unistrut is truly a multifunctional piece of equipment.



So Snap-N-Rack base, Unistrut vertical, and Ultra rail horizontal.

 

[blrmaker]

The kit included 24 Solever 455W panels. 40"x82" are large panels and I was working by my self. I repeated the below process 24 times. Lol

 

[blrmaker]

1/2 of the array up. I ran 6p to each MPPT connection on the inverters.

 

[blrmaker]

After finishing installing the panels, it was time to run the wires. But here is all the panels installed.

 

[blrmaker]

To get it up and running quickly, i just ran the wire on the roof. Our county does not have a building department but I still try to make stuff code compliant. Here is a video of the quick a dirty wiring.

I have since ran the wires in conduit though.

 

[LydMekk]

After finishing installing the panels, it was time to run the wires. But here is all the panels installed.

It is better if you post your pictures directly in this thread instead of having to click and download an .PDF

 

[blrmaker]

It is better if you post your pictures directly in this thread instead of having to click and download an .PDF

I would prefer that as well however some of my pictures are stored as PDF's and I am a luddite so converting back to an image is difficult.

 

[blrmaker]

This system has been working well and running everything in the shop for at least 6 weeks now minus the well pump. I have one test left before I can get the meter and the power poles removed from my yard. We have a well pump circuit on the outside of the shop which is still run from the grid. I need to isolate the shop at the main and see if the inverters can start the pump. I don't have a volt/amp meter to check the "in rush" of the pump. Is there any other way to check in rush of a pump?

 

[blrmaker]

We have lived in our camper for 2.5 years while working to get our house built. During this time, I figured on what type of solar equipment I wanted in the house. From what I have read on here it is best to do an energy survey before hand however it’s a new home so that was not going to happen. I knew the spec’s of most of the big energy users that was going to be installed so we took a best guess.

We purchased 2 EG4 18kPv inverters and 4 wall mount batteries prior to the house being completed. Ultimately I would like to add 2 outdoor rated batteries as well but that’s for the future. Then we purchased 2 pallets of Silfab 380W panels for the main array which will be approximately 260’ away from the house on top of a south facing equipment shed roof. Finally, we purchased a pallet of Solever 400W panels for the second array on the SWS facing garage roof.

For the equipment shed roof we are going with the Snap-N-Rack ultra rail system but using S-5 attachments to the roof. Since the equipment shed is being erected specifically for the array, we are going to set the purlins at the proper spacing for the racking. The strings will be in a 12s2p for each MPPT #1.

For the garage roof we went with Ironridge Flash Foot 2 attachments and XR100 rails. The roof will have 30@ Solever 400W panels in 12s for each inverter MPPT #2. This will leave 6 panels for a future Mini split.

Below is a sketch of the lay out:

 

[blrmaker]

When the contractor was starting to frame the foundation, I had them include a 2" piece of conduit to feed directly in the wall behind the inverters. As it turns out, that was a mistake as getting the PV wires to make the tight turn inside a 2X4 wall was not ideal.

I ended up pulling 260' of 8 ga THHN from that location through 1 1/2" conduit to the foundation of the equipment shed. 2 red, 2 black, 1 green, and I left pull tape in there just in case.

 

[blrmaker]

Trenching on our land went well since the majority of our area is sand. The biggest problem is as soon as the sand dries, the trench caves in. We had to drop the conduit in quickly to avoid this.

 

[blrmaker]

Made it all the way to the foundation footing form for the equipment shed. We drilled 5 holes 24" wide by 48" deep for each 2'X2' foundation. The steel erection guy said I needed that much since the equipment shed is a single pitch roof to minimize uplift from the wind. We are going to have the roof pitched at 6 on 12 to get as close to optimal according to SunCalc for my latitude. The other five footings I drilled and anchored into the shop foundation.

 

[blrmaker]

This is how I tied in the equipment shed footings to the shop foundation. Drilled 3 holes into the foundation and epoxied rebar at all 5 footings against the shop.

 

[blrmaker]

It happened that we had some other concrete to be poured for the house so we used the same truck/mix to fill these up. I believe it was 4000psi concrete with fiber added. When the steel shows up this summer, we will see if my layout was correct. LOL if not, I know a welder. That blue tarp under the tree is the 3 pallets of panels just itching to be mounted and producing electricity.

 

[blrmaker]

This is what I have drawn for the steel supplier/erector. If you see the purlins are laid out so the S-5 anchors will land directly below each Snap-N-Rack rail so no need for the Unistrut like on the shop.

 

[blrmaker]

I used this drawing to figure out how much conduit I need and junction boxes as well. Is there a reason not to use aluminum conduit rather than steel rigid conduit?

 

[blrmaker]

I am trying to decide on these on top of the roof or running the PV wire down to a combiner box directly above the PV disconnect I am installing on the equipment shed column. Does anybody see a problem with having a PV disconnect on both ends of the long run through the yard? I am planning one at the equipment shed and another one at the house since there is 260 feet of distance between the 2.