DIY Ground Mount Solar System

[Sader762]

At some point on every large project that I’ve ever started, I usually end up, asking myself “what in the world have I gotten myself into?”

I Think I might have gotten to that point this past week.

About a year and a half ago I became very interested in putting solar on my property. I live on 18 acres in East Texas and have plenty of good open area that I could build a ground mount system on. I have spent over a year researching and watching tons of solar videos on YouTube to become moderately informed on the topic.

Here are the specs on the system I am installing:
2 POCO meters - 15k limit for their 1 net metering, going to stay under that for know.
2 installed systems

System 1 House 240’ run
48 Bluesun 460 bifacial panels from Signature Solar (3x2 8 panels each string)
SolArk 15k Inverter from Practical Peppers
2 Ground Mount Arrays from Sinclair

System 2 Shop 60‘ run
24 Bluesun 460 bifacial panels from Signature Solar (3x1 8 panels each string)
SolArk 15k Inverter from Practical Peppers
1 Ground Mount Arrays from Sinclair

House will account for about 75% of electrical need in the summer
Shop will over produce what I use. Plan on a second car charger out there (wife’s Tesla Y and several friends have one) and I plan on putting w mini splits on the shop-why not.

I broke ground a little over a week ago and caused a huge mess on my property. it was at that point. I asked myself what have I done. Of course I hit 4 sprinkler pipes including the main 2” line and the control wire lines as well, ugh. The biggest OS moment came when I hit the propane line, pucker factor went up there. I did call 811 dig number and they were useless. I had to call my electric coop to mark the power line. Dig 811 didn’t even get that one marked. I got all that fixed at the end of the week last week.

More to come…

 

[SamDeleted]

?

 

[Sader762]

This week I got to work on the Ground mount racks.

The racks are supposed to be direct tie Sinclair ground mounts. Everything came and delivered great. The ordering process was fantastic and Sinclair was quick to respond any questions that I had. I got the post mounted into the holes and leveled/squared up. And then Thursday of this week I was able to get a concrete truck out to concrete the holes. I ordered 10 yards and just about filled all nine holes most of the way up and then had plenty left over for a secondary patio project.

then we started mounting the trusses, the season adjust levers and Z purlins to the racks. Everything went together well and bolted up like it was supposed to. When I went to mount the solar panels on to the rack yesterday for the direct tie system they did not line up with the north-south holes on my panels. I immediately called Sinclair, and they readily confess to screwing up the order. The engineered everything to fit my panels but sent out standard truss beams to me. So these truss beams did not have the proper hole spacing in them for the Z purlins to bolt to. after discussing the issue with them, they came to the collusion that the best thing would be to do their mid clamp assemblies and clamp the panels to the Z purlins. They are sending this to me at no cost, and are willing to work with me on my lost time. Still happy with the system but a little frustrated that I’m losing several days and losing my work crew that I had scheduled to help me mount the solar panels.

 

[Plum Crazy Rob]

My propane line, yellow PVC whatever that stuff is didn't have tracer wire. Ask ME how I know

 

[Sader762]

My propane line, yellow PVC whatever that stuff is didn't have tracer wire. Ask ME how I know

I feel you pain ?

 

[Madcodger]

Finding propane lines on older installs can be maddening. Many of them just weren't marked. We've moved or altered projects at our place just to steer clear of possible problems with them.

 

[Bluedog225]

Big project. Hope it goes well. Though hitting that many underground utilities indicates a problem. I’m all for get er done but you will be dealing with some high voltage lines. May want to slow down and make sure you get it right.

 

[Sader762]

Big project. Hope it goes well. Though hitting that many underground utilities indicates a problem. I’m all for get er done but you will be dealing with some high voltage lines. May want to slow down and make sure you get it right.

Digging was completed a week ago. Everything is fixed. No other issues with the digging part. Now working, or waiting to work, on the mounting.

Any project that uses heavy equipment in a yard with sprinklers usually means you’ll hit water lines. Part of the job typically. The surprise was the propane line that 811 did not mark. They did not mark the underground power line as well. I had to call my poco (actually spent 1-1/2 hours on the phone with poco and 811 arguing) and they came out to mark the power line for me and confirmed a depth of 4 feet. We hand dug near the house and shop to avoid other known lines. So I am pretty aggrevated with the 811 guy.

 

[Sader762]

For those following along and saw the issue that I had with the Sinclair ground mount I have an update. After talking with Sinclair on Friday, I was really expecting them to ship the clamp assemblies to me that day. After all, they screwed up, the build, sent me the incorrect trusses, and have caused a delay in my construction as well as cost me the help that I had to get the solar panels mounted.

I emailed Sinclair this morning and got a quick response. I asked for the FedEx tracking number. I was sent a FedEx tracking number that was generated this morning which means nothing has left their factory and who knows how long I’ll have to wait to get these things so I can continue my build. This is very frustrating and it’s putting me about a week behind.

The Sinclair ground mount product is a great product. It is well built and goes together very efficiently. But if you’re in a hurry, I would deal with one of the distributors to get the amount that you want. Dealing directly With Sinclair has been a process of extreme patience.

 

[Plum Crazy Rob]

How deep are the holes for the main upright for the Sinclairs by the way??

 

[Hedges]

The surprise was the propane line that 811 did not mark. They did not mark the underground power line as well.

You keep saying Propane. Is propane a public utility in your area?
I would expect natural gas up to the meter to be utility property that 811 could mark.
Propane, I think of a pipe from a rented tank to your buildings, all your property and unknown to the utility and 811.


These concrete footings appear to be below grade.

I think most corrosion occurs in the top few inches of soil. I had a gas pipe which looked rusted and puffed up, so I dug down and replaced it. I cross sectioned the piece I removed, and it was actually mostly sound; just the outer layer and grown in volume as it turned to rust. Maybe 3 decades old.

I think concrete should be domed above the dirt to drain and keep exposed metal away from the soil. Although galvanizing and type of alloy could make a difference.

 

[Madcodger]

You keep saying Propane. Is propane a public utility in your area?
I would expect natural gas up to the meter to be utility property that 811 could mark.
Propane, I think of a pipe from a rented tank to your buildings, all your property and unknown to the utility and 811.

You, sir, have not experienced home ownership in rural America. There is no natural gas within about an hour's drive of our home but probably 90% or more of the homes around us have one or more propane tanks. Our property has two homes on it (we live in one, the other is a guest house). There are two 500-gallon above-ground propane tanks sitting about 25' from one of those homes (the legal minimum), feeding that building and the nearby backup generator. But there's also a pipe running underground behind that closest building, then under the lawn of the other building, to feed main building #2. It must be 100 feet in length, and figuring out its exact path was a big headache after we purchased the property four years ago and installed an underground electric line to from the generator to the guest house. That's likely the type of line the OP is referencing, and they're very common in our part of the world. A truck pulls up and refills the tanks as needed, but where we live, that truck may need to wait a month or more to get in here if we have a major ice storm, which explains the big tanks.

BTW, we also built an exercise studio across the driveway from our house last year, which is where I installed my off grid solar. To heat it, we went with a propane direct-vent wall furnace (Rinnai), which is possibly the single most common heating appliance I see in our area. It's only 50-70 feet from those big propane tanks, but neither we nor the propane supplier wanted to run a line to it because we would have needed to cross the main electric line from the utility, and no one wanted to tackle that trenching job. So, in went two 120-gallon "fat boy" tanks, which can sit right beside the building (in a wife-approved location out behind it, actually). And when I build my new office later this year, after a lot of internal debate about how to heat it, what will I install? Yep - more propane, with yet another tank.

I've been trying like a madman to figure out how to reasonably create enough solar to power AND HEAT a new home we're building (7 miles from this property), without using propane or oil. Much harder than you'd think if you want to avoid the grid and don't wish to heat with wood. Propane here is a way of life come winter.

 

[Bluedog225]

Natural gas lines from a central utility are the utilities’ responsibility to mark. My experience is if you have a propane tank, the lines from the propane tank to your house are your responsibility.

 

[Hedges]

I do own such property.
Some neighbors have propane. One told the vendor to remove the tank after getting a nasty overdue bill some time after buying the property.

My point was, all propane piping I know of belongs to consumer, not utility and isn't covered by 811. Natural gas is, up to the meter.

 

[Madcodger]

I do own such property.
Some neighbors have propane. One told the vendor to remove the tank after getting a nasty overdue bill some time after buying the property.

My point was, all propane piping I know of belongs to consumer, not utility and isn't covered by 811. Natural gas is, up to the meter.

We built a new 20'x20' tractor shed beside our garage last year, and the 811 guy was able to find and mark propane lines that had been installed with the "marking tape" alongside the line. HOWEVER, he did this only when we met him onsite and asked him to do so - it wasn't part of his work order as propane isn't a public utility. This has been a big controversy in some states, including Maine. There was a big, fatal explosion here 2-3 years ago when a contractor hit a propane line that leaked back into a building, because no one realized the propane line was there. I don't know where it stands now, but I know some legislators wanted to make propane part of the mandatory "utility line search" from 811. As I understand it, the problem is that some older installations were apparently done without marking tape. As I noted in another post, propane is part of the backbone of rural America. But it hasn't always been managed as well as we'd like on a house-house basis.

 

[Sader762]

How deep are the holes for the main upright for the Sinclairs by the way??

6 feet

ETA- I was also able to pound them into the ground slightly by putting an 8 x 8 across the top of the upright and hitting it with a 10 pound sledge. I was pretty damn exhausted at the end of the day, but this secured them another 6 inches or so into the ground to help anchor them for the concrete pour. The concrete ran about $1800.

 

[Sader762]

You keep saying Propane. Is propane a public utility in your area?
I would expect natural gas up to the meter to be utility property that 811 could mark.
Propane, I think of a pipe from a rented tank to your buildings, all your property and unknown to the utility and 811.


These concrete footings appear to be below grade.

I think most corrosion occurs in the top few inches of soil. I had a gas pipe which looked rusted and puffed up, so I dug down and replaced it. I cross sectioned the piece I removed, and it was actually mostly sound; just the outer layer and grown in volume as it turned to rust. Maybe 3 decades old.

I think concrete should be domed above the dirt to drain and keep exposed metal away from the soil. Although galvanizing and type of alloy could make a difference.

View attachment 163840

Propane - I have 2 500 gallon tanks that I OWN.

Yes, that footing is below grade to accommodate the electrical to that central location. Seven of the nine posts are at or just below grade. This is precisely the way I have seen many people do this on YouTube videos, including Scott/engineer 775 do many of his earlier projects that had ground mount solar systems. This is a Sinclair sky rack 2.0 ground mount solar array. It is meant to be directly driven into the ground without any concrete if you have the ability to do so. I think I’m pretty good here.

 

[Sader762]

I do own such property.
Some neighbors have propane. One told the vendor to remove the tank after getting a nasty overdue bill some time after buying the property.

My point was, all propane piping I know of belongs to consumer, not utility and isn't covered by 811. Natural gas is, up to the meter.

This is basically what I’ve been told. I didn’t know this so chalk it up to a $300 learning experience. Not a big deal everything’s fixed and I am moving along with my project.

 

[Sader762]

We built a new 20'x20' tractor shed beside our garage last year, and the 811 guy was able to find and mark propane lines that had been installed with the "marking tape" alongside the line. HOWEVER, he did this only when we met him onsite and asked him to do so - it wasn't part of his work order as propane isn't a public utility. This has been a big controversy in some states, including Maine. There was a big, fatal explosion here 2-3 years ago when a contractor hit a propane line that leaked back into a building, because no one realized the propane line was there. I don't know where it stands now, but I know some legislators wanted to make propane part of the mandatory "utility line search" from 811. As I understand it, the problem is that some older installations were apparently done without marking tape. As I noted in another post, propane is part of the backbone of rural America. But it hasn't always been managed as well as we'd like on a house-house basis.

This is really good information and a good story about protecting your projects. I plan on going back over my propane line, my buried solar, electric line, and fiber optic line with dig tape to protect it in the future. Now that I also know where my electric, solar, Propane, primary sprinkler line, and sprinkler communication lines are I plan on mapping it out and having everything on a map mounted near my primary inverter area. This way, anyone can easily locate the utilities on the property.

 

[Sader762]

I am back from a trip that I had scheduled, almost all of my orders for this project have come in, primarily my Sinclair mid clamp and end clamps. I will start installing the solar panels on the rack tomorrow. Pics to come soon.