Hail damage in Texas.
- Thread starter realpinochet
- Start date
I appreciate your reply and yes stone can help …2 years ago I just put 200 tons down on a 300 ft driveway packed with a DOT roller …im very familiar with working with gravel ,rip rap , and boulders
….but There certainly is a great reason to use chemicals ..it works better faster and cheaper .. and the grass comes back if you leave it alone..
weeds and grass will blow straight up through a 5 inch packed driveway of 3 inch base stone and ABC top stones in a couple of seasons ( except the tire path) …
if a layer of white landscaping rock or river stone or whatever works for you I’m glad… it’s pretty , but my weeds and grass here don’t know about ,or follow any rules for where it should grow…it’s stubborn in attitude.
.I have found if you put down rock and also spray it it will last a good while , but never just gravel alone unless you use an under layer weed fabric first..
Thx…J.
Dave911
Solar Enthusiast
Yeah, that doesnt work.
The only way to do it mechanically is to put down 6 mil plastic, then inches of rock. Preferably crushed. Then after a few years the rock will collect dirt and stuff will start to grow again.
Or you can spray generic roundup 2-3 times per year and forget about it.
Notice that in either case it ends up being the same thing.
Dave911
Solar Enthusiast
Ive considered goats. But I had to take care of some and then realized that they will chew on everything! Plastic conduit..... Snack time!
Maybe thats why so many planes get struck by lightning... they dont have their rubber tires down?Had a college science instructor state it's the rubber tires on a car that keeps occupants safe in a lightning strike.No matter how bad I wanted to say something, I kept my mouth shut and answered the test questions.
I’m sure your aware, but goats will strip the land unless it a huge area..…a guy near me has a few acres of pasture that was simply beautiful… then he put goats and sheep on it ( about 10) that is the ugliest piece of barren land you can imagine nothing left……they will literal kill large trees by stripping the bark up about 5 ft ……now the land looks like mars ..
Plus he “rotates “them back and forth to a different piece twice a year… I’m suprized the animals haven’t eaten the damned fence wire…
OffGridForGood
Catch, make or grow everything you can.
There is a farm near-by to my place with two of these dual axis tracking arrays like above,
During a recent storm I noticed the arrays "park" the the panels right horizontal like the Left array in the picture above.
I realize in diffused lighting conditions this is the best direction for collecting the little bit of light available, but I wondered about the hail being discussed in this thread - wouldn't horizontal be the absolute worst orientation for a hail storm event!
Yeah, really had to bite my tongue to keep from saying anything, and to think I was paying good money to have this person educate me, grr!
On a side note, did come across some information on advanced military plane construction with composites, and the effects of lightening. Not good till they got it figured out.
Heh, above 600V, rubber is a fantastic conductor… especially with steel wire mesh cast into the compound…
2.5MILLION volts likely passes through rubber without any dispersion… plenty of melted flat tires from lightning strikes.
BUT the vast majority of lightning fatalities are from walking on the ground during a lightning event. An emf wave passes through the earth, and someone walking with two feet on the ground presents a path throuh your body for the lightning wave to pass through. Running is safer, because when running, only one foot is ever in contact with the ground… so no current path for travel. Safer.
OffGridForGood
Catch, make or grow everything you can.
better to shuffle, or hop. don't fall.
Would you rather a car hit you in a glancing blow or straight solid head on smack…Jus sayin…
Yep, lightning may travel several miles before it strikes, a few inches of rubber tire ain't doing squat. Generally speaking, the car's body acts as a Faraday cage directing the energy around the outside of the car and to the ground. It is a basic principle that a college science instructor should have grasped during grade school ... don't get me started on the condition of our education system.
Isn't that 'step difference' called something like a difference in potential? Grounding comes up all the time on this forum ... cannot a similar thing happen with multiple grounds?
works for 30 years for me (and probably tens of thousands of others) in multiple states, lmao
he got too many animals for his amount of land, goats are generally pretty passive with the land.
Yes, which is why the grounding system should ALWAYS be tied to the single ground point, and neutral to ground bonding shall ONLY take place ONCE in the system.
OffGridForGood
Catch, make or grow everything you can.
Yeah, if only we had some control of OTHER drivers or the weather…Well, since ya asking, I would rather "not get hit" LOL.
OffGridForGood
Catch, make or grow everything you can.
I thought about a roll down deployable Insulated tarp material, set up like a roll-up door along the top of the PV row, winch driven to pull the tarp material down the face of the PV to provide a layer of cushion. But then considered the cost of replacing panels would be less than the cost of trying to build something that 'might' protect them. I decided 'self insured' was less expensive and more reliable - after all if the PV gets hit ten years from now, this would also be a chance to upgrade to the newest/best PV available at that time.
seneysolar
Solar Addict
Someone should invent a mount system for large solar fields that can be triggered to fall vertical and lock that way for hail storms if they are so common. I would think vertical would have the best chance of hail survival.
You would think they would put metal plates on the back side of the panels and have them setup to rotate the solar panel side towards the ground and the metal panels facing the sky when storms occur. Simple long bar that runs thru all the panels that has a motor on the end that tilts them to protect them.
Wouldn't cost that much and completely protect that huge investment from hail damage and handle angle adjustment for seasonal sun angle changes.
Wouldn't cost that much and completely protect that huge investment from hail damage and handle angle adjustment for seasonal sun angle changes.
