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Hanging panels from southern building face

CStick419

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I am in the process of building a beehouse -- fully insulated outbuilding which will house ~45 hives/colonies. The building is too far away from the rest of the structures on the property to afford running 220VAC to the building, so I'm planning on using solar for lights, fans, data collection, and possibly heat.

The building has a simple sloped roof which provides a way to collect rain runoff on the north side, and the south face is about 20' wide x 10' high.

My intention is to mount the panels above the hive entrances, canopy style, so they also provide some shade in the heat of the summer.

I'm interested in feedback from anyone who has experience mounting panels to the side of a building. Specifically:
1) What brackets/mounting hardware worked best for you?
2) Did you use a fixed angle, or adjustable?
3) What things would you do differently?
4) What would you do the same?
 
A few things to ponder upon first. The solar panel scan & do create shade but immediately under them I summer, it's not cool due to the radiant heat coming off the dark panels, you certainly want airflow under there to allow for air movement between the structure & the panels. If you build the structure with a Sloped Shed Roof set at the proper angle for your region you could then mount the standoffs & rails on that to mount your panels.

The tricky part... Metal roofs have a lot of advantages over other types. You could choose a White Roof and use Bi-Facial Panels (up to 450W) or regular panels at <350W. Mounting methods vary depending on the rack & rail system you are using, I used Kinetic Solar mounting and it's great stuff for my mounting kit.

* Check out your angles here (bottom of page) http://www.solarelectricityhandbook.com/solar-angle-calculator.html and that will help you to see the median angle (typically March & September)
* To work out degree angle to pitch (and a whole lot more) check it here: Blocklayer construction calculators

Fixed or movable, well that all depends on your building design, how many panels, do you want to do tracking or not... Fixed is a set of compromises BUT with a good solar controller that can handle a bit of over voltage / over amperage, then you can do the over-panelling game to compensate for the "Bad Angle periods". WARNING, NOT ALL (many in fact) Have this capability ! Midnite Solar has HyperVOC in their controllers, see bottom of page: Midnite Solar Then have a look at their KID controller, including the "complete kit" which is actually a good deal whenm you add up all the extras included and none of it cheapo stuff. TBH, a failure in the bee-house could kill them all, do you want to cheap out on this ? risking the bees and your income / enjoyment /. source of good sweet yum ! somehow I don't think so.

Think about how much power you "NEED" for the beehouse.
Do you really need 240VAC ? will 120VAC not do it ?
What will you run from that system and is it practical ?
Do you want it to be expandable for future increases and or independence from the grid ultimately ?
!! How much risk are you willing to take ? Cheapo Value stuff that could fail, or more expensive & reliable with track record ?
?? short term spend vs long term spend ?
--- This is where "Penny Foolish, Dollar Wise" _and_ "Dollar Foolish & Penny Wise" kick in.

IF you have yet to build anything, I very strongly suggest having a good read on this site. It is a commercial installer but the description & documentation on what a Cool Roof system is in incredibly good. I have built my home with this type of roofing method and it is incredible for heat / cold management and energy saving in all seasons. BTW, it cut over 25% of my energy cost on heating & cooling !

Hope it all helps, good luck.
 
I am in the process of building a beehouse -- fully insulated outbuilding which will house ~45 hives/colonies. The building is too far away from the rest of the structures on the property to afford running 220VAC to the building, so I'm planning on using solar for lights, fans, data collection, and possibly heat.

The building has a simple sloped roof which provides a way to collect rain runoff on the north side, and the south face is about 20' wide x 10' high.

My intention is to mount the panels above the hive entrances, canopy style, so they also provide some shade in the heat of the summer.

I'm interested in feedback from anyone who has experience mounting panels to the side of a building. Specifically:
1) What brackets/mounting hardware worked best for you?
2) Did you use a fixed angle, or adjustable?
3) What things would you do differently?
4) What would you do the same?

So, it's been 11 months since I made this post. In that time we finished the construction of the building and this afternoon completed hanging the solar panels. We ended up using Superstruts lag bolted into the building's framing for the primary support. I really like the way it turned out and am sure it will hold up to wind and snow loads.
 

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That looks very nice. What are the rest of the specs like panel wattage and which voltage did you decide on foot AC? Also, do you see yourself expanding these panels at all?
 
While it may no longer be PC to call a Spade a Spade,
couldn't you at least call an Apiary an Apiary?
 
That looks very nice. What are the rest of the specs like panel wattage and which voltage did you decide on foot AC? Also, do you see yourself expanding these panels at all?
The panels are 345 watts wired in series. I picked up 4 used Valence LiFePO4 19.2V 65Ahr batteries, wired in a 2S2P configuration. With an Epever charge controller. At this point in time I don't anticipate running an inverter, so everything will be powered by DC-DC buck converters.

As for expanding the number of panels, time will tell. But a lot will depend on how my energy budget is managed.
 
So, it's been 11 months since I made this post. In that time we finished the construction of the building and this afternoon completed hanging the solar panels. We ended up using Superstruts lag bolted into the building's framing for the primary support. I really like the way it turned out and am sure it will hold up to wind and snow loads.
Looks good.

Is strong wind a consideration in your location?

I’ve been thinking of how I could hang several panels on my south and west facing garage/future mancave walls since they receive and absorb a significant solar radiation and heat in summer. Aesthetics are a key consideration.

The panels would likely be off grid, charging batteries, and powering room fans and attic fans, a space heater in winter, and possibly a mini split heat pump someday. But strong santa ana winds and some 60-70mph gusts are not unusual at certain times of year so I will need to build something rock solid.

I’d also like the panels to provide some shade on the walls to reduce heat gain, which is questionable since the panels radiate significant heat themselves. So I’ll need to determine wall spacing for that to be effective.
At this point I am thinking the panels will be in a fixed position. I know that’s certainly not ideal, but I have to work with certain design limitations for walkways, head room etc, and hope the community / neighbors up the hill and across the street don’t get fussy.
 
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