Insane quotes for ground mount

[pvdude]

We used a ground mount from :

200 Ground Mount System - SnapNrack

snapnrack.com

The piers were deep. Ours has to survive hurricanes.
We don't get the full hurricane wind inland, probably 120mph gusts here, max.

I tried to rent an auger, none available, no rental places could tell me how long.
As we have lots of fence posts to replace, I just bought an auger and the related bits.

 

[diygm]

I am extremely interested the the Osprey idea, because one of our issues here is buried boulders. I don't mean rocks. I had a water line trenched and installed, 4 feet deep for 425 feet and they hit several washing machine sized boulders in that process. They were using a huge backhoe plus a skid steer, four guys total, and it took them three full days to install the line. They were actually considering dynamite for one boulder, but they ended up getting it pulled out.

If the Osprey duckbills really need only a 1" diameter hole, that would really be a great solution, since these rocks are limestone, not granite, and a hammerdrill would probably punch into them if we hit one.

However, you are saying each vertical was only tested to 1600lb, right? I'm trying to envision what the vertical lift on three rows of panels would be at 100MPH.

Maybe I should think of putting the panels on two racks, and keeping the rows two high, and go wider. I have the room, and that would reduce the potential lift and thus the structural requirement for each rack.

 

[diygm]

We used a ground mount from :

200 Ground Mount System - SnapNrack

snapnrack.com

The piers were deep. Ours has to survive hurricanes.
We don't get the full hurricane wind inland, probably 120mph gusts here, max.

I tried to rent an auger, none available, no rental places could tell me how long.
As we have lots of fence posts to replace, I just bought an auger and the related bits.
View attachment 130691
View attachment 130692

I have a 40HP tractor, but I haven't bothered getting an auger, because of the rocks around here. A 3 point auger doesn't reverse, and if you get a rock jammed four feet down, you are screwed. No pun intended. Skid steer augers are hydraulic and can reverse, so they are easier to unjam.

 

[dogfud]

Too small for your application, but fwiw I bought a couple of the smaller top-of-pole mounts from Mars Solar. I have them planted on top of 2" RMC but no panels yet, will post pictures once I have those up. Looks like they are designed for 2" chain link posts, but easy to adapt.

Premium Solar Mounts

We produce the absolute finest solar mounts on the planet. With thousands sold, they are a proven winner that will last a lifetime. Protect your solar investment with the best pole mounted racking solutions in the industry.

marsenergycorp.com

Price is reasonable and dealing with the owner Jeff was great. They have a larger top-of-pole system with tracking coming soon that looks interesting also, bit more expensive tho. Mounts on a 3" square tube.

What gets me about most of these vendors is the design spec for the concrete base. Tamarack called for something like a yard and a half of concrete for each post, total CYA from whichever engineer signed off on that plan. I can't imagine the soils and wind data assumptions they plugged in.

 

[Llaves]

However, you are saying each vertical was only tested to 1600lb, right? I'm trying to envision what the vertical lift on three rows of panels would be at 100MPH.

Design wind speed in my location is 100mph.
The Osprey racks 2x12 or 2x16 in portrait orientation.
The 2x16 rack has 6 anchors. If you run them end to end you lose two anchors because of the shared bases at the join.
The anchors are tested to 1600#, which means the actual pull force must be higher. 14 anchors for my 32 panels is a minimum of 22,400 pounds lift.
Sounds like a lot, but I have no idea what the lift actually is.

Osprey can give you the numbers for your location. The 6 anchor locations can each take multiple anchors per location, so you can easily double or more the anchoring.

 

[Llaves]

I have a 40HP tractor, but I haven't bothered getting an auger, because of the rocks around here. A 3 point auger doesn't reverse, and if you get a rock jammed four feet down, you are screwed. No pun intended. Skid steer augers are hydraulic and can reverse, so they are easier to unjam.

My orange tractor is about that size - 44HP. The 3pt has no downforce, so unless you have just the right soil, you end up with a bunch of friends trying to perch on top of the auger to give it more weight. And as you say, if it locks up, that's the end.

In addition to the reversible drive on a hydraulic auger, the skidsteer can apply downforce to the auger.

 

[Llaves]

Twenty-one miles up a dirt road in the mountains. Town is at least 1 hour away, and the HomeDepot is 75 minutes. Not a long as for you, but getting up there.

I agree, that's definitely not "town". That's even more dirt road than I have, though the last 12 miles of paved road here might be mistaken for dirt. At least I'm not responsible for maintaining the dirt road, which is a mixed blessing. The good news, I don't have to do it. The bad news, it happens when the oil company decides it needs blading, not when I think it does. Yesterday we drove the last four miles home through 12"+ of untracked snow. That was a thrill. This morning the grader came through and cleared it. Great timing.

 

[Hedges]

Anyone know anything about watts24/7 mount: https://watts247.com/product/2-x-5-solar-panel-pole-mount/ ? Inexpensive and rated for 150mph winds. But there's no information on it at all. I emailed them to ask for more details.

Single center pole is much more demanding than multiple legs.
If you design triangles, that is inherently strong. Then you just have to be concerned about horizontal or sloped spans. Look for on-line bending beam calculators.

I had some existing concrete work I bolted to, plus pounded 2" pipe for additional legs.

 

[EastTexCowboy]

I've seen multiple references to skid steer hydraulic augers here. Just an FYI but you can put those on a tractor FEL as long as you have third function hydraulics on the tractor. Most tractors today come with skid steer mount for the FEL but they make the augers for JD and Kubota mounts as well. I was going to do ground mount but I ended up putting my panels on the shop due to the distance to where I could do a ground mount. But I use my auger for 18" holes over 3' deep for h-brace posts on fences and I drilled 24" holes 5' deep when I added a lean-to onto the shop. The 24" holes were done with my bigger 75hp tractor but the 18" holes I do all the time with a 35hp. I'm not saying this is a viable solution in this your case, but for those out there who already have a tractor with a loader it is an incredibly handy attachment. Definitely one of my favorites.

 

[upnorthandpersonal]

These are the ones I designed (picture with them fully populated with 6 panels on the last page):

DIY ground mount

Keeping in line with the whole low-cost solar system, building my own braided bus bars, etc. I thought I would see what it takes to build a low-cost ground mount for those 500W 96 cell panels (1310mm x 1956mm). My goals were to make the whole thing simple to build, with minimal tools and simple...

diysolarforum.com

They've been through a storm, but I'm also surrounded by forest so I have some leeway. I can't drill holes in the ground since I'm on bedrock with a thin layer of soil, so the pillars are covered with gravel to provide the ballast.

 

[RussNM]

You could look at making the main frame works out of steel purlins. Pretty much all steel buildings use these and they come in fairly long lengths.
Just for an example .. https://wheelermetals.com/store/products/d/17436/cee-purlin/4-x-2-cee-purlin

 

[Llaves]

I've seen multiple references to skid steer hydraulic augers here. Just an FYI but you can put those on a tractor FEL as long as you have third function hydraulics on the tractor.

I suspected as much. Doubt I'll ever have enough use to warrant buying one, though

 

[penandpike]

You said you have a hill. If it has good angle you can make something like me. I used concrete and the whole construction cost me something like 2 000$ for 27KW 72 panels It is very strong and will withstand very strong winds. If the angle of the hill is not good enough you can use excavator to make it more steep. here is a video of my solar panels set up

 

[OzSolar]

I am extremely interested the the Osprey idea, because one of our issues here is buried boulders. I don't mean rocks. I had a water line trenched and installed, 4 feet deep for 425 feet and they hit several washing machine sized boulders in that process. They were using a huge backhoe plus a skid steer, four guys total, and it took them three full days to install the line. They were actually considering dynamite for one boulder, but they ended up getting it pulled out.

FWIW: I believe you need to get them down a minimum of 30" or frost line plus 12", whichever is greater.

I've installed about a dozen of the Osprey racks. IMHO, it's great for homogenous soils because all you need is a gas-powered driver. Solid rock is actually easier than rocks and dirt. See below.

If the Osprey duckbills really need only a 1" diameter hole, that would really be a great solution, since these rocks are limestone, not granite, and a hammerdrill would probably punch into them if we hit one.

Depends on what you're up against. We tried to drive them with the hammer only function of the hammer drill, but they self-destructed after bumping into few rocks, so we had to predrill with something like a 1 5/8" drill bit. We've burned up a few of the biggest Milwaukee SDS Max drills in soils that had rocks. These were the full-on industrial ones that that weigh around 35 lbs. By the time you put that ~65" drill bit on it it's pretty much a two-man endeavor.

What I didn't realize was that the surface tension of the soil on the shaft of the drill bit is terrible for the hammer drill. It's hard to explain but once you experience it, it will make sense. Those are bad days.

If it was me, I'd do a hillbilly Geotech soil analysis by buying the biggest duckbills I could get on Amazon or wherever then try to drive a few of and try pull them out using my tractor and a coffing hoist and crane scale hooked up to my tractors bucket to measure the force. You'll likely start tipping your 40hp or less tractor over before they pull out. 2118 lbs and it was holding tight. The piece of lumber you see was a makeshift prop to try to keep the tractor from tipping over.

 

[MurphyGuy]

When I installed my system in 2017, I used 3 inch Sch40 hot-dipped galvanized domestic pipe and I paid ~$5.50 per foot (delivered) for it.

The concrete piers are 7 feet below grade, the 3 inch pipe is embedded 5 feet into each pier. (my system is built on a hill)

Our local codes call for 105 mph, I designed for 130 mph. The system has already survived 75 mph gusts that tore the shingles off my neighbor's barn.

Instead of $5.50 a foot, hat 3 inch pipe is $22 a foot today. How do I know? Because someone asked me to help them install one like mine and when I went to price it out, the total cost of the pipe went from $1100 (About what I paid) to $4400

Even the concrete has gone up 30%
Unistrut has almost doubled.
Wire has almost doubled.

 

[EastTexCowboy]

I suspected as much. Doubt I'll ever have enough use to warrant buying one, though

I don't know that I have enough to justify mine, but it was that or try to rent one every time I needed it. I'm too damn old to fight with post augers plus my wife spoils me. Any excuse to buy a new attachment is a good one! . I don't recall the cost off the top of my head but adding the third function hydraulics isn't cheap - around $1,200 as I recall. But then you can also use a grapple once you have the hydraulics. Between the auger and the grapple I get a lot of use out of it.

 

[Hedges]

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[scoharri]

I have three quotes for three different solar installers with good reputations in my area. All are pretty outrageous, all came in at $40k for ~12kw, All said the issue was that I want a ground mount. 32 panels.

Quote 1 was $8400 extra for the ground mount.
Quote 2 was $8700 extra for the ground mount.
Quote 3 was $9000 extra for the ground mount.

You have to be kidding me. I live in a county with zero permitting or inspections required for a ground mount. I have a spot 95 feet from the breaker box that has 100% unobstructed southern exposure 365 days per year. There is absolutely nothing between where the panels would go, and the breaker box, so the trenching is no problem. The one issue with this area is that we do get high winds, it is not theoretical, we *will* get 80-100MPH gusts out of the northwest at least once per year. This is Colorado.

I have decided to go DIY for the entire project.

I looked at some of the DIY racking people have shown on here and a lot of them clearly aren't going to hold up to 100MPH.

Has anyone done a DIY install that has held up to these kinds of winds, and what did you use?

I agree. The prices for ground mount systems are stupid expensive.

 

[OzSolar]

A ground mount may a bit more upfront but for most people, when it's possible, will be the best long term option.

Also, in case it's not already obvious most installers make money by installing the same roof mount system day after day and the severe upcharge is pretty much solely meant to push you back towards thier money maker.

These ballasted ground mounts have intrigued me but I haven't done one yet. I suspect they'd be pretty diy friendly.

 

[EastTexCowboy]

If it was me, I'd do a hillbilly Geotech soil analysis by buying the biggest duckbills I could get on Amazon or wherever then try to drive a few of and try pull them out using my tractor and a coffing hoist and crane scale hooked up to my tractors bucket to measure the force. You'll likely start tipping your 40hp or less tractor over before they pull out. 2118 lbs and it was holding tight. The piece of lumber you see was a makeshift prop to try to keep the tractor from tipping over.

That's pretty amazing. I don't have any rocks here - just a lot of clay. I can still see where the duckbill anchor might have some uses. We're close enough to the coast we occassionally get hurricane force winds so wind is always a factor.