Worth noting - it looks like Power field would prevent Bifacial gains where Integra Rack might be high enough off the ground to allow some gain, especially in winter.
IntegraRack: Ground Mount with Epoxy Ground Stakes and Ballast Options
- Thread starter Will Prowse
- Start date
Especially the newer model that is higher off the ground and adjustable
Yes I did.
You just need a few thousand dollars of top soil. Here in San Diego, they have companies that are next to cattle farms, collect the manur, mix it with mulch and discarded vegetation into big compost piles. Then, after cooking, they can mix it with other soil amendments. Then, depending on your ground, you go over and order how many yards you want to purchase and be delivered and voila, you've go good soil for the gophers to dig through.
??? New idea: Mount the solar panels on a center positioned axel with a wheel bearing so they can spin the full 360 degrees. Connect heavy duty motor brushes to the DC contacts. Put a small weight at the bottom of each panel. then, in little to no wind they are vertical, but in high winds they just spin either vertically or horizontally.
Yes, a ground screw can be easily inserted, maybe even by hand into the Florida sand. Of course, it won't hold anything, but it can be inserted. Building are build into the bedrock. Concrete block walls use a 24 inch deep foundation usually 12-24 inches wide with rebar for the ballast.
registered-bum
Solar Enthusiast
Anyone have these Integra racks installed yet?
I'm thinking about purchasing the 30 degree units for my last 12 Hyundai BF 395 panels.
(off-grid, latitude 41° North, east/west alignment w ~7° north bias)
Very interested in hearing about your experience:
Which one of the modules you chose?
What panels did you mount on these?
How was the install?
How far north/south latitude?
Total cost for the install (racks, accessories, install costs)?
Performance to date of panels and ruggedness of the racks?
TY dudes & dudettes!
I'm thinking about purchasing the 30 degree units for my last 12 Hyundai BF 395 panels.
(off-grid, latitude 41° North, east/west alignment w ~7° north bias)
Very interested in hearing about your experience:
Which one of the modules you chose?
What panels did you mount on these?
How was the install?
How far north/south latitude?
Total cost for the install (racks, accessories, install costs)?
Performance to date of panels and ruggedness of the racks?
TY dudes & dudettes!
kscessnadriver
Solar Enthusiast
I wanted to do the PowerRacks, I just couldn't make the numbers work. To meet code around my area, I needed 2 buckets on each panel, filled with 400 lbs of ballast, plus a windscreen fence around 3 sides of the array. By the time I bought any kind of rock (I was going to use DuraBerm, its a steel mill slag crushed into rock), I wasn't going to be any cheaper than just doing the APA Ready Rack.
Renting a skid-steer and hydraulic auger attachment for a day wasn't that expensive.
rogerheflin
Solar Addict
I have 8 installed (7 bifacial panels) on concrete, weighted down with large landscape blocks that I have a surplus of. They aren't are their final location so I have not bolted them down to the concrete yet (some brush clearing needs to get done so there is decent sunlight at the final location). Hyperion bifacial 395w panels. I pressure washed the concrete a day before and it is a nice bright white.
The panels are rated 395w each up to 495w with bifacial.
So far the 7 panels have produced consistently produced around 2400w (12pm-1pm-clear, clouds clearing has produced around 2700w). That comes down to 342w(86% of rated capacity) so I have to think I am getting some bifacial power, but these are my first panels so I don't know if that is good or not.
I am at 39N, the install was pretty easy, 2 of us started assembly at 11am and by 2pm had the 7 physically installed and weighted down. And that included unloading the 26 panels from the truck and only putting 7 of them on the racks (UPS lost 8 of the mounts, and the roof hw were not here yet).
Next week I add 6 more panels to the string (original plan was 14 but that might be pushing the max mppt voltage a bit too much under the cloud clearing conditions). I did on one morning go through each panel and raise it up higher to see if that would improve the power any or not. Tomorrow I should have a clear day to see if the power production is better or not.
The mounts seem solid, I may need to put a few more blocks on them. The blocks are 22lbs/block.
4-1" 10ft emt conduits (for the 7 panels--$15/each). And my free landscape blocks as weight.
No other extra accessories outside of the standard wire and switches to support a PV string. I will need to buy the 2 concrete anchors per mount when I move them to the final location.
Hpw57
New Member
Will;
You installed the Integra rack what four panels did you install with that at that $545 price? I appreciate any assistance. You can lend me Wil.
Respectfully
Harry
Brucey
Velcro Man
I believe those are Aptos 370W bifacials. The $545 is just for the mount, panels not included.
WorldwideDave
Solar Addict
What I've observed is any product will highlights within 24 hours is sold out - the racks, the panels, etc. Maybe it's just me.
rogerheflin
Solar Addict
The mounts seem to all be priced at $109/each everywhere I found before any discounts/coupons, so 545 is just the 5 mounts needed for the 4 panels. The 2 $15/ea pieces of EMT would also be additional.
Hpw57
New Member
Thankyou
ghostwriter66
"Here - Hold my Beer"
TL;DR:: for us it boiled down to substantial savings on the Corigy and the ability to do both Portrait and Landscape ... and set up 48 panels from Pallet to operational in less than 4 hours
We tested out both the PowerRacks and the Corigys ... and went with the Corigy's ... to be honest - if you are only interetsed in the Landscape - and you are NOT using really large panels -- then it was hamburger / cheeseburger .... coke/pepsi .... ford/chevy ... results ...
The Corigy's and the PowerRacks seemed to be about the same thickness and both seemed to be able to stack up to give us at least 5 years of warranty and 20 years of direct sunlight .... and honestly 90% of the container stays covered by the panel anyway ...
Both are super SUPER thick ...
But the Corigy's come in (2) models -- landscape and Portrait and from what we understand the PowerRacks only came in LandScape ....
Both are important to us becuase often we do not know the amount of real estate we are going to own out at these sites .. Each of our 8X10 Cargo Container Solar Generators w/ 48VDC 50kWH LiFePO4 systems we put together using the Solark15's (fricking awesome piece of hardware) takes on average about 48 (395W) panels each site to get to the 19,500W threshold the Solark15's can handle ..
and we are putting out nearly (60) solar generators in the next fiscal year ... which translates to about 3000 panels (thx https://a1solarstore.com/) .... so we are looking for the lightest, fastest, cheapest way to do all of these ... almost all of the areas we put these on is desert so ground flatness is our friend ... also its extremely easy for us to simply scoop up dirt on one side and dump it into the containers on the other ... For those areas that are not flat we simply pour some gravel and make it flat ...
We like the Corigy's ability to go either Horizontal or Vertical ... and about half the times its easier to do Portrait and not landscape just to take up less ground ...
Also we purchase them directly from Corigy (I think that we pay about $18 for Landscape and $21 for Portrait) but we order them a Pallet at a time ... Each Pallet I believe has 62 of them .... Corigy won't do DDP but there is a very good transport company we use called https://www.goldenbridge-intl.com/ that will get them from there to here .... when the smoke clears - delivered -- the Corigy are about 50% less than the PowerRacks ...
I think - but don't quote me - that the PowerRacks are about 90.00 each (https://www.solar-electric.com) and delivery is I think about $300 regardless how many you order ... again ... i don't do the ordering so don't quote me at all ...
NOW with that said -- if you are nervous about dealing with international shippers and things (https://www.goldenbridge-intl.com/ is HQ'd here in California) then I would go with the PowerRacks ...
Also another thing we liked about the Corigy was their ability to have two separate sections in their "tubs" ... we normally fill one with dirt, rocks, steel, old batteries, dead bodies, etc .. and often will use the other part for storage of parts and cables and things like that ... pretty nifty ...
I will see if I can attach some pictures and a video ... not sure if I can ... if not then I would drop sales05@corigy.com a note and ask her to send you some info .. her English is great and her name is Nina ...
and NO -- i/we/us don't make a cent -- I don't know them -- BUT I will say that I can set up a 48 panel array in a matter of hours - start to finish .... and be done ... no digging .. no permits .. no OSHA or EPA ... and i fill these things with a skid steer and I'm done before lunch ...
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ghostwriter66
"Here - Hold my Beer"
I think the angle of the ones we had were 15 degrees ... very horizontal ... I will say that we got VERY LITTLE BiFacial - if anything - from the Integra Mounts ... or at least the ones that we have use before switching over to the Corigy's ...
SaveEnergy
New Member
Do you think using bifacial with Corigys in snow climates may melt the snow?
- Not suitable for areas with heavy snowfall, as the 18° angle is not effective in clearing snow.
SaveEnergy
New Member
Can either use water instead of gravel to add weight?
Powerfield has drain holes at the bottom so, no.
HighTechLab
AKA Dexter - CTO of Current Connected, LLC
- Joined
- Sep 23, 2019
- Messages
- 1,957
Water is a poor choice even if the bottom didn’t have holes. It could evaporate. If your first thought is to use a tank, then IntegraRack is a good choice again because you can just place tanks on top of those racks.
SaveEnergy
New Member
Integrarack looks expensive compared to power Field/corigys
scoharri
New Member
Got mine installed the other day. I used the earth spikes with epoxy. Looks good in my opinion.
bayardw
New Member
Me too! I was looking at those. But San Diego wants a building permit for anything over 5'. It looked like it would double or tripple my permitting requirements. I also looked at a "solar arbor," (think shady awning), one side attached onto my deck, the outside edge supported with those 30 or 15 degree pergola kit metal brackets. I'd need to get a structural engineer out here, and somehow that sounds mysterious or expensize to me. And getting the drawings for builting permits, that really soured me on the idea. How does somebody get those made? What kind of tradesman?
bayardw
New Member
Having lots of options for how to secure or ballast the mount makes a big difference. The InegraRack seems the best for that. Knowing I have to get San Diego County to permit it, I want lots of options in case they poo-poo my first choice.
Total cost matters to me too. IntegraRack suggests a RecPro watter tank that costs more than the 2 or 3 IntegraRack frames it's rated to secure. I'd also like some flexibility to move them if I decide to point more south or west at a future date. Having mounting options that don't invovle a 1000lbs cement footing(s) is a selling point for me.
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