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diy solar

Is this much mount footing really necessary?

The earth anchors are a solid idea. I've seen the power companies use old tires buried 5ft deep with the guyed wire attached to it and the pole.
We had to remove the old poles and those wires and tires were the hardest part. We would hook a 14k pound excavator to the wire and pull . The cables snapped before the tires ever moved.
 
I am assuming "Far East County", yes or no?

The individual ? pushing paper at the county office misplaced a decimal point or two. That's nuts unless you are directly on a fault line and mounting your panels 20 feet in the air.

@boondox I would ask them, more politely than I could, to check their numbers.
 
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The engineers always say, settling is the issue. The amount of cohesion between the vertical surface of the dirt and the concrete in the hole is what's important when loading a pier with weight. They claim that is more important than the density of the dirt in the bottom of the hole, because no one compacts the bottom of the hole. I've seen 70 ft sports light poles go in with 10ft deep X 24" holes and 40 ft poles with a single warning light go in with a 24" diameter x16 ft hole. I've argued with them repeatedly, even been told that sonotubes cannot stay in the ground and must be removed. That engineer said the paper tube will eventually rot away and create a void for the base to wiggle and start to lean .....
I told him we should all be dead by now from the massive cascades of street lights falling over.
I didn't pass inspection that day....
 
I told him we should all be dead by now from the massive cascades of street lights falling over.
I didn't pass inspection that day....
Well to be fair one of the streetlights near here leans something terrible. But it has been that way for years and hasn't fallen yet, so....
 
I am going down to the high desert in San Diego county this week to help my step son get the footings ready for a 6kW ground mount array. Class c soil I think. They want 12 * 2' diameter, 3' 6" deep holes with 2 inch schedule 40 galvanized pipe for the footings. That comes out to 5+ yards of concrete. Seems like over kill to me. But it will be fun, we are renting a skid steer with an auger. Taking the van and plenty of beer. Should be good times. But jeez, that is a lot of concrete!
Are you mounting 2 panels on each of the ship anchors while using 2 inch schedule 40 pipe?

Here is something to laugh about while enjoying a cold one or two. :ROFLMAO:
I keep seeing folks talking about single poles. We're doing apples and watermelons here. A dozen connected posts is nothing like a single post, it is the apple. A single post is the watermelon.

I hope you take video of this pour and post it on "America's Dumbest Engineers".
Fini.
 
Agreed, once you link multiple piers together it's a different animal altogether. Rough holes dug with a machine are better than drilled piers at preventing settling ot tipping.
 
I am going down to the high desert in San Diego county this week to help my step son get the footings ready for a 6kW ground mount array. Class c soil I think. They want 12 * 2' diameter, 3' 6" deep holes with 2 inch schedule 40 galvanized pipe for the footings. That comes out to 5+ yards of concrete. Seems like over kill to me. But it will be fun, we are renting a skid steer with an auger. Taking the van and plenty of beer. Should be good times. But jeez, that is a lot of concrete!
And sooooo, how much cement and how much ? ?
 
Well, the cement we don't know yet, but it'll be between 5-6 yards. Beer, two six packs between all of us. Plus a little apple brandy in the hot chocolate later.

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Well, you are not as far East as I thought. There are some beautiful views up in those mountains.
@AndyRonLI is probably correct, overkill and they (whoever they are) should call it good.
I would start the pour at the ends and have a pile of granite rocks handy in case the pour runs a little short. Superior's calculator came up with 4.89 but I have never seen the numbers match reality in loose dry dirt.

What strength concrete did "they" call for and how much is the delivery charge? $$$ o_O
 
As a Yankee, I always have a pang of jealousy when folks dig elsewhere. You didn't hit a single rock did you!
 
Not that this helps you now but this would seem to be a perfect case for using ground screws which wouldn't require any cement and you already have the skid steer with attachment that is used to screw the ground screws in. Only trouble is is it seems really difficult to readily find someone with the appropriate ground screws for the conditions in the USA.
 
I dug mine holes with two main power auger no big deal and dropped in cardboard sono tubes and filled with concrete
 
Not pretty but it worked. Just hang the verticals into the holes

Looks good! We just got the pipe and are going to cut it to the proper lengths next week. We are going to use wood to build a scaffold much like you did. We have the concrete pumper scheduled for June 7th.
 
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