Just finished my solar mount!

[1201]

most structural steel can be purchased by the pound...if you can find the regional supplier. I paid 0.82/lb two weeks ago. 3" (3.5"OD) Schedule 40 pipe is 7.58lb/ft. It is not some flimsy fence post...it has a wall thickness of 0.216". Shape is not relevant when you get to a good source, they charge you by weight.

thats not so bad then. my design, for 12 panels is only showing id need about 80ft. that's doable

 

[Crowz]

Awesome install !

 

[j2martinez]

Nice job well done

 

[Shinzul]

Measured out the wires to pull through the buried conduit. I made two giant bobbins with my ladder and pulled all the wires toward the cabin for all the strings.



Neatly wound bundles waiting to be pulled through the conduit

 

[RV10flyer]

Looks real nice. Not far from you. Started with 48 430W QCells for my home system. Max production 125kWh. Minimum: 5kWh.

Added this year, 28 REC 405’s to get us through the winter heating with high eff hp’s. Barely made it through last winter with 2800aH LFP and no 10kW LP generator needed. 30% or so was the lowest SOC. Woodburner below 25°F and dark cloudy conditions.

 

[Shinzul]

Looks real nice. Not far from you. Started with 48 430W QCells for my home system. Max production 125kWh. Minimum: 5kWh.

Added this year, 28 REC 405’s to get us through the winter heating with high eff hp’s. Barely made it through last winter with 2800aH LFP and no 10kW LP generator needed. 30% or so was the lowest SOC. Woodburner below 25°F and dark cloudy conditions.

With that much solar production and that much battery storage, you barely made it through the winter? ? What kind of energy usage did you have during the winter time day to day?

 

[RV10flyer]

With that much solar production and that much battery storage, you barely made it through the winter? ? What kind of energy usage did you have during the winter time day to day?

30-60kWh per day all year around. Higher in the winter due to hp's, colder incoming water into my 80 gal hwh. I hope to have my diy hp water heater finished by December and that will help too. You'll find out this winter how little you produce on those dark winter days. See above....about 4% of my Spring through Fall Peaks.

 

[LydMekk]

Very cool. Mr Santa, can ah get...

 

[Shinzul]

30-60kWh per day all year around. Higher in the winter due to hp's, colder incoming water into my 80 gal hwh. I hope to have my diy hp water heater finished by December and that will help too. You'll find out this winter how little you produce on those dark winter days. See above....about 4% of my Spring through Fall Peaks.

Do you know how much energy usage your water heater takes per day? I've been worried about this tbh

 

[RV10flyer]

Do you know how much energy usage your water heater takes per day? I've been worried about this tbh

10-20kWh. More in the winter because our incoming water is much colder in the winter time plus the 80G hwh is in an unheated, dry 6’ crawl space. I wrapped it with an insulation blanket and insulated hot water outlet tubing very well for first few feet, then 1/2” on all hot water lines. I’d say about 1/3 to 1/2 half of our power is consumed by the hot water heater. I’m an HVAC guy, so I’m going to build my own heat pump hot water heater. It will probably cut power consumption to the water heater in half even if I do a bad job. I also put the hot water heater on a timer to where it kicks on at 11 AM and off at 7 PM. This helps use PV for the most part. Then you’re not cycling on and off every 30 minutes for three or four minutes.