diy solar

diy solar

Panel mount options on side of barn

I have no permit requirements for my barn, and this particular project is for my barn proper. I may later use the roof of the barn for panels for my house itself, but I cannot do that now. ($$)
I’d say for simplicity I’d mount them flat to the walls and call it simple. Sure you’ll have less peak output but adding 2-3 more panels will offset the losses.

What direction is the wall facing you plan to wall mount?
 
I investigated this a while back. Make sure PVWatts and your local snow conditions / latitude merits this.

The blocker for me was terrible PVwatts performance (before even factoring in the cost of my time to resolve permitting blockers) and a lot of difficulty in getting the engineering approval needed from my AHJ. Very few people seem to know how to get drawings / calculations done for wall mounts because they are not standard.

I’d say for simplicity I’d mount them flat to the walls and call it simple. Sure you’ll have less peak output but adding 2-3 more panels will offset the losses.

What direction is the wall facing you plan to wall mount?
directly south, and I am in the Northern Hemisphere
 
I am building a Solar system for a barn to provide power for network
gear: camera to watch animals, lights, and occasional small AC tool
use with an inverter.

But 400W solar panels are 50lbs or there about. What I can find is something like this


@Will Prowse did a video with a pretty nice looking mount, you could bolt this on the side, looks beefy and unlike the Amazon one, this uses industry standard rails, clamps etc so you can expand or reuse AND it's even cheaper, this one is for four panels vs one panel like the Amazon one. Affiliate link in the video description, toss Will a bone by using that link to purchase, he needs another Porsche, Tesla or Rivian.

 
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I am in the Northern Hemisphere
I am not a spy balloon try to snoop on you. The Northern Hemisphere has 90 possible Latitudes. Care to give us a clue which Latitude you are near? That will give us a chance at helping you project production in winter and summer. Or you can go to PVWatts and enter your data to see an annual estimate for a vertical South facing array. FWIW I am at Latitude 38.
 
I am not a spy balloon try to snoop on you. The Northern Hemisphere has 90 possible Latitudes. Care to give us a clue which Latitude you are near? That will give us a chance at helping you project production in winter and summer. Or you can go to PVWatts and enter your data to see an annual estimate for a vertical South facing array. FWIW I am at Latitude 38.
40.76 N. Latitude
 
40.76 N. Latitude
Okay I ran a PVWatts simulation for a 10kW system and got 772 kWhs for December and 436 kWhs for June. I used a Longitude of 122 W in Redding California and local weather may have affected those estimates. The Annual production was estimated to be 9,000 kWhs. You can scale up or down based on the actual size of your array.
 
Where I am, 47 degrees N., PV Watts tells me that vertical panels produce about 31% less over a year than those at the optimum angle.

Mounting panels vertically on a wall should be pretty cheap and easy. On a barn you may even be able to use just clamps and bolts. I'd look at the cost of just adding more cheap and easy to mount vertical panels versus the cost of devising and installing a more elaborate tilted mount. You may have plenty of room on a barn.

Vertical panels don't collect snow and dirt, either, and are better in the winter when you probably need the power more.
 
Stop talkin about it and get’er dun sun/son. LOL

 
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