Okanogan 14x24 by a lurker :)

Started by Oljarhead, September 21, 2009, 02:53:09 PM

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glenn kangiser

Sounds like a good plan.  I do things similar sometimes. :)
"Always work from the general to the specific." J. Raabe

Glenn's Underground Cabin  http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=151.0

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Tickhill

I buried 3" rigid conduit in the ground and used the threaded coupling as my swivel point. I currently have my 3 panels mounted on it and it has stood up to a good bit of wind during our tornado filled summers here in Mississippi. I found the "solar noon" point and drilled a 1/4" hold in both the coupling and conduit so I could pin it in position when I was not going to be around to manually track it and also to pin it so it would not swing in strong winds. I hope my 3 190 watt panels come in this week. I will be doing some retrofitting! God Bless
"You will find the key to success under the alarm Glock"  Ben Franklin
Forget it Ben, just remember, the check comes at the first of the month and it's not your fault, your a victim.

Pray while there is still time


OlJarhead

Quote from: Tickhill on August 02, 2010, 07:03:24 AM
I buried 3" rigid conduit in the ground and used the threaded coupling as my swivel point. I currently have my 3 panels mounted on it and it has stood up to a good bit of wind during our tornado filled summers here in Mississippi. I found the "solar noon" point and drilled a 1/4" hold in both the coupling and conduit so I could pin it in position when I was not going to be around to manually track it and also to pin it so it would not swing in strong winds. I hope my 3 190 watt panels come in this week. I will be doing some retrofitting! God Bless

Cool :)  What were you running before the 190's?

Oh Glenn, I got the 205's from sunelec also :)

Tickhill

2 used panels I got off of eBay, an 75 and an 80 watt. My first experience with solar panels was a shattered 110 watt. FedEx ate that one but it kinda scared from interstate commerce with solar panels. I just ordered from sunelec and just found out they are shipping out today. I just could not keep the batteries, 4-- 105 Ah batteries charged enough with the 155 watts even with great sun here in Mississippi.
"You will find the key to success under the alarm Glock"  Ben Franklin
Forget it Ben, just remember, the check comes at the first of the month and it's not your fault, your a victim.

Pray while there is still time

glenn kangiser

Cool, OJ.  My experience with them has been good and no broken panes so far.

More panels, more power, more useful, more things to run, more panels, more power..... power corrupts... [waiting]
"Always work from the general to the specific." J. Raabe

Glenn's Underground Cabin  http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=151.0

Please put your area in your sig line so we can assist with location specific answers.


OlJarhead

Quote from: glenn kangiser on August 02, 2010, 12:12:15 PM
Cool, OJ.  My experience with them has been good and no broken panes so far.

More panels, more power, more useful, more things to run, more panels, more power..... power corrupts... [waiting]

Absolutely? hehe

Ya, mine arrived in perfect order -- in fact, for blems I couldn't actually find any blemishes so I'm very happy with them.

I'd read a bad review on their shipping but quite frankly the stuff I got was well packaged on a pallet with blocking and lots of wrap.  No scratches dings or other worries :D  Heck, I'm more worried about my handling of them then sunelecs!

glenn kangiser

Mine were double packed - no problems - likely problems would be with the shipping company anyway.

I have six arriving -maybe today if they get enough freight to come up here.
"Always work from the general to the specific." J. Raabe

Glenn's Underground Cabin  http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=151.0

Please put your area in your sig line so we can assist with location specific answers.

OlJarhead

Just got off the phone with Backwoodssolar.com and have decided to buy one of their timers and relays for my well :)  I'm excited!  You see up to this point it's been a guessing, waiting, pumping, guessing game at the cabin and I'm kinda tired of it!  Plus, I get busy and forget to pump water and the cistern starts to drain out...so I've been trying to decide how to deal with this and Backwoods has helped :)

I can set the timer to cycle on and off 8 times a day.  Each time it can come on for an hour and then go off for two hours (assuming my pump will pump 5 gpm and the recharge is 2.5gpm).  Of course I'll have to actually figure out what the GPM of my pump is when running 12vdc but Backwoods seems to think it's likely higher then theirs because theirs are designed to run off solar and be more efficient.  While theirs draw 2.9amps at 12vdc mine is drawing 9amps at 12vdc!  He told me that he thinks that's because it's typical to put in a pump that will do way more then required 'just to be safe' but with proper power management a more efficient pump will do the job.

Anyway, my plan is to install the timer to switch the pump on for an hour then off for two and to check it periodically throughout the day to see if I hear it go dry while trying to pump.  If I do I'll push the off period to 3 hours etc etc.

I'm also planning on getting one of those low voltage shutoffs MtDon mentioned here so that I can protect the battery from being discharged too much...with luck I can get my cistern full again!

Now I just need to plan a trip up to get more work done...it's been THREE WEEKS now!  Yikes!  Feels like forever...of course without working it's a bit tougher since we have to be careful on expenditures but thankfully we though of that a while back and prepped for such a situation ;)

Darn preppers hey?
*chuckle*

OlJarhead

Quote from: MountainDon on June 19, 2010, 10:41:46 PM
Good stuff!

Now what would be nice for the pump setup is a low voltage cutoff switch, so you don't have to monitor the battery as much.

Don't know if these would do the job for your pump....   ???

http://www.polyperformance.com/shop/sPOD-Low-Voltage-Cutoff-Battery-Protector-p-25220.html

http://www.smarthome.com/77416/Enforcer-Low-Voltage-Battery-Cut-Off/p.aspx



Wonder what gauge the wires are on that SPOD switch?  Cutting off at 11.6vdc almost seems too low?  Isn't that pretty much fully draining the battery?  Just wondering.

Of course, with a timer on my well pump this might not be as much of a problem but probably a good measure none-the-less.


OlJarhead

Solar rack is done :)  Looks pretty awesome too!  It will swivel on a bearing at the top of the pole and tilts from straight up and down to flat (up to the sky).  I'll have to drill some new holes in the panel frames for secure mounting and will have to figure out where 33/48/63 degrees is but otherwise it looks pretty awesome :)

it's all steel though so I'll have to paint it to prevent rust -- I'm thinking rustoleom should work.

Any thoughts?
Thanks
Erik

TheWire

Do you have a picture of your solar mount?

OlJarhead

Quote from: TheWire on August 15, 2010, 03:20:14 PM
Do you have a picture of your solar mount?

I'll take some today.  Need to clean it off and paint it since it's just been completed.  I'm pretty happy with it too!

Also received the Timer and Relay for the well pump today!  Very excited about this puppy.  The Timer can be set to come on up to 8 times in a 24 hour period and remain on for a predetermined period.  The relay is kicked on by a small amount of power from the timer and provides the main power to the pump.

This will allow me to cycle the pump on and off all day :D  The idea being that if I pump for 1 hour and it draws the well down but then let it rest for two hours before pumping another hour the well will have time to recover from each period of draw down before pumping again.

My pump also draws around 9-10amps so having it run for 1 hour at a time allows the solar power (60 panels) to recharge the battery before it begins to pump again :)

So I get to kill two birds with one stone -- recharge the battery while the well recharges too :)

I decided to go this route because I was setting up the well to pump, then going off to do a bunch of work and coming back in 3-5 hours to find the well drawn down below the sump pump!  Grrr....so then I'd shut it off and have to guess when it might have water to pump again.

This is less a problem in the spring (I'm thinking anyway) then in the dry summer months but I want to be able to get my cistern full without having to worry about it.

So this way I'll hook up the power and timer etc and forget it for a while and see how that works out.

I may have to watch for a day though to be sure I have the rest time right.

Anyway, I'll do a schematic up today for it :) and include links to the parts.
Cheers
Erik

OlJarhead


This is a quick drawing I did for my well system.  The Costco 60watt panels come with a charge controller not shown here.

I still have to get the low battery cut off -- something I'll have to add later.

OlJarhead


These arrived today :D  $20 from Bailey's -- probably made in China (no idea) but since ONE of these is usually $20+ I'm happy with $20 for the set!


This is the Pole Mount for our solar that my neighbor made.


Center of the rack is designed to pivot to change angle to the sun.


The Rack mounts on this pole head (for lack of better description).


And the head rotates on the pole using a bearing (it also has support under it).  It has a locking bolt to secure it where I want it or to release it if I put in a tracking device :)


Yonderosa

http://theyonderosa.blogspot.com/

"The secret to life is to be alive.  To live ultimately by one's own hand and one's own independent devices." -Ted Nugent

MountainDon

Nice looking? Be nice in powder coat.   :)


How far off the ground will it be?
Just because something has been done and has not failed, doesn't mean it is good design.

OlJarhead

Quote from: MountainDon on August 17, 2010, 08:00:36 PM
Nice looking? Be nice in powder coat.   :)


How far off the ground will it be?

Planning on 3 feet in concrete and 5 feet to the top of the head.  That puts the bottom of the panels a little lower then I wanted but also makes it easier to put them on I think.

If I've done the math right (not sure since it's been too long) and the angle is the steepest at 63 degrees with a hypotenuse of 2.75 feet the  tip of the panel rack should drop ~2.45 feet down the pole and be 2.55 feet off the ground.

That would be in the winter.

In the summer with the panels at 33 degrees it would be 1 1/2 feet down the pole so about 3 1/2 feet off the ground...

On a side not I wanted a ten foot pole but was convinced that 8 feet might be better since it will be easier to install the panel rack and panels on....looking at the math I'm wondering if maybe I should have kept it at ten feet since that would make the bottom of the panels at 4 1/2 feet off the ground.

Thoughts?


MountainDon

Last winter I was wishing I had made the pole 1 to 2 feet longer, 1 to 2 feet more above the ground. Reason? I failed to take into account the amount of snow that collects at the foot of the panels and post. In reality it was no problem, just one of those things that in taking all the worst case scenarios into account might have been better. ???  If it snowed more then it might become a problem.

I was worried about the task of getting the panels up on the mount as well. I worked from the bed of my utility trailer to get a little boost up in the air with the ladder. I actually thought it ws easier with the panels in a vertical array. The lower panel was easy, the next one up (center) was not too bad and then for the third panel we flipped the panel over the top and had the empty space at the bottom again.

Are you going to use a gasket or something to separate the aluminum module frame from the steel? Something non permeable to water to reduce galvanic action.

Just because something has been done and has not failed, doesn't mean it is good design.

OlJarhead

Quote from: MountainDon on August 17, 2010, 09:29:57 PM
Last winter I was wishing I had made the pole 1 to 2 feet longer, 1 to 2 feet more above the ground. Reason? I failed to take into account the amount of snow that collects at the foot of the panels and post. In reality it was no problem, just one of those things that in taking all the worst case scenarios into account might have been better. ???  If it snowed more then it might become a problem.

I was worried about the task of getting the panels up on the mount as well. I worked from the bed of my utility trailer to get a little boost up in the air with the ladder. I actually thought it ws easier with the panels in a vertical array. The lower panel was easy, the next one up (center) was not too bad and then for the third panel we flipped the panel over the top and had the empty space at the bottom again.

Are you going to use a gasket or something to separate the aluminum module frame from the steel? Something non permeable to water to reduce galvanic action.



Ahhhh......hmmmm....you mean Rustolleom won't work?  I hadn't thought about it at all actually....

I guess with the snow I'll hope that it will melt away from the panels!  If not I might be shoveling if it gets bad.

Texas Tornado

How sturdy are the panels?
Is hail an issue?


OlJarhead

Quote from: Texas Tornado on August 18, 2010, 06:55:59 AM
How sturdy are the panels?
Is hail an issue?

Hmmm....

The panels have an aluminum frame and seem pretty strong.

Hail does happen but it tends to be pea sized in our area (I hate to think what big hail would do to solar panels!).

SkagitDrifter

Nice frame/metal work Ol'-
Looking forward to seeing the whole rig installed.  

Are you in an open ag. area?  Do you have free range cattle on your place?
Cattle have a nasty habit of rubbing themselves on anything they can get to- directly proportional to the value, I think.  My friend had the side of his camper mashed in by cows who thought it was a good place to "scratch".

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.
Abraham Lincoln

MountainDon

Hail.. IF a panel is built to UL 1703 standards it will have to meet certain impact resistance. UL 1703 allows the glass to break as long as the breakage does not expose any electrical components in a manner that could cause a safety issue to people. There is also ASTM E1038 standard is directed solely at hail damage. The bugger of UL and ASTM standards is that they are just like the NEC, IRC, and most other codes and standards. "They" want to be paid for viewing their documents. @$%^&*!!   

I did manage to find an online PDF copy of UL 1703 if anyone cares. It is at http://www.polar-pv.com/ch/UL%201703.pdf  This may or may not be a legally available copy. I did find it with Google, so it's not my fault. I found nothing on ASTM 1038, other than they use real ice balls that are air propelled.

What I have gleaned from here and there is that an approved panel should withstand hail up to one inch in diameter, traveling at 50 miles per hour.  That's from a site that has "interpreted" the standards.

Just because something has been done and has not failed, doesn't mean it is good design.

OlJarhead

Quote from: SkagitDrifter on August 18, 2010, 10:12:11 AM
Nice frame/metal work Ol'-
Looking forward to seeing the whole rig installed.  

Are you in an open ag. area?  Do you have free range cattle on your place?
Cattle have a nasty habit of rubbing themselves on anything they can get to- directly proportional to the value, I think.  My friend had the side of his camper mashed in by cows who thought it was a good place to "scratch".



It is a free range area but they seem to pass right by our site.  In fact, it is common for them to walk RIGHT behind the cabin but I've seen no evidence of them using the cabin, camper or trailer etc to rub -- though they do like some of the trees in the area.

Not sure why they steer clear (no pun intended) but am hopeful that will last!  Although this rack mount will be STRONG so might withstand some of their punishment.


OlJarhead

WhooHoo!  Heading out for a four day visit to the cabin :)

Going to get some work done and enjoy the woods for a few days.

See ya next week :)