the Power Shed

[creeky]

Well your hinges haven't broken and they've been in use for awhile. I will note that Grade 5 is what I use for shear bolts on the bush hog/auger. Some guys upgrade to Grade 8 so that they don't have to replace them so often.

But, like my shed, your panels are pretty protected from the wind by the house and trees.

Yup. Shed #2 had better bolt to a concrete pad!

Picked up my electronic wiring stuff yesterday and they gave me the wrong sizes. Ack. Plll. It's an hour drive to return them. Won't be able to get back to them until next week. Racka fracka bing bang. Two steps forward and one step back I guess.

[creeky]

Nice. The system just ate my latest update. Usually I ctrl+C copy my replies as I go along ... but not today.

So. As I remember writing:

I've started wiring up the solar shed. I have the combiner box, the controller and the fuse for the inverter in place.

The combiner box came with 1/2" knockouts. But I, not reading the manual, thought 3/4" fittings would better accommodate my 6 gauge wire. It's "rocket scientist" John to the rescue. John has a complete complement of knockout cutting thingies (a technical term I'll update later) and we were able to cut 1.125" knockouts that fit my 3/4" fittings nicely.

The controller advertising boasted "Now with 1.5" knockouts." Well I must have received an older model because my knockouts are for 1.25 fittings. Which oddly enough means that they are correct for the conduit I incorrectly received from the electrical store, but incorrect for the 1.5" fittings I bought. Be taking a drive; Tuesday I hope.

I am dearly tempted to kludge (an old computer programming term, meaning to smack together, or a crude hack) a wiring setup just to get the system running. But I will try to stay patient.

One bit of progress though: I went to Hugh's Isolera install and he kindly allowed me to measure his winter setting on the panels. 56 degrees is the number. I'm at 45 degrees latitude so somewhat inside the 15 degree rule of thumb (or 60 degrees). I really like the Isolara folks having met the owner several times. Very helpful and willing to pass on knowledge.

That's it for now. Pics etc. to come anon.

[creeky]

As promised pics. And, more progress. It's been rather busy around here so I have to keep reminding myself, vis a vis progress. It is what it is.

To put the next two panels up, I was able to set the rack to "flat." Of course the install bolts interfered with getting the rack to a true horizontal, so I'll be getting the sawzall out as some point and cutting the bolts back.



What, with a little climbing, bolting and lifting ... I now have 1kw of panels hanging in the sky.



As the count from sesame street would say, 4, ah ah ahh, four panels.

Also got the panels wired together (each panel set runs 10 amps at 48 volts).

Tomorrow I drive to Ogdensburg to pick up the last of the "fittings" I require to wire up the system.

[Xringer]

I don't see enough room on there for all six panels. How are you going to handle the layout?

And, what kind of battery bank voltage are you going to run?
Feed us some of the electrical details..

[creeky]

Thanks for your questions Xringer.

This is the part where I wish I had read the many posts here earlier. initially my plan was to build a very simple panel holder with two panels and 4 batteries. Then I learned that one watt of panel to one amp of battery was considered ideal for folks who actually have to live off the sun (this has certainly been proven by my experiences this summer). And I began to dream of solar tracking etc.

So given that I started small, my idea was to build a 12 volt system compatible with my 12 volt travel trailer. this has worked out nicely and I am currently running 4 panels (at 250 each) and 800 amp hours at 12 volts of L16 batteries managed by a morningstar PWM 30 amp controller. (Which loves the 4 panels). October and November have been very cloudy and I often find myself running the generator to charge the batteries. On the positive side, two days of sun and I don't care where my batteries are at, they are charged.

the system you see me building here will start with 4 panels. I can extend the rails down (by adding 30 inches per rail or 1/4 of a rail) and attach two more panels. Or I can put 4 new rails out the sides and add two more panels vertically. I'm leaning this direction just cause it'll look cool. So I can easily add 4 more panels.

I am running my panels, which I combine in parallel, for 10 amps at 48 volts into a Midnight Solar MNPV6. I am using one 20 amp fuse for each panel set. I am using 6 gauge wire. Then we're off to the controller, a Morningstar Tristar PWM 60 amp with 2/0 gauge wire. The controller handles, at 12 volts, a nominal 800 watts of solar power, but which morningstar says will go 1200 quite easily.

Initially I will run six L16s at 12 volts (1200 amp hours). Next year I will go either 24 or 48. I made a huge mistake (600 bucks worth of ouch) by buying a 12 volt 3000 watt puresine inverter. I had planned to go 24. That would have given me 1600 watts from the controller (or an easy 2400 ...).

... and of course avoided 3000 watts at 12 volts : or pulling 250 amps through my wires. Which, uh, yah, is not really a great idea me thinks. That said I have a max of 1100 watts in AC appliances (the microwave), so no way am I going to pull 3000 watts even briefly. Still!

For some reason the day I bought the inverter online my brain was in dumb mode and didn't stick to the plan!

Anyway, this spring I will buy a 24 or 48 volt puresine inverter and 4 more batteries. Replacing two that were much abused this summer which I will sell with the travel trailer or use in the "bunkhouse". Keeping the lightly used 4 that have basically sat around this summer.

I am also planning to add a 60 or 80 amp mppt controller to the system.

you know. I guess I just have to learn by doing.

I am wiring tomorrow I hope. Work has been very busy, so fingers crossed. Will post pics of the setup then.

[creeky]

just a quick kludge with windows paint.

here's what I mean by extending the rails 30"s for six panels



and here's what putting four more rails horizontally to the existing four would do. It allows for eight panels with two more positioned vertically.

[Xringer]

Panels on the bottom looks good. But the big-ears style is going to really
increase the wind-loading on the the hinges and the side supports..

What's with the big gap in the middle? (With the grey box)?

I put a gap in the middle of my tracking mount, and I'm sorry that I did.
I should have closed it up and lessened the height and wind-load.
Plus, that gap makes the structure less stable. (more flex due to length).

No hole, and the snow would slide right down, instead of hanging up in the middle..

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...Solar/z008.jpg

Next summer, I'll have to slide those to bottom panels up about a foot
and move the tracker to another location.

~~
I've got a 48v battery bank for my back-up and I like it.
Higher voltage allows for the use of normal sized wire from the panels.

The only problem with using a 48V bank is finding a suitable inverter.
I'm using a 3.5kw MSW inverter, since my system is mostly for back-up.
(And it was cheap) Nothing that stays on long term.

I think if you look at 12v compared to 48v, you will see 48v is the way to go.
I've heard of a few guys having to sell their 24v stuff to upgrade to 48v..

Unless you can find some really good reasons to go with 24v, I would just
skip that part of the learning cycle..

[Fabrack]

If your neighbors system adjusts to 30, 45, 60 degrees it is not an "Isolara" system.

[creeky]

thx xringer.

I will skip the 24v step and go straight to 48. How did you hook your 8 batteries up to keep the load on each battery even?

The "gap" in the middle is actually the 2x12 that the metal rails bolt to. The hinges are also fixed to the 2x12 and then attach to the sheds 4x8 laminated beam (well sort of, two 2x8s glued, screwed and nailed together). These 4x8 sections tie into the roof beams which are 2x8, toenailed and strongtie hurricane trussed. We'll see next spring how this arrangement makes out.

The area that the panels are in is quite sheltered. It's rather eerie some days when you hear the wind roaring through the treetops and yet it's dead calm inside the tree line. I was able to study the snow fall patterns this spring and the shed is just outside the highest snowbank (indicating the least wind) area.

Fingers crossed.

Well. Busy day at work so am still hoping to get to the wiring this afternoon or early evening.

[creeky]

hey Fabrack, welcome to the site

No, I was going to use 30, 45, 60, but Hugh has an Isolera system and allowed me to measure the winter setting.

I've met the Isolara owner, is it Warren? I've lost his card, a few times and he was very generous with his time showing me various mounting operations and showing me how his racking system worked. It's a really nice bit of engineering and I have recommended Isolera to friends doing grid-tie systems. However I'm more in the home hobby sector doing a very small off-grid implementation, and of course, no one in the industry wants to have anything to do with us little guys.

If you see him, thank him for me. We had a nice chat about the importance of education. And I stress it to all young people. Get the best education you can. A little extra hard work when you're young pays off for decades. Personally I'd like to see Canada go to a fully funded education system right through the Bachelor program. The brits have gone that route and London is now the financial capital of the world, taking over from NY and Tokyo by filling those office towers with university grads. Anyway, off topic a bit yes?

So. Would you share a good summer setting for the 45th parallel?

smile.