Solar Panel Pole Mount DIY Homemade Four Panel Array Spencers-Mountain Off-Grid
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- Опубліковано 13 жов 2024
- We found four slightly used 330-watt solar panels and need a way to get them off the ground and optimally pointed at the sun. In our typical DIY fashion, we hunt for salvage materials and create a useful item at a much-reduced cost.
Stay tuned (subscribe and click on notifications) as we upgrade our off-grid solar system with four 330-watt panels, a new Victron 150/35-amp charge controller, a new Victron 48-volt /3000 watt/35-amp charger MultiPlus II inverter and EG4 LiFePo4 48-volt server batteries. This will be quite an upgrade over our current 500 watt 24-volt solar system.
What an excellent design, and I'm happy to see a professional welder at work. Cheers.😀
Thank you! Took a job many years ago that provided welding instruction. Has been valuable experience for much of my life building the thing I want. Thank you for watching!
Looks like you planted them in a shady area. But you did a great job. I love your work. Much respect 🙏
You are right, Not the best location but a good place for keeping an eye on things since a lot of experimenting is going on at this point. So far the yield has been higher than expected and our usage is covered by morning light after the sun clears the trees. A couple afternoons the panels were turned to afternoon light on a cloudy morning and caught up the batteries. Eventually, the array will be moved to an open area on the property and maybe a tracker added for fun. Thank you for watching!
I love it. Your the kind of guy that don’t retire to Florida complain about stuff, please move down here lol. Love that you salvaged the material, that’s prob $1500 in steel retail.
Thanks you! Seems common materials have been missing from the steel warehouses lately. If up can find scrap, you get your project done and relatively little scrap left laying around. Hope these videos inspire people to do their own thing. Thanks for the comment and thank you for watching!!
😊 Thank you so much!!! This is my favorite design and I’m going to make it myself ❤️👍🏼
Good luck on your build. Thank you for watching.
Awesome build! Thanks for sharing the video.
Appreciate the comment. I get ideas from others videos, seems only right to share what I come up with. Thanks for watching.
Thats a great ground mount!
Nice and sturdy so far. Thank you for the comment.
Great build and many thanks. What is the thickness of the swivelling top cap and what size of bolt?
I got the thickness 3/8 inch. Didnt get the bolt size.
I believe the cap pipe was 6” schedule 80 to get the fit. That would be .432” wall. The tabs are 3/8”. The bolt is 3/4”. The bolt is a high alloy item I found in trash. Everything is a bit overbuilt. However area winds can exceed 80 mph so it was better to and cheaper to use heavy salvage materials and use my free labor to keep cost low. Thanks for watching. There is a follow up video installing the mount.
Its awesome, but kindly share the dimension & size of poles, c-channel, angles etc
Thank you, but please understand that something like this needs to be engineered for the installed location. Soil condition for foundation and area wind conditions need to be considered. That said, 5-1/2 pipe was use for post. 6” pipe for pivot cap. All brackets fabricated from 3/8” steel plate. 4” square 1-4” wall tube for backbone with 4 foot long 1/4”x3”x3” angle iron at ends. 1-1/2” Unistrut framework to suit mount locations in solar panels. 1/2” bolts used to fasten all, except pivoting locations use 3/4” bolts.
@SpencersMountain This info in enough to understand all setup. Thanks 😊 🫂
Another awesome build, i think it will be able to withstand any amount of weather, great job :)
Thank you! The wind pressure on four solar panels is a big unknown at this point, but we will adapt and overcome. Thank you so much for watching!
Nice job. I would like to build for my solar panels can you send me The dimension so I can build it thank you.
@Robert Chavez this was sized for my particular panels. Based on a five inch pipe for the post six foot tall out of the ground. The backbone at the top of the post is four by four steel square tube with 1/4” x3”x3” x48” angle iron on the ends. Rest of frame is Super-Strut spaced to match holes in panels. If the panels were clamped to frame the dimensions are less critical.
@@SpencersMountain Thank you for sharing some information about your solar array if you can give me one more dimension on your top cap that you made with the bolt hooks up to the 3 x 3 tube?
nice build, do you have plans available
Thank you. No I do not have plans available. I did try to provide enough video information to convey sizes of materials used. However, be aware that mechanical structures and applications does not apply in all situations. Too many variables like weights, wind and installation determine success. Plans and execution have a high degree of liabiilty. I offer my experience as entertainment only. Thank you for watching.
Put a grease zerk on the cap u made so u can move it easier. It help fight rust.
Not on top but the side. 2 of them should be enough to distribute the grease good.
Thank you, that is a great idea. I put two bolts in the cap with nuts welded over the holes to secure the cap on the pole. I drilled a cap screw through and put a grease zerk in that cap screw. Now I can simply put the screw into the cap to grease at two places where those set screws are located. I really appreciate that you took the time to leave a helpful comment. Thank you for watching.
Amazing mount. How did you make the holes? Drilling?
Which holes?
Super!
Thanks for watching!
I see people use the basket ball posts to mount solar racks on them. I have no tool or skill to "play" with them so I use lumber
I am using 5-1/2” schedule 40 pipe. I would not recommend the thin wall basketball goal tubing as it is too thin for an array. Be sure to know the highest wind speeds in your area and calculate panel area for pressure at that velocity. It could be possible to work metal with an angle grinder and drill without welding using the right parts.
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