Couple builds Off Grid Solar Array on the Cheap, to Power their house, DIY
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- Опубліковано 4 жов 2024
- We built a huge solar array in our backyard. This build was done on the cheap with hand tools, scrap material, and used panels. Watch the video for all the details.
This is part of our mission to supply our home with all our energy while off the grid. We are not quite there yet, but this array should put us over the top.
We have plenty more videos on our channel showing our other arrays, house, garage, batteries, and inverter builds. Please watch them for a more complete picture.
We find deals on materials and panels by scouring Craigslist, and FB Marketplace. However, if you can't find good used equipment, then I recommend Alt-E for great deals on Solar panels. If I was buying new panels from them I'd seriously consider this one: lddy.no/re5r (Affiliate Link)
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To cut the oval hole, get a scrap piece of metal/wood. Drill a hole in it the correct size you are looking for then place it over top of oval hole and lineup. The scrap pieces hole will act as a guide and stop drill bit wandering. Great video as always.
Very impressive work David! But I'm even more impressed with how you involve the whole family. Mom and dad are top role models. Congratulations!
I love David's comprehensive approach to doing things the right way, including using a torque wrench to comply with torque specs, when available.
Thanks, It's mostly because I have a tendency to strip out threads. LOL
Lot's of work but with a helpful family like yours every work is like piece of cake.
David you need to watch your little girls face in the video. she is really paying attention when she was putting to turn buckle in the clamp and when she was using the wrench. you are teaching her some good skills.. Keep being a great dad.
Thanks. Although I have to teach her the difference between pruning shears and wire cutters. LOL
David, you're such a great father and exemplary man. A real example of what fatherhood should be. Coupled with an ingenious and creative mind, you never cease to amaze me with what you come up with next. I owe you a lot for educating and helping me through this past year. Thank you again and I wish I had some similar resources available to me.
Thank you for the kind words Craig. It's a pleasure to help you.
You are a GREAT instructor, for us and for your little helper/future partner!
what I like about this video is, you show your errors and you mention them. Most people that make videos don't show the mistakes. Well done!
You could clamp a metal guide piece (with the exact diameter hole that matched your drill bit) over that slotted hole and drill from that template that is clamped over the slotted hole, and that would keep the drill bit in position!
How to widen a oval hole. Oxyacetylene torch. This is how we would do it during construction. 5-25 acetylene to oxygen for cutting. Go slow, let the torch work and you can get a very smooth cut. Most people use too much pressure which give a huge flame and huge globs of burned metal. For what you are doing, a small cutting touch would be perfect. Just my opinion.
Thank you. Another tool to add to my wish list. (just don't tell my wife) LOL
I've used a drill bit the same size as the existing slot hole and gradually termed out a large hole by forcing the drill bit sideways in the slot. If you use carbide or cobalt bits be very gentle as the don't like to be flexed sideways. I've done this hundreds of times and it's way faster than grinding. Great job on the installation. I'd hire you in a minute.
I use uni-bit slowly nibble it open. What Craig said: good idea too!
Good job David. It’s quite wonderful to see both of you working on this build.
Love your attitude to building stuff! DIY should be fun and if you can utilise materials that you’ve personally had a hand in collecting all the better!
Regards from the UK
Absolutely. It's a ton of fun.
Cheaper that way too, win win.
if you want amazing ballast, get plastic barrels or IBC totes and fill them with water/anti-freeze. not much is heavier than that. It is also easy and light to move into place and fill.
thanks for showing this build...I learned a lot for my project...thanks again.!
David - I have watched so many of your videos! You are a PRO, and you make your DIY projects so enjoyable to watch. My hat is off to you and your cute family.
I always say to myself ... Measure Twice... end up cutting twice, and then just fudge the fit from there. lol You have done a good job there. I know you have been building your skillset with solar for a few years now.
Awesome job.. Looks like your a great Dad! Teach the kids young.. they grow up fast!
Sorry don't mean to be a negative person, and it's cute as hell showing your daughter to be a good little helper. Your working with cables under tension. With no eye protection. A risk I wouldn't want to do.
Great Job ! And making it a family affair, and repurposing material makes it all the better. Have learned alot watching your videos. Keep up the great work.
You have an appreceation for wood.... also renewable! I like your style david.
Great build David. A suggestion for making slotted holes larger is a metal rasp made for drills. Many different sizes and cutting teeth. They work great.
Simple, unpretentious, and you keep things light. Good job.
You remind me of the kind of people I knew in the military. And those ear defenders are definitely Mil spec!
I did my time and I'm out now.
@@DavidPozEnergy Yeah, but you're never really out, are you? The training, discipline, that stuff stays with you. Thank you for doing your part.
I agree about the ballast. I think you underestimate the amount of force the wind will put on that large WING.
We get extreme winds here, so we always do an "earth-tooth" concrete base for our solar arrays. To make an "earth-tooth", one digs a hole with the bottom a bit wider. Then putting in concrete bolts, (L-shaped), we then have a way to tie into the concrete.
We do that with cardboard like Sono tubes, with a bulb or wider pit at the bottom as well to prevent frost heaving when placed below the frost line. Do the same with the bolts as well. I wouldn't bet on these structures lasting years.
@@boots7859 I would. I've seen his securing his other arrays.
Do you have a link to a video or photo of how that is done properly. I have the same issue, have to design for 100mph+ winds where I am at….. kinda scratching my head on how to get the ground mount built with calling in someone with a big drill(like a well driller)
David you have great talent you just sharpened my Electric Skills
Brother you are really so blessed feels like your wife very loving and caring best of luck good
job 👍
Nice my South East array outperforms my South West array and both are relatively the same. I now used about 15,000 kwh a year for my all electric home. But even with my 57 panels I still haven't made enough to last the year. It's quite a challenge but this year will be close. Cheers
Thanks for watching OffGrid Wanabe. I love your field of solar.
I enjoy your videos . I would grind sides of bolts off and use 2 nuts .
Nice work! I am preparing to build my own Array at our home in the city. We plan on buying some land in the future and want the house/cabin to be completely off grid power.
I will be checking out all your solar videos for as much info as I can get!
Thanks for sharing! God's Peace be with you!
I've always just used a file to expand lozenge-shaped holes where I need to. Nice work on this project!
A couple bags of concrete and a couple steel post set in the ground as anchors would greatly improve the design of this. Its not a matter of if the wind will flip this over, but when!
Really? It is an interesting foundation choice but it’s actually a sheltered spot. David’s proven himself beyond a doubt but I wouldn’t use that foundation either.
I agree. That was my first though. It may take a while but eventually that wicked gust of wind is going to hit it and then.......Other then that, love it.
Would be a shame to see that effort get blown over. It would be very inexpensive to secure this to the ground.
David, as an engineer, I have to agree with the position that you don’t have enough ballast to keep these from blowing over in a strong FROPA event like we get in New England. This third array has more exposure to the West than the others, which will make it more susceptible to a blow over than the others. I would seriously consider casting some fairly large concrete bollards around the two sets of legs.
Look up wind load calculations on line-which when you choose the right pressure factor are really nothing more than a simple statics analysis. I’d use at least a 75MPH wind and the assume the entire height of your array is like a vertical flat panel. For simplicity, assume the whole load acts at the centroid of the panel (half height, half width, in your case), and that the wind load will act to overturn the array on either the front edge or the back edge. (Do calcs in both directions.). Take into account the moment arms from the loads to the true location of centroid, and you can solve for an approximate weight for each bollard.
For reference, I have a huge ground array myself in Northern New England that is about the same approximate face height (@45 degrees), and I cast rebar-reinforced bollards buried about a foot underground; each bollard is about 2’w x 1.5’d x10’ long and run front to back, with each leg cast into the concrete.
You could very easily and cheaply make forms that would make your bollards above ground and achieve the same effect.
The poster is right: you’d hate to see your prized investment get taken out by a wind storm.
In the mean time, i hope tomorrow’s storm isn’t too bad where you are!!
23:55 He does address this concern, did you guys maybe miss this point in the video?
Clamp a washer over the oval hole and use it as a guide. If you don't have a washer just drill a hole in a chunk of metal.
Darn, how did you manage to ask your wife to help you??? That is one amazing accomplishment!!!!....Oh, and the array looks good too....lol
She is a real sport.
The better question is ... does your wife have a sister that is single. All kidding aside. Thanks for providing the tube with great content. It is appreciated.
Isn't that what wives are supposed to do!
Maybe I'm just lucky also.
If you wife never helps you with anything, I think you've chosen the wrong woman to be your wife, LOL! WTH?
wife hates helping me too. LOL.
Looks like a great build. No one around here seems to be scrapping anything or maybe i'm just looking in the wrong places :-)
I'm jealous of anyone that doesn't have high winds. I live on the east slope of a gentle hill that rises a couple hundred feet above my house. My array is in the shadow of the house protecting the back side of the array from the brutal winds that blast through here from the north. Everything is concreted in but i'd still not want to get the panels hit from behind by some of the gales. If not for that I'd put up another array away from the protection of the house superstructure. That said with my 4KW array I have dropped my electricity bills by 70+% in the 2 months since commissioning the thing - also DIY.
yeah, my house is in a little bowl. Not much wind. But I'd prefer being on a slope like you described. I just wouldn't be building it the same way.
Can I ask why you dont spend $2500 and get yourself a 2kw wind turbine? Solar and wind are counter cyclical. When you dont have much of one you usually have an abundance of the other.
@@davefroman4700 Hi Dave, I've been looking at turbines but haven't come across anything that I think will work well with my 48V battery bank and Solark Inverter. I'd rather not have multiple battery banks with different voltages; that said, if I could use the turbine output as another "solar array" for the solark then that would be perfect. I'm just not sure of the quality of the DC after rectification or even if it's of a high enough voltage for the inverter. I just haven't seen anyone that has done such a thing and I don't want to sink in even more money with no guarantee of success. If you have thoughts I'd be happy to hear them.
Hi Vince, I don't have a windy site so I've never pushed to build a wind turbine. But, I would not test out a turbine on a sol-ark. they are not built for that. Sol-Arks are amazing, but not bullet-proof. If I was to experiment with wind I'd set up a small lead acid battery bank (like two 6v golf cart) and have a voltage sensor with relay turn on/off a small heater to use the wind turbine power just for one dedicated water heating element. But, remember, I don't have experience with wind turbines so I may be overly cautious.
Pedestal drill would drill out those slots or use a jig saw to cut a V out of each side of the slot then a round file 👍
Hi David, great to see your whole family helping you out and a good job! I wanted to just let you know about a thing I didn't see mentioned in the comments before. Galvanic corrosion - where you bolt two different metals (steel and aluminum) there will be an electrical difference. I'm an old boater who has has seagoing vessels. This is especially important in a salty environment but anywhere damp too. I would advise you make your panel ground connections separately and coat the mechanical joints or, I fear the aluminium frames will corrode away around the fixing bolts. Hope this helps :-)
Thank you for your comment. I'm not a boater, but I suspect salt water is a very harsh environment. I've personally taken apart roof-mount arrays 30 years old with direct connections between steel and aluminum and still holding strong. Sure, some discoloration where they touch, but nothing that didn't wipe off easily. So I'm guessing it's not a big deal in-land?
Hardworking yields fruit's everywhere and everytime,thanku
I've seen several old commercial installs go up for sale recently... mounts and all... You're making me think!
Tx David very informative. Next array I do will use metal too.
Those diagonals cables and rods will loosen over time from the wind rocking the array. They need thru bolts in the clamps to prevent sliding up and down on the poles. Also anchor cables to stakes in the ground at each corner will help prevent the array from tipping over and help ground the frame in case of lightning strikes.
I suggest you paint the wood with used motor oil till it is saturated for waterproofing cheap and easy
I can't do stuff like that on camera or the environmental police (literally, a real thing where I live) will come onto my property and ticket me.
I wish that someday have a solar panel like that😊
Looks great, although I think I would've anchored the arrays with something other than ballast sitting on wood. The chance of this making it 20+ years IMO is slim given storms and the untreated wood foundation.
Great job David! The Wright brother's mother told them: If you can draw it you can build it. People today think they need an expert for every little thing; just figure it and and do it!
Nice job David...just a bit worried that there is nothing to tie the structure down
Sure there is, gravity. That why he's adding a thousand plus pounds of scraps
I agree a bit off concrete would be good. You could tack a bit of stèl over the slots and drill through that.
Love the post.
@@corytheriault2365 Those panels react like sails with a bit of wind under them
Mobile home helix earth anchors would be a good fit to anchor the metal structure into the ground. Those augers take a lot of force to pull them out of the ground and are attached with metal straps.
Great teacher and you are blessed with great helpers.
Great build video, David. Thank you. You're lucky to have your two lady partners assist. :
I just did the hole embiggening thing. Take a smaller drill, stubby if possible, chuck it in, run the rounded edge against a reference surface, and the flutes against the-material-to-be-removed. PITA for your situation, but somewhat easy, if you have a spare piece to bolt into the target piece.
Can't wait for the next build and connections
Your wife helping to work with you it's so loving ♥️
I like your videos, FYI from an old contractor, to pre square any structure use 6-8-10 measurements very precise. If going bigger next would be 12 -16 -20 and so on. Hope that helps. Fred
She does great on camera work!
Can you do an update on how this un anchored ground mount is doing?
Maybe lightly harbor freight ratchet strap to ground anchors or trees during bad weather? winds?
I did something very similar to your idea in this video: ua-cam.com/video/I5wSs4v0OcA/v-deo.html
You Need to Use an countersink 90‘ Drill With 3 cuts to wide up the Long holes.
Hi David,
Nice job done...
Regarding the structure ballasts, I think that you need much more weights to keep it down during a storm depending on your local regulations and wind code... A similar structure in UAE where I work requires around 6000 KG per similar PV table to comply with the 160 KPH design wind speed.
LOL plant more wind blocking trees too ! Hahaha....
We have 100 mph winds here in storms. We have to anchor ours around 5 ft deep down in concrete. Otherwise it takes off like a kite
Sounds like the perfect place for a windmill.
Ya, that thing overall just looks like a bad plan. Think of how much weight and resistance a sailboat has and how fast it can go in ‘safe’ winds!
Very Very well done David!
Dang. That was a good one David Pows
WOW WOW WOW WOW!! So nice brother. LOVE THIS!! Thanks so much for sharing with us. God Bless.
Thank you for watching Bobby. It was a long build, but an even longer edit.
Keep an eye on your bolts and washers with the mixed metals. Stainless, steel, galvanized steel, and aluminum do not like each other. It may take time, but you can see galvanic corrosion.
My thought too.
Plus, other than keeping the connectors “close” this a painful 24 minutes of clumsy construction with no real information
So great to see the whole family involved! I need to up my salvage metal game man. Your array looks great! I though I was all cool with my angle iron racks for the BYD batteries.....
your rack is cool.
At the time of the comment, you have 97.8K subscribers. Getting soooooo close! Almost there David. Get a place ready for the YT Play button 😎😎
Nice setup!
You would need 10 tons for a blasted setup like this in Kansas! (Too much wind here!)
Them get a windmill instead.
@@vonries
@Jason Carmichael
Yup, a Bergey Excel 10-12kw wind turbine (21ft-23ft diameter with 3 blades) on a 80ft-100ft guyed-lattice tower would be cheaper and more efficient than solar. Payback or break-even for me was about 6-3/4 years.
Yes, PV solar panel efficiency is catching up, and is also silent. However, the wind turbine will produce power Night AND Day, providing you have steady wind of at least 5-7mph...
This wind speed is surprisingly normal at turbine height, even when it seems still and calm at ground level.
The Bergey turbines have an auto-furling system for high winds, with a manual furling crank at ground level on the tower as well.. And they are rated for Kansas and Oklahoma Panhandle winds.
Very low maintenance, too. It's a direct drive (no gearbox) with static coils...only the magnet cluster spins on the shaft. There are just the two front & rear shaft bearings, guaranteed for a minimum of 7-10 years, and the pivot bearing (same).
The problem with solar PV is that all during the night hours you're not getting any charge are all, and then you wake up early in the AM and start using close to max loads, taxing the system even more.
The solar system is always playing catch-up, so you have to "oversize" the entire system to cover those inherent circumstances. ...Expensive and not very efficient.
Oh, and before some snowflake decides to chime in, in the almost 20 years I've been using these wind turbines, I have not discovered a single dead bird due to their operation on multiple properties.
And we have just about EVERY type & size of bird in my area, from common sparrows, pigeons, and doves, to hawks, eagles, ravens/crows, owls, turkey vultures, and migrating geese, etc. Crikey, the local coyotes and snakes snag more quail!
Easiest way is a normal drill bit on a drill press and just feed it in nice and slow. Alternatively just nick a little off with a plasma torch, the washers will take up what extra you took out.
Another thing for my wish list. Shh, don't tell my wife. LOL
Get some IBC tanks and place them on your frame plus some gutters, start your own rain water harvesting system David.
About the hole.....step drill bits are your best friend when theres a hole to drill. They cut fast and you can mark the step with the diameter your going for so you don't over do it.
....twelve months later.... On the holes needed in the slots, first to occur to me are a carbide hole saw (non-segmented rim) or diamond core drill...OR, I bought a file once (Nicholson?) that mounted in my Sawzall, a half-round file...could widen a hole, or a slot, if you needed it to slide....
I plan to be more sparing with my comments than yesterday :) thank you!
There's a thing called a uni-bit, that should work, on the slotted holes.
Production comment: Maybe I had too much coffee is morning on an empty stomach, but the motion in your video when you were zoomed in started making me queasy.
18:19That torque wrench 'click' satisfaction - maybe not quite the sort of torque needed for bottom bearings in a tractor engine but love that click all the same! Excellent video David! PS you have some great apprentices there! :) Keep up the good work m8!
It is nice to know everything is torqued to spec.
100$ per panel is a very good price 👍👍👍
i just seen you used the step bit to drill out the bad thread that could of used to enlarged the slot.
Clamp a washer to the oval shaped hole and then use a drill bit larger that the hole in the washer. The washer will act as a guide for the hole you’re trying to make in the oval slot.
Nice array - your structure is serious overkill but I understand that you bought it as scrap - so great job on that. I guess you have no wind to be concerned about. I understand the desire to have it float on ground that can heave when it freezes. Even with your ballast I would have put four screw anchors into the earth and at used some cable (wire rope) to secure - but that is me. Thank you for sharing. You make it easy to understand.
You can use a stepped drill bit to enlarge a slotted hole. I just had to do this the other day.
Nice solar arrays, David! I really like your builds. Greetings to you and your wife from Czech Republic :)
Run the drill bit in reverse to widen a slot hole.
I have the exact same trusses to intall panels i put a slightly smaller nut on the bolts so they dont come out and when the panel is placed all bolts are ready for the nuts. Fred
Why don’t you anchor the panels into the ground??
If the panels were in the ground they wouldn't see the sunshine. Lol
@@DavidPozEnergy sorry, I did not mean the panels. I meant anchoring the support structure into the ground via hole and cement.
I need to do the same thing, but it seems like you've reached the point of needing some metalwork equipment. I seems like an acetylene or plasma torch could have blasted that little bit of material away for those bolts in a couple of seconds.
A plasma torch... OK, I'll add it to my (long) wish list. Thank you.
@@DavidPozEnergy can't wait to see a demo video of the Sunny Islands and BYD batts running a plasma cutter :D
@stalwart56k, the Sunny Islands run my flux-core welder no problem, and my saws and whole house. I don't know how much more demanding a plasma cutter is, but so far the SMAs haven't flinched.
Nice job David, kids are getting big!! Stay safe, BYD battery friend from Puerto Rico.
Nice work! Hope it is sufficient to minimize generator time (grid time) off grid!
This is awesome, David! Can't wait to see it in action. ☀️
To drill a hole in the oval slot I would use a step bit. The older style has a straight slot for cutting so it should bounce a little at first. Once you get the blunt edge cut down you can finish it off with a regular bit. Light pressure is the key.
Awesome Job man. Its good to find material at cheap prices to reuse !
try a carbide step-bit to enlarge the holes in the bottoms of the posts for the carriage bolts. You will have to drill it from both sides to keep from enlarging the holes too much
Nice video, i quite enjoy your stuff, as for the oval hole I would just use a metal file.
Very nice job. I do wonder if you’ve enough ballast though. I had a 10 panel array with a tracker on a 3m tower bolted to a 1.5 ton concrete foundation sunk into the ground but 100kph winds tore the whole lot out. People said the carnage looked like the ISS had crashed in my yard.
Good point … I head a 14 panel array flip in high winds that was on a ridge line.
Impressive. Great helpers.
Nice work 👍
LOOKING GOOD :)
I'LL KEEP WATCHING MORE VIDEOS :)
THANK YOU FROM ISRAEL :)
Well done David! you are almost there! Living the dream!
I am impressed. I like how you had your daughter help, she will always remember that. I was a daddy’s girl and I learned so much from my father. Setting the example. I am wanting to go off grid I have an off grid solar powered geothermal greenhouse I need to grid tie because I don’t have enough so.ar panels or batteries to power it in this heat or at night, I couldn’t get help. We just ran electricity to the greenhouse but I want to be able to switch to solar during the day until I can purchase more panels, batteries and a power station. I am trying to get help? Any suggestions? Wendy🦋🐞🌺🇺🇸
To make holes bigger, you can get a rotary file from your local Air Gas supply. 1/4” shank. They have many different types of shapes. You use a die grinder to power it. Best way to enlarge the hole. And you can even make it elongated just as easy.
Some people wanted to know how to source surplus assets. We do this for a living. Our solar hardware ,same as David's came from a bankrupt solar company in California called Sunlink. They were sold at auction, retail values are not in play. We bought steel support structures, solar panels,trackers,electronic controllers, bolts,nuts,rotational gear reducers,experimental solar equipment etc. All for scrap prices most items were new.
Thanks for all your comments on this video. Sounds like you make some nice systems.
Good work but I would of poured cements and bolted legs into that. Better ground as well.
Well done! The right tool for the question from 7:35 was shown 3 min later. Ballast should be plased little bit to the back side or made by securing with wire rope and anchors on the back side.
Thank you. I did add an anchor to the back side.
Love the DIY Fabrication aspect. Dave is the Man! You cannot get more DIY Pro then Poz! My only complaint is at 15:43 You took the fast way out. Go back and add Heat shrink to those cable frays now that they have tape on them.
Dude! You are back. Thanks. I've missed you.
@@DavidPozEnergy You been Busy! I suffer from terrible winter depression. I hit a slump. We still have my big solar set up in the barn. Looks like I just might go all out and do another array build. We may grid tie to the Camp house to dump the electric bill. I know I'll have to hire someone for the official connection. The 12.5Kw should handle the bulk of the night. Just a few Pcs and LED lights. Batteries been full the last two weeks by 12pm. I'm losing 7 hours of good sun most days that could be pumped back into the system or used by the camp house. Moneys tight since we poured everything into acquiring the 30 acres. Drained 11k of the 15k we brought down. We have 1 family moving here with us maybe this year. He's mostly an investor.
If you have any problems holding it down carports use a Long rebar with a heavy washer welded to the top. Drill a hole in the base plate and drive the rebar down flush. Out here we drive steel beams single row to support the trusses . One row of panels only. Your trusses may have the predrilled holes like mine for single row commercial installation.