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The beginning of a 10 K system rack

Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2008 6:45 am
by Dennis The Bus Dweller
Hi Kids

Here's how far I got on the rack for the 10 K solar system im doing. It doesn't look like much yet but she's gonna be a big sytem. I got it figured for about 12 K per year. Image
[/img]Image It will have a face of 60 ft X 13 ft

Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2008 12:01 pm
by AccordGuy
Wow... puts my recent woodworking to shame :D

At least I didn't have to chop down any trees in my back yard! Although I might have to have a friendly word with my neighbours who have just planted some of those dreadful extremely fast growing coniferous trees in their garden next to me... They've only been growing since March but are already 1.8m high. My dad suffered a neighbour who planted the same things next to his greenhouse and within 5 years these things were 5m high monsters that blacked out his greenhouse. Luckily, the neighbours got tired of them and chopped them down this year so he could see the light of day again.

I keep having to lop the tops off my birch and cherry tree to keep them from getting too tall and shading the array.

It looks like yours is in in a clearing in a forest... how much trouble will you have with shading?

Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 12:11 am
by Dennis The Bus Dweller
These people have a 3.5 acre track so I am able to pretty much put the system wherever I want it. I'll have to get a shot of the whole spot where im putting the system. Theres lots of room.

Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 8:35 am
by Dennis The Bus Dweller
Heres a wide veiw

[img][img]http://i35.tinypic.com/2nhnkg9.jpg[/img][/img]

Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 3:17 am
by Sharkey
Good to see that I'm not the only one who uses wood to build PV support racks. Here's a shot of the rear of my current system:

Image

Since I don't have 10kW worth of panels to play with, I wanted to make the panels adjustable for elevation to capture the maximum insolation throughout the year. The panels are mounted on aluminum angle stock, which is attached to the framing with large strap hinges. All of the wiring is in flex conduit so it can move when the panels are adjusted. The adjustment supports in this pic aare a motley assortment of cast-off aluminum junk, doesn't look all that secure for winter gales, does it?

Yesterday was Adjustment Day, being the season of Equinox, I set them to 45 degrees (my local lattitude).

Dennis, do you install many PV systems? Have you heard about the Renewable Energy Wrenches mailing list? It's an association of installers mostly from the US, but with members worldwide. Lots of information sharing and problem solving power there.

Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 6:40 am
by Dennis The Bus Dweller
Hi sharkey

Hows things out on your end? I do 3 or 4 sysyems a year. This is the biggest one to date. There all pretty much the same except more panels and bigger or smaller equipment. It still boiles down to sucking power out of the universe :lol: Anyway, I never heard of that group but I put my name on the mailing list. Thats a cool rack setup. I used my solar bungalow as a prototype for the rack for the BIG blue bus/home. I’m hoping to use electric actuators to lift the 3 rack of 3 175 watt panels but im not ready yet and I haven’t figured it out yet. It should be really cool if I pull it off though. It will look like some kind of Star Wars ship “ifâ€

Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 4:22 pm
by Sharkey
Just a word of caution, the RE Wrenches list is very exclusive, almost to the point of being elitist. Not all who apply are accepted. If your application is approved, you'll get/have to fill out a profile at the [http://members.rewrenches.org]RE Wrenches Member List[/url]. This member list is a creation of mine, and is mostly the reason that this forum exists at all. Some years back, I used to hand-edit the profiles and post them on this server as HTML files. After the membership grew to a certain number, keeping it all sorted out got difficult, particularly edits to existing profiles. I wen out and got an earlier version of phpBB and hacked it intensely for a couple of months, ripping out all of the forum features, and expanding the profile fields. I also wrote quite a number of custom administrative pages to help keep track of it all. Basically, it's how I taught myself PHP and MySQL database management.

Anyway, check out some of the names on the Member List, and you'll get an idea who's who in the world of RE.