How to build a DIY ground mount solar panel rack
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 ก.ย. 2024
- In this video I show you how to build a ground mount solar panel rack. A ground mount solar panel rack can be made of either wood or metal. Wood is a lot cheaper, but won't last as long. Metal is a lot more expensive, but will last a lot longer.
Here is a link to the cheapest place I could find to buy new solar panels by the pallet.
tinyurl.com/4s...
Here is a link to the entire design of my solar system, off grid battery info, and the materials list with links to build the DIY ground mount solar panel racks.
solarpdfdownlo...
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To keep stuff from growing legs and walking away (ie wind damage or theft), I secure it to a ground anchor. There are two easy ways to make these.
1) make a hole in the ground, fill it with concrete, put a chain in the concrete as it hardens, wrap it around some important parts, and add a lock, or at least a threaded link.
2) lowes has "Mobile Home Anchor" which is a 4ft long, 6 inch diameter ground screw. To put it in, screw a 2x4 to the top, and have 2 people walk in a circle for 5 minutes. Then chain again.
@@mikegrok definitely a smart idea.
I found your channel yesterday and I was LITERALLY going to ask you to do this video lol
Lol, good timing 🤣
I built some like that but I used I' pipe 24' and drove it about 18' into the ground and screwed it to my 4x4 post
My work was throwing away almost new pressure treated 4x4s. I started having them thro them to the side and ive been bringing them home every two weeks for over a year now. I now have collected about 200 and im fixing to build a new solar rack out of them. Maybe a new deck also lol. Pressure treated wood is great and i think it looks better also
Thanks for sharing. Great content. I saw the new eg4 racks hold 4 panels at $279 each.
Those are real nice mounts
People have to make those metal racks bullet proof for liability reasons. For a DIY install it is all on you. I live 15 miles from the coast in Florida, I have to be more concerned with wind. I used 4x4 posts with a sack of cement poured into the hole. I used UniStrut to bolt the panels to, some people had concerns that wood might expand too much and damage the panel. For the cost of metal racking I can buy new panels and wood if this one blows away.
I saw a few ground mounts that place wire baskets inside the frame. You then add aggregate in the basket to weigh it down. Simple and if you put the material in heavy duty bags or plastic containers (or use concrete pavers), you can easily remove the 'weights', move the rack, then put it back. Portable but weighted down when needed. Seems so simple once I saw it! Heck, even water as ballast would work (now I am thinking of how to use non-potable (cheap!!) IBC totes as a base to raise up one set of panels ... white board time!!)
If the rack is rarely ever moved, you can also do the pier with anchor bolt/eye hook suggestion, but I'd only do 2. One at end end, in the middle (depth wise), then run a long shipping strap between them. Cable will tear into the wood. Straps will distribute the load a bit and easy to control tension. Maybe plan ahead and mix in a few 4x4 where the strap would run. You can actually want a little front to back rocking action in tornadic type winds. A little give decreases breakage.
Question. did you run a ground wire between all the panels since the normal 'frame to mount' grounding method doesn't work with wood?
Yep good advice. Yes I ran a 6 gauge bare copper wire across the top of all the panels.
Use mobilehome tie downs to secure them. If the tie downs can keep my 80 foot mobile home in place during a hurricane, no problem for your array
Yep great idea
Good vid ,i was surprised you can just drill into the side of the panel like that without damaging?
Yep they’re made to be able to do that.
HOWdy P-P-TX, ...
Thanks
COOP
the WiSeNhEiMeR from Richmond, INDIANA
...
Awesome. Great video. Thank you
Hello! How are things in the Hill Country? I am back again considering a DIY ground mount. My latest calculations are around 32 panels for my current usage (yeah I could change my usage - another time maybe lol). My question is on your cost of the ground mounts. Oops, I was impatient and didn’t wait for the final minutes where you answered this. Deleting question on cost ….
You have me thinking of a ballast mount vs. peers in the ground. All these options, makes my designer mind happy. Lol. Again, thanks for your videos. If I were closer to you, I would buy you as drink one day! All the best from North Texas!
Good luck with your project!
sweet
Fantastic series! Thank you for putting this all together. Question - with regards to grid inbound to the Eaton 200A safety switch, not sure if this happens, but does the Sol-ARK protect against backfeeding the grid - in the event of a power outage? Or does the Eaton have to be pulled when there is a power outage to prevent backfeeding?
The Sol-Ark protects against back feeding as long as you set it that way in the software parameters. So that is not a concern.
Curious how you wired the strings, such that your inputs into the 15K had the right voltages. Also how you wired the main cut offs. Cheers for now.
Each main set of wires going back to the charge controller have 20 panels connected. I did a series+parallel wiring. Download my diagram of my system at this link. It will give you the exact voltage and amp rating. brian-c1c54.gr8.com/
Here’s a short video I did on how I wired each set of solar panel arrays into a dc isolator (disconnect switch). I also transitioned to thhn/thwn wire at the DC isolator to save on the cost of wire back to my Sol-Ark 15k inverter. How to transition PV wire to THHN/THWN wire using DC Isolator Switch (saves money!) #shorts
th-cam.com/users/shortsnjRThbJwJ3Q?feature=share
Thanks, l really like your video. I was wondering if I could build a tilt on the side some kind of way for the sun.
Just buy some cheap precast concrete blocks and tie them down. Crazy to risk wind damage like that when blocks are so cheap.
or just take some cinder blocks and run the 2x4 running along the back bottom through the cinder blocks and that will serve as excellent ballast -- plus if you decide yo need more weight .. then simply throw a 80 pound back of ready mix concrete on top of the cinder blocks -- wet it down ... let it harden .. and repeat
Your iPhone will do angles
why did u not let the bottom of the PV rest on the edge of the horizontal 2x6x16? If yiu had dropped your 40 degree 2x4x9 about 3 inches lower then the panel could rest on the board and reduce about 50% of the stress on the horizonal boards and screws to support the panel?? Very good video though ... /// regardless of the amount of wind you typically get -- AUS-SAT gets hit with secondary hurricane winds often ... i'm working out of Marble Falls area and even we get blasts occasionally so would rethink about digging even a small hole or trench and getting some 80 pound concrete ready mix bags...
It didn’t occur to me to lower the 2x4 lower. You are correct it would reduce stress. But I don’t think there’s much stress on it though as it is. I’m confident it will last a long time. I’m thinking about adding weight via sandbags. If I concrete them in then I lose the ability to change the pitch by lifting one side to get a better seasonal angle on the sun.
You can get a Sinclair sky rack in steel for that very array for $5k.
Know how I know that?
Because that’s what I use.
I got a 40 panel rack from Sinclair engineering for 5k and installed it myself.
You don’t have to use wood.
I got a quote from Sinclair and it was over $10k for a rack for my 19 kw array. Then I was going to need to hire contractors to dig footers into my solid rock ground or was going to have to build large above ground concrete blocks for each vertical support posts. It was going to cost me over $14k. But Sinclair was the cheapest and seem to be best quality rack out of the metal options.
Also -- I was thinking what if you kept the distance from the back post to the front the same (maintaining the 40 degree tilt) BUT instead of cutting the wood thats joining the front and back section at 6 feet (72 inches),,, you instead use a 10 foot board and stack (2) panels on top of each other?? Thus making your mount a 10 panel instead of 5 ??? You let the bottom PV extend down 40% past the bottom horizontal board (like 2.5 feet) ... and then you put another panel on top of the bottom one ...
The wooden structure is MORE than capable of support that additional weight -- plus since its extended the same on the top and bottom from center of gravity -- its still just as stable???
did i confuse you???
By doing it that way -- you are literally getting another 5 panel rack for ONLY the cost difference between (6) 2x4x6 vs (6) 2x4x10's ...
I think I understand. You could do that. I can’t add anymore panels to my system without adding another Sol-Ark inverter which would be another $8k. So I’m going to just get more energy efficient appliances since that would be cheaper than adding more batteries and an additional inverter.
This might look ok but the minute there is a windstorm they will blow over as they are not attached to the ground in any way. Waste of money.
They’ve been up for a year through 60mph thunderstorms and never budged. They are a lot heavier than they look. Maybe a waste of money for you. Has worked great for me.