Our Solar Rack and Pole
Before I get to the pole...We've spent a lot of time
working on plastering the exterior of the front wall
lately. We are getting close to "good enough."
Directly above is the tire wall portion and above and
to the left is the can wall portion. The sand that we
used up to this point has been very course (it has
bigger granuals of sand -- rocks, even). For the
plastering, though we will need to switch to a finer
sand. The layer shown here was done with the
same sand and the cement cracked some as it cured.
It won't cause us any problems because we still
have a couple of layers to do, but it definitely shows
us why to use the finer sand! On the left is our
can/wood-block/bottle wall ready for plastering.
working on plastering the exterior of the front wall
lately. We are getting close to "good enough."
Directly above is the tire wall portion and above and
to the left is the can wall portion. The sand that we
used up to this point has been very course (it has
bigger granuals of sand -- rocks, even). For the
plastering, though we will need to switch to a finer
sand. The layer shown here was done with the
same sand and the cement cracked some as it cured.
It won't cause us any problems because we still
have a couple of layers to do, but it definitely shows
us why to use the finer sand! On the left is our
can/wood-block/bottle wall ready for plastering.
As previously noted we get some very high winds.
How do you keep $5000 worth of fragile solar
panels from blowing away like out cisterns, our
insulation, and our porta-potty? Mount them to a
REALLY secure pole! We bought a 10 foot piece
of 6 inch diameter steel pipe and had two horizontal
fingers welded to it - to keep it from turning inside
the hole. Then we proceded to dig a five foot
deep, two foot diameter hole. There is an auger
attatchement for a bobcat that will dig that exact
hole in a matter of minutes. We didn't use it. 1.It's
much more expensive than the tool you see here,
and 2. every bobcat in the state of Colorado ahd
been rented over Memorial Day weekend.
This auger was 12" in diameter and with an
extension, dug about 4' 10". We had to dig three
separate holes in the same spot to get the right
diamter. Once we got most of the dirt out of the
hole, Ellen climbed down in to smooth the edges
out and remove all of the loose dirt on the bottom.
By the time we were ready to set the pole in the
hole, only Ellen's pony tail stuck up. It was one
deep hole.
To sure things up we built a 4' tall rebar cage and
placed it into the hole, around the pole and started
added concrete. This hole took 24 80 pound bags
of concrete. If this pole ever moves, I'll be...well, I
don't know what, but I'm sure I'll have bigger
problems than this pole moving!
I'm glad I paid attention in Geomemetry: after
plotting all of the angles to make sure that the
panels would never be shaded, we had to find out
how much concrete we would need. The volume
of the hole is the area of the circle (pi r squared)
times the height of the hole, minus the volume of
the pole.
How do you keep $5000 worth of fragile solar
panels from blowing away like out cisterns, our
insulation, and our porta-potty? Mount them to a
REALLY secure pole! We bought a 10 foot piece
of 6 inch diameter steel pipe and had two horizontal
fingers welded to it - to keep it from turning inside
the hole. Then we proceded to dig a five foot
deep, two foot diameter hole. There is an auger
attatchement for a bobcat that will dig that exact
hole in a matter of minutes. We didn't use it. 1.It's
much more expensive than the tool you see here,
and 2. every bobcat in the state of Colorado ahd
been rented over Memorial Day weekend.
This auger was 12" in diameter and with an
extension, dug about 4' 10". We had to dig three
separate holes in the same spot to get the right
diamter. Once we got most of the dirt out of the
hole, Ellen climbed down in to smooth the edges
out and remove all of the loose dirt on the bottom.
By the time we were ready to set the pole in the
hole, only Ellen's pony tail stuck up. It was one
deep hole.
To sure things up we built a 4' tall rebar cage and
placed it into the hole, around the pole and started
added concrete. This hole took 24 80 pound bags
of concrete. If this pole ever moves, I'll be...well, I
don't know what, but I'm sure I'll have bigger
problems than this pole moving!
I'm glad I paid attention in Geomemetry: after
plotting all of the angles to make sure that the
panels would never be shaded, we had to find out
how much concrete we would need. The volume
of the hole is the area of the circle (pi r squared)
times the height of the hole, minus the volume of
the pole.
This was a fun job, and fairly easy and straight
forward. Our soil is mostly sand, though. On rocky
ground, this job could be hateful. Once the concrete
cured adequately, it was time to put up the solar
modules. We have ten 100 watt panels. The panels
are wired right into the house via a piece of flexible
conduit, and into our battery/inverter room.
forward. Our soil is mostly sand, though. On rocky
ground, this job could be hateful. Once the concrete
cured adequately, it was time to put up the solar
modules. We have ten 100 watt panels. The panels
are wired right into the house via a piece of flexible
conduit, and into our battery/inverter room.
Back to the Index
Just a few more wiring connections and we'll be
making our own power!
making our own power!
