June 27, 20233 yr Decided to add to existing roof array. Roof array gets quite a bit of shading from trees and especially in winter ends up with a very short solar day. It faces south east. New array will be ground mounted vertically, more optimised for winter generation than summer. The vertical is also to protect from bits that can fall from overhanging trees. So doing it on the cheap and myself, except the electric hookup. Panels 12x 380W, 2 years previously installed life, bought for £700, plus a 3 hour drive each way to collect. Inverter (solic double mppt) again previously installed for about 12 months, bought for £150, collected on way from work. Isolators AC and DC, generation meter, stickers and MC4 connectors, £99. Mounting frame being made from 4"x4" posts and unistrut. Which is mounted on the hill behind the house. Posts will be postcreted in. Made a start on the frame. One half will be SW facing and the other half SSW facing.
June 27, 20233 yr Author Forgot to add cost of posts and postcrete. Circa £400. 8 x 2.4m and 8 x 1.8m posts and 24 bags of postcrete. Screws etc are just left overs from other jobs. Unistrut, 42 X 42mm x 6m, 5 off required, M8 spring nuts, £300.
June 27, 20233 yr So c. £1,700 for c. 4kWp, not bad. Nice to have that bit of land available. When you say "vertically" do you mean literally the faces will be pointing towards the horizon? Sounds like you would miss out on a huge amount of summer generation if that's the case, notwithstanding debris etc.
June 27, 20233 yr Author Just re read my first post PV panels are 280W not 380W so 3.3kW total. On 27/06/2023 at 18:54, PhilT said: When you say "vertically" do you mean literally the faces will be pointing towards the horizon Yes correct. On 27/06/2023 at 18:54, PhilT said: Sounds like you would miss out on a huge amount of summer generation if that's the case, notwithstanding debris etc. My existing array gets 99% utilisation in summer, but stops producing anything meaningful at about 3pm. With the additional panels my summer output should stretch out to about 8pm. Yes I do, miss out on huge amounts of unpaid export in the summer, that was accepted, as I really wanted to maximise winter generation, to offset ASHP running where I can. December monthly generation goes from 30-35 to close to 80-85kWh. View directly above array.
June 28, 20233 yr Would be worth setting the mounts up so they could be adjusted through the year. E.g. fixed to a scaffold pole on top, and have a couple different notches or brackets on the lower mount. I can picture it in my head at least. Would be totally worth a couple of hours of work a couple times a year adjusting the angle from ~80⁰ in winter to 30° in summer.
June 29, 20233 yr I have mine wall mounted with a vertical channel every 2 panels with a hinge mount to the 6 panel frame. I have 2 sets of wooden beams for winter and summer settings, less than a hour to change each set of frames for 6 panels from one season angle to another. The hinges are at the mid point with equal weight above and below so as long as there is no wind a set of 6 panels will pivot using one hand. Edited June 29, 20233 yr by kommando
June 30, 20233 yr Author Did a bit more work on the frame over the last couple of days, between the rain and other jobs. All the posts are postcreted in place and the unistrut on the first array in place. Panels will be stepped up the hill in pairs. This array will consist of 6 panels.
July 3, 20233 yr Author Fixings, basically two bottom fixing to take panel weight and upp centre fixing used. Bottom and centre ends have used end clamps from Amazon, centre I used EPDM washer, and 40mm diameter stainless steel penny washer and M6 bolt. Bottom fixing required an additional 50mm flat washer for the clamp to bear on to.
July 3, 20233 yr Author 5 minutes ago, TonyT said: It’s great building stuff out of unistrut! First time I've use it, angle grinder, drill and galvanising spray and away you go.
July 3, 20233 yr Ah when I were a lad it was a hacksaw with no teeth and spend they day cutting and filing by hand then neatly brushing galvafroid paint onto the ends… then the chop saw came a long and it was abused accordingly to do all the things you shouldn’t like used the side of the disk to grind the uni after it was cut to length then we dipped the uni into the paint to save brushing it.. now you probably order direct pre finished!
July 3, 20233 yr Has unistrut recently become stupidly expensive? Used to be around £20 for a 3m length of 41mm square - now I see it's over £40 or even as high as £70 (from RS)
July 3, 20233 yr 3 minutes ago, TonyT said: https://directchannel.uk.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=3507 still £20 if you know where to look... Cheers!
July 3, 20233 yr Direct channel's courier lost my order and DC refused to refund until the goods showed up at my address or theirs's, so had to go to credit card company for refund. I will never use them again, what if I had used another payment method. The amount was £450. So I now use https://www.superlecdirect.com/ and get their own driver to deliver if it includes 6M length for £5 carriage for orders over £50. Edited July 3, 20233 yr by kommando
July 3, 20233 yr Author 1 hour ago, Radian said: Has unistrut recently become stupidly expensive? You need to shop around to not pay stupid prices. I rang around local electrical trade places. Prices varied between £70 for 3m plus vat, collect only. I used Medlocks and paid £40 for 6m lengths delivered. All quotes were for 41mm square undrilled.
July 5, 20233 yr Author Second 6 panels now in place. The second array is 15 degrees off south in the westerly direction, the first array is 45 degrees off south in a westerly direction.
July 5, 20233 yr I am looking forward to seeing how these perform. I could hang two or three modules on my SW facing front wall, would be almost enough to cover my day usage.
July 5, 20233 yr Author 21 minutes ago, SteamyTea said: looking forward to seeing how these perform. Me also, nice to rain at the moment it is slowing progress.
July 5, 20233 yr 1 minute ago, JohnMo said: rain at the moment Just about to hang my washing out, drying will be solar powered.
July 5, 20233 yr Author Panels are now wired up to DC isolator. Had to replace 2x plugs on the panels as these were obviously damaged when removed from last location. Inverter, AC isolation switch and meter all mounted. 52m, 6mm2, 4 core DC armoured cable routed between inverter and DC isolator. AC cable terminated at inverter and meter. AC cable routed to consumer panel. Jobs for tomorrow - depending weather Terminate DC cable at DC isolator and inverter Terminate cables at AC isolator and consumer unit. Power up
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