Ground-Based Solar Panels

Good homebrew!av-1866

I love the name Scrappy! Wow, looks great, and definitely more stable. Looks like you could adjust angle if you wanted, simply by raising one end or the other on concrete blocks or something.

This is based on my location, but you can use this calculator to input your country, state, nearest city (pick closest one that is latitudinal).

Best angle for panels by season

You have to scroll way down to get to the calculator.

I really love this. Maybe I will do a 3 panel of Bluetti SP200s after all. I just realized I could reach the middle panel to hang by accessing from the back. Thanks for sharing! May I have your permission to post your photos in the Facebook Bluetti group? Many people there are interested in ideas for mounting systems for their panels. Each one begets inspiration for the next! :smiley:

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Thanks for the link, we must have similar latitudes since those winter-summer angles are the same for my location in Washington State, I’ve been using the NOAA solar calculator ESRL Global Monitoring Laboratory - Global Radiation and Aerosols which is excellent. With it you can really geek out and get the exact angle and azimuth down to the nearest minute and second of the day :slight_smile: Must be the Land Surveyor in me as before GPS we would sometimes use the sun to establish azimuths for surveys.

I access my middle panel by stepping into the center bay, hanging it while it’s still folded up and then unfold it as I step back out of scrappy.

Yes you can share any of my photos you would like.

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@MitchC Let us know if/when you come up with something. There is a guy on the Bluetti FB group page that just posted a pic of one he made from PVC that looks fantastic. I will ask him if I can post his pic here, so stay tuned. :smiley: I seem to recall someone else in this group was interested in making one out of PVC, so I hope he or she looks here.

Here is a PVC design that comes apart/folds for travel. He is using fixed panels here, but you could make one for folding panels by making it taller.

For folding panels, I would use these rubber bungees strapped on the ribs between the panel segments, and use a brick or log or something to hold the bottom legs/arms down. I got these rubber straps to do just that.



I don’t have pics yet but I just modified Scrappy to hold a 200 watt fixed panel on either side of the 3 SP200’s for a total of 1,000 watts. Also changed the one handle design to two like a wheelbarrow since it’s starting to get heavy :smiley:

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Latest design, still fairly easy to move around even with the weight of five panels and a couple sogens.

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damn…best of both worldz!!What you do ?roll it to carport or garage…or i guess you could tarp it if wanted too.

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I remove the panels when not in use which takes less 10 minutes. The rack will live outdoors so once I get a design I like I’ll probably paint it or just let it turn gray although a tarp might be a good idea.

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Wow, this is fantastic. People over on FB are really liking your array photos. It is inspiring more people to come up with ideas. :smiley: I will add these latest ones. So many people have a mix of fixed and folding panels. This is just awesome. :star_struck:

I’m telling you, you can make a business of this!

At least by selling the plans on how to make them with all of the materials and layouts!

Code does not touch 12 volt systems especially if they are not permanently mounted. There should not be any issues whatsoever with what you describe other than making sure you don’t get shadowing from nearby objects as the sun moves.

Weather was a little hazy today but not bad so hooked up the AC200P and got the 700 watts max with 5 panels, 4 panels yielded around 600 watts. Added the AC charger and got around 1,150 watts. Scrappy is doing its job.

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A lazy mans solar panel vertical angle adjuster, a saw horse under the handles.

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@eric102 killer setup!!

Several people on the FB group page asked whether there was an issue with wind. Has that ever been a problem? I told them I was pretty sure you monitor it closely, and that the side panels are heavy and lower, so I thought it would be secure. And with the saw horse there, it looks even more stable from wind.

Haven’t had any wind yet but if its forecast I’ll probably not deploy them as they are really just for emergency backup. If I had to use them in moderate to light winds the portable panels can be screwed down with large washers through the grommets and the fixed panels can be tie wired or bungeed onto the 2x4’s. Then the whole rack (which is now a sail) could be anchored to my 2 1/2 ton tractor via it’s pallet forks.

I really should modify Scrappy a little bit so the tractor could just scoop the whole thing up and move it around while also acting as an anchor :slight_smile: