Solar Energy

[Meerkat]

We like solar energy but can't decide where to put it up. Thanks to some really solar wise people we knew what to buy and how to shop for our system.
Anyone here have solar power?

 

[robin416]

I don't. I've thought about it but we'd have to take quite a few trees out to get it to work.

 

[Meerkat]

I don't. I've thought about it but we'd have to take quite a few trees out to get it to work.

We had to take out trees when we moved our garden and greenhouse. Very hard work cutting them up. I made a hugelkultur pile with some of them. It must be good cause all kinds of weeds are doing very good,lol.

 

[SheepDog]

We have solar power at "the cabin" primarily because there is no power available. The cabin is actually an A-frame two story building I designed and three of us built. It is on 130 acres on the south facing side of a mountain in NE Washington about ten miles from the Canadian border.

 

[Meerkat]

We have solar power at "the cabin" primarily because there is no power available. The cabin is actually an A-frame two story building I designed and three of us built. It is on 130 acres o the south facing side of a mountain in NE Washington about ten miles from the Canadian border.

I bet that is beautiful up there in winter wonderland. I'd like to see the heavy snow and iced trees at least one more time. Being down here that is very seldom we make the trip to the mountains and rare to get much accumilation.

 

[Swing]

We have solar power at "the cabin" primarily because there is no power available. The cabin is actually an A-frame two story building I designed and three of us built. It is on 130 acres on the south facing side of a mountain in NE Washington about ten miles from the Canadian border.

That is amazing. How wonderful. As we go along, I hope you feel good about sharing some photos.

 

[TBob]

I run 12 volt rv mushroom lights in all the rooms, and was tired of hauling the panel in and out, so I finally permanently mounted it.
Now for the big panels. I contacted a local solar company regarding a mount for 10 24 volt 320 watt panels, but they don't return calls or emails, so I'll be doing it myself I guess
Looking forward to watching your system come together.
I may post pics of mine, but it's cobbled together

 

[katlupe]

I have solar and wind that has been built little by little since we moved here in 1999. My husband has put the system together himself and is still working on it. He is now building the batteries (like the Tesla power wall). Here is a picture of it, though it is small it works great and we are adding to it.


wall).

 

[mosquitomountainman]

We are completely off grid. We have small systems but they work well. Cabin is around 1000 watts and our Motor home is about 520 watts. We run electric refrigerators in both plus lights, tv, etc. We have a 65 watt panel on our van camper conversion but all it powers are the interior lights. (It has a propane fridge.) We have several small portable units (7.5 to 29 watts) to keep phones, tablets, etc. charged on more primitive camping.

 

[Meerkat]

All the solar guys from PS who some are now here was the best help out there in helping us pick out our whole system.

 

[Outlier]

If you mean that you are looking for the best site on your property for the panels, then:
https://www.builditsolar.com/SiteSurvey/site_survey.htm

 

[viking]

So I'm finally getting the solar array mounting frame together, I poured six caissons with Strong-Ty 4"X 4" sockets in them and today I finished installing the front row of posts on them. By the time I finished for the day it was too late to take pics, I'm getting excited about finally assembling the frame, it won't be long and I'll have the 8 195 watt panels mounted and up and running. It'll be nice not to have to rely on the grid for battery maintenance. I'll get pics up soon.

 

[Terri9630]

We have solar at the mtn place. Its nice not having a power bill up there.

 

[viking]

Finally here are some pics of the early stages of the array frame. If you look at the small box on the side of the house, it's a small breaker box with 5 breakers in it that feed connectors inside the grid breaker panels that replace the existing breakers the small breaker box is set up to take care of two refrigerators, some lighting and eventually a chest freezer we will be putting on the north deck. The other pics are explained in post #12

 

[Bacpacker]

Nice work Viking. I'm looking forward to see what all you end up doing.

 

[viking]

One thing I will have to say here and that's because of last years dealing with congestive heart failure, those 10 sacks of 90 pound ready mix felt really heavy to deal with, it took at least one sack per caisson and a few took additional sand, gravel and cement that I had on hand, thankfully, the reason for this is that I had dug some of the holes deeper and the black planter pots I used were taller. It certainly is far better to get all this kind of heavy work done when one is much younger, there was a time a number of years back when we carried sand and gravel in 5 gallon pickle buckets up to the site for the cistern, I also carried 94 pound sacks of cement on my shoulder, the cistern is at the very top of our property, it's highly likely that I couldn't do that these days.

 

[Bacpacker]

I couldn't agree more. I find myself getting tired much quicker the last few years. It sucks know what you want to do and knowing how and just getting wore out before your done.

 

[joel]

There are 12 steps to a zero energy home, you can use some of them, if you are not building from the ground.
But all 12 steps start with the bare ground site.
One can always insulate, use energy efficient appliances & lighting, this saves energy.
I know about this site, because I plan to build a new home in a few years.
https://zeroenergyproject.org/build/twelve-steps-affordable-zero-energy-home-construction-design/

 

[viking]

I took a few pics after putting some more array frame together, trouble is that it was beginning to get dark but it shows that I'm getting somewhere.

 

[Meerkat]

Finally here are some pics of the early stages of the array frame. If you look at the small box on the side of the house, it's a small breaker box with 5 breakers in it that feed connectors inside the grid breaker panels that replace the existing breakers the small breaker box is set up to take care of two refrigerators, some lighting and eventually a chest freezer we will be putting on the north deck. The other pics are explained in post #12View attachment 11125 View attachment 11126 View attachment 11127

that will hold up under Cat 5 Viking.

 

[Meerkat]

I couldn't agree more. I find myself getting tired much quicker the last few years. It sucks know what you want to do and knowing how and just getting wore out before your done.

I have good days and bad days but the good ones are getting further apart.

 

[Meerkat]

@zoomzoom do you remember this reply to me on other site? I started on solar in 2011 with y'alls help and finally got solar in 2016.

Zoom this is one of your post to me or part of it.



"When you connect 2 batteries in parallel (as you would want here), if the batteries aren't matched, the weaker battery will draw from the stronger.

While doing your shopping, look at marine battery boxes. Put a battery in the box with the cables connected to the inverter and put the lid on. Then take the inverter and lay it on top of the lid. Strap them together using the provided strap and you have a nice little self-contained unit."

@LincTex remember helping me set up in 2011?
Below is one of your replies back then.

"It will run a dorm size fridge easy. You are off to a good start....

Down the road, you will want to look into a charge controller and some solar panels. For now, just use a battery charger to keep your batteries charged."

 

[Meerkat]

@Caribou , @viking , @mosquitomountainman ,@TMT Tactical , Nadja, So many of you here are so good with this solar thing.

 

[The Lazy L]

I couldn't agree more. I find myself getting tired much quicker the last few years. It sucks know what you want to do and knowing how and just getting wore out before your done.

I've found that if I take my afternoon nap in the morning that I have more energy by noon.

 

[Meerkat]

I've found that if I take my afternoon nap in the morning that I have more energy by noon.

I have more in the A.M..

 

[viking]

that will hold up under Cat 5 Viking.

It's interesting that you mention this because a few days ago my wife asked if it would hold up to an earthquake as there has been a big concern out here about a major Cascadia plate slippage leading to a major, possible 9 level earthquake, I told her that the system will be very strong and might be able to take heavy duty action, however I remember being in a big quake up in Washington in the early 1950's, I was in about the third grade and out playing on the field behind the gym and the ground looked like waves on the sea, two to three feet high, an apple tree on the other side of the fence was shaking violently and I was in absolute fear looking for something to hang onto that was solid as I was bouncing on those ground waves, this kind of situation would have put a system like I'm building to a heavy duty test, for sure.

 

[SheepDog]

Viking, if those concrete piers go more than two feet into the ground and you put "X" braces on the corners it will be fine in a Cascadia quake - even at M9+.
Depending on the voltage, amperage and distance to the home you may need to run 00 cable with room to move 5 or 6 feet so it doesn't snap.
After the quake you will need water, and sewer as much as food and heat. If you have a well be sure to have a standby solar pump for it. If you have a septic system you should have it fitted with flexible distribution tubes for drainage. That way they won't break and cause problems.
After the quake and assuming you are out of the tsunami inundation zones your travel will be limited by bridges and roads that are impassible. That means living off the food you have on hand for up to 3 or more years. Start canning meat - no matter where you get it. Rice stores well and is better than potatoes. Fresh fruit and veggies can be supplied through your garden and you can eat it fresh during the canning season. Can everything you normally eat, Keep wheat or flour on hand for a long term of no groceries. Learn now how to make bread and sprout grain. Learn to make and use a sourdough starter. Anything that you can make with flour and yeast can be made with sourdough. Store LOTS of salt and sugar - they don't spoil! Fats are hard to come by in nature so store it too. You will probably want butter and it is available canned or dried.
Store some roofing material as well as some plywood and fasteners for repairs. You won't have access to anything after the quake for a very long time.

 

[Meerkat]

It's interesting that you mention this because a few days ago my wife asked if it would hold up to an earthquake as there has been a big concern out here about a major Cascadia plate slippage leading to a major, possible 9 level earthquake, I told her that the system will be very strong and might be able to take heavy duty action, however I remember being in a big quake up in Washington in the early 1950's, I was in about the third grade and out playing on the field behind the gym and the ground looked like waves on the sea, two to three feet high, an apple tree on the other side of the fence was shaking violently and I was in absolute fear looking for something to hang onto that was solid as I was bouncing on those ground waves, this kind of situation would have put a system like I'm building to a heavy duty test, for sure.

Syncrenicity,huh? Either way that looks like it will withstand a lot.

 

[viking]

I appreciate the heads up SheepDog, we've really been prepping for a long time but feel like we have more to do. I really need to get a supply of 1" schedule 40 PVC pipe, fittings and glue set aside, not just for potential earthquakes but in case a root cracks a line from our spring which is 460' from the northwest corner of our property. As to addressing the septic system, that may turn into an outhouse system as everything is buried so deep. As for food storage, everyone should be doing a great deal of that considering the flooding that been going on and crops not being planted and what's been planted my end up stunted due to saturated grounds.

 

[SheepDog]

You might want to switch to ABS pipe rather than PVC. The ABS is more flexible and stays flexible when cold. It is also more resistant to UV.
I tried to find a way to prep for Cascadia when I lived in Seattle. I could manage a years supply of water and food but dealing with a year of garbage and sewage in a neighborhood is just not going to happen. When I realized that a year wasn't going to be enough and that most people had less than a week supply of food and water it became clear that I was going to have to kill a lot of people to keep what I had.
On the east side of the state the effects would only last a few days as long as I stayed clear of any transfer cities that would be used to house refugees. I moved into the heart of wheat country and paid cash for the house and land. Then I built a garage and a shop, paying cash for the foundation work and materials I used to build it. I put in raised beds and began the experiments to find what we can grow. We now have a couple of years of some foodstuff and less of others but we are in the process of building it all up. The pantry is full and we have turned one of the bedrooms into an extended pantry. I figure that we will lose natural gas for about three days when Cascadia goes off and that most of the unreinforced masonry buildings in the town nearby will suffer catastrophic damage but the police station is new and will be fine. I am far enough from town that it won't be a big deal and the population outside the farmers is fairly mobile and some will leave for other areas. Winters are too severe to promote a large homeless population and the rest of the year is generally good with the exception of late summer when dry lightning storms can start range fires. My structures are built and the property protected from most of the fire damage. This place will be fine until I decide my next location.