Solar Panels

Seems that every different brand of solar panel has a different style of mounting.  The included frame simply slips together.  It's a fixed angle, and not suitable for mounting to a roof.  So I decided to make a supporting frame from 3/4" angle purchased at Home Depot.

Be aware of your surroundings when welding.  Those gas cans have been empty since the end of the last hurricane season.  The door has been raised some, and a fan is blowing the fumes outside.  The door also acts as a shield for those walking by.

This 14" cut-off saw from Harbor Freight was on sale for $59.  It's not deadly accurate, but does a decent job of making a miter joint.

One of my CCTV security cameras recorded my work, and the shower of sparks.

Notice my protective equipment, hat, welding visor, gloves, flip-flops.  Er, never mind.

I bought a small Mig welder made by Lincoln.  I haven't purchased the gas bottle yet, so this is simply unshielded wire welding.  Still, the welds come out fairly nice.

I'm still new at this, so I'm pleased with the joints as a novice.  Of course the weld has been ground down at this point.  But very little porosity in the weld.

Corrosion is a big factor here in FL, especially since I'm about 10 minutes from the beach.  I found that POR15 rust preventive paint works very well. 

The frame is all welded up, with brackets welded on to act as feet.  Good to have some air circulation under the panels.  It's upside down in this picture, allowing the paint to dry.

My generator is in the background with a heat gun attached.  Good to run it every few weeks and put a load on it.

I spliced all three panels together, and attached them to 10 gauge wire with weatherproof crimp connectors.  Once they have been crimped, a heat gun will shrink the insulation, and a small amount of hot glue inside the tubing will melt, creating a weather tight seal.  This connection will only be used temporarily.  I will put a junction box on the roof, allowing for quick disconnection and removal of the panels during a hurricane.  While they might last through a storm, it's easier to take them down than replace them.

I was able to snake the wire from the panels through the plug on the end of the ridge vent.  No need to drill more holes!

Once installed, the panels are invisible to the passerby.  Low profile, silent power.

These are mounted on the South side of my roof.  The silicone caulk used holds up much better than BlackJack in my experience.  It's white when applied, but soon turns clear as it cures.

The clamps are only temporary.  A series of low profile clamps will be made to hold the panels to the frame.

8 PM, and the panels are still putting out 17.32 Volts to the controller.  During the peak of the day, this increases to 22-23 Volts.

The battery is holding steady at 13.11 Volts.  It works!

The kit included two 5 Watt fluorescent bulbs, which run on 12VDC.

Just as a demonstration, I connected everything up without a battery.  Even with the sun almost set, it still provided enough energy to illuminate the fluorescent bulb.

The included solar controller is really cheesy.  Almost nothing inside the box.  Many reports of failures of these controllers, so mine instantly went onto the shelf as an emergency backup.

The solar controller I'm using is a MorningStar Sunlight-10.  Regulates up to 10 Amps  (120 Watts).  Fine for my initial setup.  A slick feature about this controller is that it has the ability to control lighting.  When the sun sets, it starts a 10 minute timer to verify the array hasn't been briefly shielded from the sun.  The internal relay then supplies up to 10 Amps of 12VDC to external lights.  The amount of time they are on is adjustable by turning a small switch.   I'm using this to turn on my LED garden lights, and a 400 Watt inverter, which is connected to a couple of Compact Fluorescent (CF) bulbs.  More on that later...

Northern Tool sells 15 Watt solar panels for $79 on sale.  If you find that it is on sale online, print out the ad, and take it with you.  They will honor the price in the store as well.  A nice part about these panels over the HF ones, is that these have a plastic frame with mounting tabs.  Very easy to mount these.  The downside is there's no telling how long the plastic will last the UV exposure.

Three Harbor Freight 15 Watt panels on the left, a single Northern Tool 15 Watt panel on the right.  Hours of fabrication on the left, minutes of installation on the right.  The Northern Tool panels are a bit more expensive ($79 vs. $66 each).  Either brand works well, I'll buy whatever is on sale.

Total of 95 Watts so far.  The 5 Watt panel of the left was my first small step into solar power.  It was used to run a solar fan.

The three panels on the left are Harbor Freight 15 Watt panels (part of their 45 Watt kit), the three panels on the right are 15 Watt Northern Tool panels.  All the wires tuck into the end of the ridge vent.

I have another 45 Watt kit almost ready to install.  I need to make up another frame, as shown in the first part of this article.

The other plus is no impact during an outage.  Between hurricanes, and lightning storms, chances are good the power will go out AGAIN.  When running on alt-power, it's hard to tell when the grid goes down.  I'm not at this point yet, but I'm making headway.

Hopefully some of this will inspire you as well.

Last updated 04/23/08    All rights reserved.