The wiring to the solar panels needed some attention, some of it was cut a bit long so I wrapped it up and ziptied it and used paracord to keep it all secure. Getting as much of it off the ground was my goal, as our plan is to cover the ground around the solar panels in the future so grass will not come up around there. But first I need to do some wire cleanup.
I will admit I am not very good at wire management, but I can see some spots where a few minutes of clean up would make all the difference. Pulling the slack out and tieing it up seems to work the best for the moment. If I take the solar panels offline I could do a lot more by cutting exactly to length.
Using zipties of various sizes, paracord and some cutting tools is all I need to clean all this up the best I can without disconnecting it all.
But for now my goal is just to clean up a little bit, maybe add some conduit to those direct bury wires later.
Some of the wires will just be covered when we deal with the weeds, but I got as much off the ground as possible. Hopefully our next build will be a little more neat. Or I can redo this area if I want to take the solar panels offline for awhile.
As I clean up wires I also check on the bolts to the panels, they have been thread locked in place, but I still check to make sure the panels are not moving around too much.
Many spots where things could get loose, but we thread locked all of them. So they should be good, but I always check once in awhile.
The bolts holding in these panel mounts are massive. I am unsure how long the 6x6 posts will last, but those bolts should hold strong.
I walk around the front and the back to inspect them.
Some spots already have the wiring off the ground, I need to come back and add some conduit around them.
Oops, left some tools outside.
Where all the wires come into a circuit breaker box will need some attention as well. I opened up the box to make sure nothing is making a home in there.. looks good.
I need to find some conduit that is already cut, so I can just slide on the protecting tubing. Otherwise I would need to disconnect these wires. And during the day under full sun is not a good idea due to arcing potential. Best to disconnect them in the evening or early morning before the sun comes up.
So I did a little clean up, it feels like not enough though. So I will return with more material soon and finish it up. A great learning experience for my next solar panels, looking forward to building out another solar panel array in the future.
Posted using STEMGeeks
Ya I do quite a bit of wiring and it can be a challenge. A service loop is great to have a bit of leeway if positions change but it still seems messy to a perfectionist.
Awesome solar solution you have there! I will bet it was a considerable investment but one that will pay for itself and help with the self sustainability.
Nice work!
Ah yeah, that would help looping them.. but they are 8 guage wire and they do not loop up very well.
Thanks! Yeah it sure is but slowly paying itself off already.
Looking pretty good. You know, you could always put a piece of gutter along the back of those 4x4's and lay the wires in there to keep them up off the ground. Since they are still under the panel you shouldn't need to worry about water pooling in there too much. You could even drill holes in the bottom of them and different intervals to be sure. I guess obviously there are tons of things you could do if you really wanted to put a lot of time and effort into it!
Thanks, many of the wires on the ground are going to be buried under compacted lime. But good idea if I wanted to keep them off the ground, they are direct bury wires though so its okay to let them touch the ground.
Ah, okay, that makes sense! It's a pretty cool setup no matter what you do. I'm still kicking around the idea of getting solar one day. I just saw the other day that they are talking about putting industrial wind and solar farms in our township and people are freaking out.
Put sand below and over the tubing your going to use for the burial part.
Yep we are going to bury the cables with a top dressing.
You managed it well and looking forward to more solar panels.😊😊
hah thanks, going to build them completely differently on my next array though.
You're welcome. 😊 Let's see how better it will be.😊
🎉 Upvoted 🎉
👏 Keep Up the good work on Hive ♦️ 👏
❤️ @bhattg suggested sagarkothari88 to upvote your post ❤️
From what can be seen in the photographs you have done a great job, now it looks much better and more orderly, which is the important thing @solominer, without a doubt you will have to come back soon since the weeds grow quickly
thank you, it is a little better.
Yes the weeds will return, we have to cut back them about twice a month.
Though long term we are going to put a top dressing over the grass to stop them from growing through.
I always admire this great solar panel installation, you have made an excellent investment
Weeds are always annoying and it is not good for them to grow where the cables are, you have done a great job tidying and cleaning everything
Thank you very much dear friend @solominer for sharing this experience
Thank you, yeah they sure are... but hopefully long term I can keep them at bay.
Just remember when you put conduits, assuming you have a guide, even so, if it has more than 3 90° bends your going to run into possible trouble. After 3rd bend put a register bocks or before depending on situation.
Conduits are more expensive it if your looking for it to last, it's your best option. Other wise there is Plastic tubing for electric needs.
Over time any wire exposed to the sun will eventually start to peal off the plastic insulation, causing possible unwanted grounding.
Electricians can give you free council to what you could do.
Ah yeah that is my next plan. To find conduit and to put sleeving over the exposed wires.
Around here not many people work on solar, since I am pretty much out in the woods. But I think I can handle adding some sleeving to the wires.
You know how much $/m you get in electricity from those panels?
In August I produced $274 worth of power.
1828.1 kWh x $0.15 for the cost of power around here from the grid.
So I am saving anywhere from 30-50% on my power bill.
How many panels you got, all on the ground none on the roof?
32 panels, that is correct. I decided to put them in a near by field and trench wiring back to the houses.
You can find all the stats of the arrays including the hardware in this post:
https://peakd.com/hive-163521/@solominer/solos-solar-array-production-stats-august
Wow! Building solar panels is really a good idea.... you have done all your work very nicely from gardening , Making road and wiring of solar panel 👍
thanks.. lots has been going on around here for sure.
That's really nice 🙂
Those solar panels are really massive, it must supply a huge amount of electricity to your neighbourhood... 😁
You tried in figuring out how to tidy up up the wires.
is this off grid or on grid solar setup?
What is capacity of one panel ?
The wiring on solar is extensive.. I hated the clean up involved with that