Paneled frame Mk2

From Blogger Pictures

Paneled frame my original thought was to have two panels horizontaly and slightly over hanging the top of the array and the sixth one mounted separately.
I now intend to have them all as the first row of three mounted vertically with a 0.5 M over hang of the frame to keep it all below 4m in height.

I'm slightly concerned by how a powerful of wind might affect the array so I'm toying with the idea of putting sides on the array to try an prevent wind getting under them.

Trial Assembly and Array stand

As the stainless steel coach bolts arrive It was time for a Trial Assembly of the solar array mounting and the building of the Solar Array stand.



Here is the Array frame MK1 Im thinking of adding the other array to this stand now.

So Mk1 is for just 3 of the Solar pannels Mk2 is just an Idea that looks like it could work.

The parts assembled in the Winter position.



The parts assembled in the Summer position.



The Array stand is now built waiting to have the Solar Array frame poped on top.



A height check marker post attached.

Design of a 3 Pannel Solar Array mounting system.

After a little thought and a fair amount of Inet research. I have decided to use the same cheap CLS timer used for Big Bertha for mounting the Solar Panels.

Reason mainly Price of material ease of supply cutting drilling etc.

From my research its ideal to have two settings for the angle of the array from Summer to Winter settings. Normal this would mean the panels angled for Summer at Latitude + 15 and Latitude for Winter.



So I thought if I have to make the panels able to move by 15 Degrees I might as well make them so they can track the elevation of the Sun every day by this amount.

They weigh around 40K each panel and will have a foot print of 2.4M square.
So tracking the Sun from East to West is not possible without spending a lot of money doing it..

This weekend I have calculated and designed the array support. Collected 32 lengths of CLS timber then Cut and drilled and painted all the wood components for the First 3 Panel Solar array. Ready to do a Mock Assembly of the array.

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I will move the sliding part of the triangle by using some U shape butchers bearings sliding on Bar driven on a 1/2 chain with a stepper motor.

The deliverys arrive.. for the system pictures of some of the bits.

Three Solara SM7002-1 brander 175Wp Solar Pannels from Germany (Made in Japan) Ex display bought at a very resonable price. Three un-brander but appear to be much higher Quality 180W Solar Pannels from China bought at an even more resonable price.!! In fact Im much more impresed with the Pannels from China the power tails have double O ring seals, the general finish of the panel looks very much better. I guess only when running the system will I see if there is any real diffrence in functionality tho.



Two Soladin 600 inverters.



A couple of pictures of the Soladin 600 with the cover off.



A another little closer...



Next Jobs designing and building the Suport frame work for the two Solar arrays. Analizing the open Soladin 600 to figure out how to make the RS232 cables for linking to the computer for System monitoring as £49 for a serial lead is just a little too much to pay.

Ooops yes I have taken over Midges Lounge now !!!!

Solar power for the solar powered workshop

Having an hour spare today I though I would test one of the Solar arrays that has been sitting in its box waiting for me to get some time to put it up.

The solar arrays came from Maplin in March when they had them reduced by £100 each making the price £3.80 a watt. Each solar array kit contains a charge controller with heavy duty plastic pipe frame. Any way here is a couple of pictures of the basic system.



As Im not sure what size of battery array I will need I have only bought one 220AH Solar battery. Now I have one of the Solar arrays connected and set up my next task is to use one of my collection of ATMEGA controllers to do some data logging. I am also looking at making a MMPT solar charge controller making use of the ATMEGA PWM outputs to do this.



The Solar Arrays will be fitted to the Solar Shed roof. The solar power is not only required to be environmently friendly it was also required as it will be located around 20m from the house. A secondary power source will be from a brand new petrol generator that I need to convert to run on gas.



Heating for the solar shed will be from a pot belly wood burning stove that has an estimated heat output of 7Kw. This was found second hand for £100 complete with a stainless steel chimney. I did talk the guy down from £160 though.