Author Topic: Low/no cost solar ground mount with sun tracking.  (Read 1631 times)

Lilburner

Low/no cost solar ground mount with sun tracking.
« on: May 30, 2021, 09:44:15 AM »
I mentioned before how much I've been enjoying Homestead Rescue. Some of the projects are just amazing. How they get water, how they make power, how they build with scrap...

This is from one of the very first episodes, and it's really stuck with me. It's a ground mount solar setup made out of items that tend to accumulate on a homestead. Other than being free or very low cost, the best part is that it tracks the sun angle. They mention setting it for summer and winter, but you can get a chart for your ZIP code it will tell you the angle for every month. You could be getting 100% efficiency by making a simple adjustment monthly.

Super ingenious in its simplicity, they mount the panels on Rohm antenna tower and mount the ends of the tower to wire spool end "wheels". They chock the wheels to achieve the desired angle, but I could see doing something like drilling holes and putting pins in a wooden track.

Wire spools are a dime a dozen. Rohm tower can be found on your local marketplace by searching both "Rohm tower" and "antenna tower". I see some on Facebook Marketplace too beat up looking for antennas @ $4/ft. Sometimes your local ham buddies will have a line on a free section.

I wish I'd seen/thought of this for my primary install, but it will make auxiliary projects much more accessible.



A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many bad measures.
~ Daniel Webster

ProGeek

Re: Low/no cost solar ground mount with sun tracking.
« Reply #1 on: June 07, 2021, 10:44:35 AM »
The problem is securing the array during strong winds.
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RWS

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Re: Low/no cost solar ground mount with sun tracking.
« Reply #2 on: June 07, 2021, 11:22:51 AM »
Years and years ago this used to be a trailer that had a section of Rohn 25 tower on it with a fold up base.  The tower section had a push up pole so that an inverted vee antenna or diPole wire could be put up about anywhere.  Then Years ago I converted it to a portable solar generator.  The 4 solar panels rotate on a 2" pipe, manually to help better position them to the sun.  It had a 4000Watt SW4024 sinewave inverter in the box under the panels with charge controller and 2ea 12 volt batteries 8D size.
It needs to be totally reworked as the batteries need replacing and the inverter needs to be reinstalled.  The inverter is currently being stored in a 55 gal drum.  (Faraday Shield)  I may rework this in the next few months as I will need a power supply to use while building my off grid cabin in region 2.
I found this second picture in my 2014 picture file folder.
« Last Edit: June 07, 2021, 11:46:11 AM by RWS »

cope

Re: Low/no cost solar ground mount with sun tracking.
« Reply #3 on: July 09, 2021, 11:47:22 AM »
i was crying for the rohn tower LOL. As a ham i was like they are wasting a perfectly good tower section for solar panels mounting LOL.

That said I have seen a similar device made using cattle panels or the metal farm gates. I believe it was engineer 775 from the doomsday prepper thing that had pics of that setup he posted. Made for an easy way to change the angle.

 

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