Upgraded The Solar Array

[Jafo]

I happened to catch a sale on Amazon for these panels, and purchased 6. I already owned two and with the help of some unistrut, my brother and I got our once 200 watt array bumped up to 800 watts. I also upgraded the charge controller to this one. It can more than handle the new load being brought in.

It took a while to get the rack the way we wanted it. It had to be strong, which took a lot of bracing. We also had to make it short enough so snow, sliding off the roof would not affect it. Then we also had to consider earthing the ground. Is it EXTREMELY rocky there. I had two 8' ground rods and no matter where I tried, the most I could get one in the ground was 4 feet. So we cut them in half and drove all four in, then bonded them together as the ground.

Now, even on a cloudy day, at noon the array is bringing in 80-150 watts of electricity.

 

[Bob Rowlands]

Mopar. heh heh

 

[SuzyQPA2]

What does this power.

 

[Jafo]

What does this power.

It charges my battery bank which I basically run everything up at camp. Chargers, lights, a small flat screen TV, ham radio, etc..

 

[Bob Rowlands]

My Dad was a pro radioman all his life. When I was a little squirt back in 1960 in Weslaco TX, I memorized Dad tapping CQ on his ham radio: dah dit dah dit ... dah dah dit dah.