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Got my roof mounts in.

The only big thing is to get the insufficient lam beam made from three 2x8 boards. It can't even hold up my buildings roof with out sagging. Definitely not going to hold another 700 pounds of solar panels out of my building and replace it with a 24 foot I beam that I got at the scrap yard.
My mechanical engineer says my steel I beam should be at least as strong as a lam beam using four 2x12s.
A special order 24 foot long 2x12 costs around $100 each. This old steel I beam was $37.
A new steel beam would cost at least $600.

The electrician needs to pull permits for my tie in and install. Guess he will do it when he needs money.


2019-05-10 20.34.01.jpg
 
I weighed the unistrut, panels, conduit and a roll of wire that I will probably use up.
Probably be pushing 900 pounds.
 
I will probably get a sunny boy sma 5kw.
Get a used one for $600, that makes the 3.6kw portion cost $432.

The sunny boy has 3 inputs so I could do 3 to 3.6 south facing like I was planning then also add on an array of 1 to 2 kw of South east facing panels plus 1 to 2 kw of South west facing.
If I get this inverter I will be looking to have it make close to 5kw from sun up to sun down.

Run the numbers again.
The constants are panel cost, the cost of the mounts and racks for up to 3.6kw of roof top panels, the budget for the inverter. So all I have to do is ground mount more panels.
I will likely make up to a 6kw system on a 5kw inverter.
So let's say $2,500 for 3.3 to 3.6kw of roof top I was planning to do.
Then let's say I add a south west array of 2.4kw, up to 3kw.
(The sunny boy sma likes at least 250vdc on its inputs, 2.4kw puts me at 280 vmp. 2.1kw or 7 panels might work but that puts my vmp at the low end of the recommend vmp.

So the additional 2.4kw to 3kw of panels should only need about $300 to $380 worth of racking and attaching for ground mount (no expensive rack feet).

To add up to 3kw of SW facing ground mounts should run about $1,150. Just panels, unistrut, anchors, wire, no inverter.

I will probably start with the minimum. 3kw of roof top panels and 2.1kw of SW facing panels and just see what happens, then add panels from there.

$3,650 for up to 6.6kw of panels on a 5kw inverter.
Only problem is I really down know what the pay back on the south west facing array will be. I could assume it would be producing around 70% of the south facing arrays production.
 
Got the sunny boy sma 5000 TL
For 2 reasons. It was cheaper and it has the secure power supply.
The TL only has 2 inputs but this should match up very well with my 295 watt panels.
The secure power supply feature acts like a stand alone inverter and allows you to use up to 16 amps of 120v 60Hz power when the power goes out and with the sun high in the sky, as long as your panels can support it.
That way you aren't staring at your thousands of dollars worth of solar power generation equipment wishing it worked at least a little when the power goes out.

Cost, $455 shipped to my door or about 9 cents a watt.
My budget was up to $600 for a non SPS sunny boy so double bonus for waiting.

Rolling budget is:
26 cents (actual price paid) to 30 cents a watt for panels (depending on how over paneled I run the inverter).
25 cents a watt for roof top racking, wiring, conduit.
9 to 11 cents a watt for inverter (depending on how much I over panel the inverter)
5 cents a watt for the tie in and permits ect.
My budget was 70 cents a watt.

I can probably do fixed ground mounts for closer to 15 cents a watt.
If I do some ground mounts later on I will be well under 60 cents a watt on that portion of the system.
 
Don't worry I hugged it first.

2019-08-20 12.10.17.jpg

This tree was rotten. It broke into several pieces when it hit the ground. Also in the way of where I want to put solar panels. It was leaning towards the house. I had to pull it over with the leaf and my diesel suburban.

This tree was about 63 years old. It grew like crazy for the first 40 years the growth rings were 3/8 to half an inch apart, then the last 33 years it grew really slow, so tightly packed I could barely count them. Maybe it got hit by lightning around 1985 or 1986.
The date the tree started growing lines up exactly when the well was dug.
The old timers say this used to be a diary and my out building was a milking parlor.
I also dug up a 3 inch well pipe that came up to the house, but did not appear to be used for domestic water.
So they had cows pooping in the yard and were flood irrigating around the house.
 
Are you going to plant anything to replace it? Shade is pretty nice in the right places if you have the water to support the trees.
 
I have been planting fruit trees for the last 2 years on my land, probably move them a little bit further away from the house and plant dwarf fruit trees so they don't block my solar panels.

I like trees, unless they're rotten, leaning over the house or blocking solar panels.

I cut down its twin 2 years ago, it was so rotten I couldn't tell how old it was, probably going to burn the stump this weekend.
 
We have a bunch of semi-dwarf fruit trees (Mormon Apricot and ?? Pear) that we got at Home Depot. They are doing great but 2 of them are now as tall as our 2-story house, roughly 30'. It's nice to see them outside the upstairs window but the Apricots in particular grow like crazy and need to be pruned back occasionally.
 
Eh if they start to get super tall for "dwarf trees" I will just have to get good at pruning them or have them dug up and moved.
To me a big mature fruit tree would be worth it to move it for a few hundred dollars.

If a dwarf tree gets 30 feet tall there was probably a mix up at the green house.
 
Ha Oilpan! Hugged it before you cut it! I trim my trees to keep the shade off for the most part. We have a basswood tree that shaded it in the late afternoon, and I took the top third off it. I was concerned that the tree might hit the house anyway, since some large limbs blew off in storms, so now it's a harmless tree. If I add more solar on the garage, then the tree will go all the way, it's not doing so well anyway without it's top.

I have the same roof mounts, I like the two lag bolts per mount.

How is your new system coming along?
 
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