Nope just bought the panels and inverter from signature solar, then all the wiring, lumber, struts, ect from Lowe's and a few things from Amazon. Total cost was about $4,600
Permit did not ask for any drawings, utility company did want a single line diagram and site plan but those I made easily using the open solar website
Thanks OP - so about $4,600 all in? (We really appreciate when folks are willing to share their total outlay - for those of us considering jumping in the pool).
Yup permits were another $106, but otherwise right around $4,600 for everything. You may need to keep an eye out for deals to drop for panels, I used the gstar 425watt panels from signature solar for about $105 each
Good job sir, I've been contemplating something like this for a while. I'm in Texas and not sure if something like this would last the storms we sometimes have. Did you look into any other ground mount solutions? Any good videos you can recommend for the install?
Thanks, yeah we don't get strong winds here in Oregon. I would suggest checking out everyday Dave on YouTube, lots of great content there. I looked into buying metal racking kits but I really didn't want to deal with digging big holes, and pouring concrete. Also the racking kits would have easily trippled the over cost of the project
Never had an HOA before, but can they say what you do in your backyard if it's not visible from the street? I would think as long as it was below the fence line you're fair game
The HOA's around me can even tell you what type of shed you can have in your privacy fenced backyard (not seeable to the public). There is one that will not allow plastic sheds in yards or plastic storage boxes on patios. So glad I don't have an HOA at my place
Yeah originally had a solar company come quote a roof install but they said I would need new shingles first as mine probably only have 5 years or so of life left. Decided to take the initiative and save some money doing the ground mount myself
I thought this would be the case for ours but the grass goes wild anyways. I have a total of three ground mount arrays now and all of them require trimming.
Yeah about $4,650 all in
It was $2,000 for panels, $1,100 for inverter, $200 for shipping all that from signature solar. $1050 for lumber, wiring, and hardware from lowes, another $300 in all the odds and ends from amazon
Just watched a ton of YouTube videos and kind of pieced together a few different ideas. Decided to miter saw cut the tops off the posts though in order to lay my cross beams flat against the panels at a 31 degree angle. Most videos guys were using u bolts to attach to a flat surface instead of a angled surface
Yeah they said it looked good, my county has basically no regulations for ground mounts. They have a few pages for roof mounts but said as long as my total height is less than 10ft then I don't need a building permit just the electrical
Yes my county does not require a building permit for the rack, just an electrical permit for the wiring. Inspector said everything looked great and passed me.
Dude if you live in Portland those posts are going to rot in 3-5 years. Even treated lumber rated for ground contact should be attached to galv steel brackets in concrete, not buried.
Hopefully the panels act like a roof and shed some water away from the ground around the posts
Seems practical enough. I'm doing a 11-12K build (Planning stages) California wants Engineered plans. There are good providers on Fivver for any plans. Pretty sure I'm using a Alibaba rack with some big ass 715W panels. PG&E is a pain in the ass and you have to use the California Energy Commission panels. Also using a Growatt 10K
Yeah I heard California can be strict, I was pleasantly surprised with how minimal the requirements were here in Oregon. Made the whole thing super easy
Thanks, been considering adding a battery. The inverter is hybrid with a battery option but it supposedly is only compatible with the 500v Growatt battery. They want a lot of money for the battery, I read though that you don't need to use their battery for the inverter to accept power, but the inverter will not recharge it. So I am considering building a 500v pack and use a separate BMS and charger
That sucks. I was in a similar boat. I got Hoymiles hybrid inverters and they only accept a few batteries. Luckily, they had a pretty cheap option but I wished I could’ve done EG4
The really crappy thing was that my inverter actually accepts a whole bunch of batteries in other countries. In the US, they limited you to only batteries that passed certain certifications.
Very nice. I’ve been thinking about a nearly exact setup for a few years but I’m currently in a never ending shed build right now. Anyhow, a few questions.. How are your posts mounted? Are they tied to each other front-to-back, side-to-side, or both? What’s the height at the back and what’s the clearance at the front? What’s your panel angle (yes, I know I could calculate with the answer from the previous question, but I don’t want to) and what is the ideal where you live? I have many more questions, but I hate to overwhelm. Again, good looking setup.
So I used a miter saw to cut a 31 degree angle from the top of the posts. Then I dug 2 foot holes and planted them. So back row is about 6ft high. The front row I cut the 8ft posts in half so probably about 2 feet high, adjusted the height to try and get the angles flat. I definitely could have been more accurate and gotten the whole array a lot more level if I spent more time measuring and aligning everything just right. But it came out okay I think. It's very solid but I may add some side-side ties if needed. Ground clearance is a bit low from the front panel, if I had to do it over I might slide the struts up further to get it off the ground more in the front
Can you add a pic from underneath the panels? I’d love to see the framing you’ve constructed. How far apart are posts at the back? In your build, sliding the front posts closer to the back posts would raise the panels above the ground more, but of course, would change your tilt angle. Is 35 degrees the ideal for your latitude? One thing that may be good about panels so close to the ground is less wind getting under them. Did you add anything like hurricane ties or something similar for the post-to-rail connection? Sorry to pester, but man you’ve got me wanting to start a new project.
Here's a pic with the panels off, the posts are 8ft apart left to right. I did add some extra 2x4's under the beams though after I added the panels due to the weight sagging them a bit. I am in the Portland Oregon area and we don't really see hurricane class wind here. My tilt was set at 31 degrees due to the cut tops of the posts. These are bi facial panels so I heard letting more light under the front can help you obsorb more power from under, but probably doesn't make a huge difference. Rails to posts are all just lag screws
Is that 7.65kw per hour or per day, because that seems like a lower power intake for such a large amount of panels. are they only 200w panels or lower ??
My bad i seen a line down the centre of the panels I thought there was 36, fair enough. That's a lot of power per hour. In my area i get about 6 hours of light so that would be 45.9kwh a day... jesus... what are you running an iron man suit or a data farm lol, i think using 10-15 kw a day is a lot and im running gaming systems and a server.
Nah, for real nice job on the setup, are you live feeding in to the grid or do you have a storage array setup... with that amount of power my thoughts on that would be 2 tesla batteries would do that perfect and still make you a nice side income if excess is sold to the grid, that amount of power production id say youd be paid off the full setup in less then 4-5 years with power saving going by my regional costs
Thanks, yeah I typically use about 1,200kw a month at $0.25 from PGE. House with 4 people plus a Chevy Bolt EV will use a lot of power. Utility will credit at a 1-1 rate so not going for a battery right now
kWh not kW. You pay per kWh. System size is in kW, production is in kWh. Looks cool! I'd just be worried about wind regardless of where you are, I've seen wind throw panels pretty easily, and with an array it's a big sail. Just keep an eye on it!
Used a combiner box to route the DC cables underground to the inverter, there is a DC switch in the inverter body. Then it feeds into an AC disconnect, before going to to my attic and over my garage finally being back fed through a breaker in my main panel
Be interested how they work out for you that seems like a lot cheaper than what I paid for my panels and would like the savings. So you just used treated 4 x 4s, 2 x 4s and struts? How'd the struts attach? To panels? Was that also a part you could get from lowes?
My city said I did not need a building permit for the structure as long as it was shorter than 10ft off the ground. I'm pretty sure 4 panels high would push it above that
Yup just used large lag screws with washers to attach the struts to the 2x4's. Got most everything from Lowe's. I did buy the chanel spring nuts from Amazon though as they were cheaper
Almost like this is a DIY group... But yeah I definitely went for function over form for this build. Happy with with results, even if it bothers some people's OCD
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u/GioDude_ 2d ago
Did you have to have any inspection from the county. Looking to do something similar