Panel setup for a camp for three months?
Come the beginning of the year, I make a camp where I hit on weekends for a renaissance festival. This lasts until April. I've been thinking of solar panels, but it would be a semi-permanent affai...
Forum Discussion
Flexible panels are not an easy material to build anything. Go rigid.
I don't see a problem building a rack of 1/8" or 3/16" aluminum angle, with vertical arms on the North side and horizontal struts connecting the bottom of the arms with the front of the panel. Assembled on screws or pins, and panels fastened with the same. Horizontal struts would be staked to the ground. Shouldn't take more than a few hours to assemble every time.
Theft possibility? With prices of big panels approaching prices of 4x8 plywood - not very likely to find somebody THAT desperate. Use rivet-nuts and tamper-resistant screws if you're worried about this. McMaster have some very tricky screws that fit only their proprietary screwdriver.
I've seen this kind of rack on a top of a van, was made of rusty steel slotted angle and cheap fasteners. The whole contraption was attached to his roofrack as I recall.
Westend here has made something along these lines (of aluminum and stainless hardware) on top of his trailer, ask him about photos.
Of course, if you will have the whole weekend to build it every time, you can build it from 2x4 from a local store.
I hope you realize that each 250W panel weighs 42 lbs and requires 3 people to lift it to any roof over 6ft height - 2 people lifting and one grabbing it from the top.
I don't see a problem building a rack of 1/8" or 3/16" aluminum angle, with vertical arms on the North side and horizontal struts connecting the bottom of the arms with the front of the panel. Assembled on screws or pins, and panels fastened with the same. Horizontal struts would be staked to the ground. Shouldn't take more than a few hours to assemble every time.
Theft possibility? With prices of big panels approaching prices of 4x8 plywood - not very likely to find somebody THAT desperate. Use rivet-nuts and tamper-resistant screws if you're worried about this. McMaster have some very tricky screws that fit only their proprietary screwdriver.
I've seen this kind of rack on a top of a van, was made of rusty steel slotted angle and cheap fasteners. The whole contraption was attached to his roofrack as I recall.
Westend here has made something along these lines (of aluminum and stainless hardware) on top of his trailer, ask him about photos.
Of course, if you will have the whole weekend to build it every time, you can build it from 2x4 from a local store.
I hope you realize that each 250W panel weighs 42 lbs and requires 3 people to lift it to any roof over 6ft height - 2 people lifting and one grabbing it from the top.
