Solar Panel L Brackets

I've made my own, and bought mounting hardware. The 'bought' was much better. Those ebay brackets look like their edges are rough..maybe sharp.

Hi mena,

A garden variety hacksaw will make short work of angle aluminum.

smkettner wrote:
I would buy 1.5" angle aluminum at Home Depot and cut/drill my own.

You may want to locate your own hole position or have two holes into the roof. Or maybe you want 2" wide or 3" wide.

$15 for 36" piece of aluminum. Cut as you like. Drill to match the shape & slope of the roof.

Or maybe 2" angle is better.

Thanks smk. I don't have anything to cut aluminum with but I'll keep in mind anyways.

hmknightnc wrote:

Might be timely for Mena, since I'll be testing it with 265watts solar and will definitely try to max it out

Looking forward to the testing!

BFL13 wrote:

EDIT---He's back! hmknightnc--how's the Tracer? :)

Hey! Hopefully I'll get the new T-105s and the Tracer installed this weekend. Pictures and test data from the guinea pig later this month. I'll start a new thread when I get it up and running for the group's review and comment. Should be fun :)

Might be timely for Mena, since I'll be testing it with 265watts solar and will definitely try to max it out

I would buy 1.5" angle aluminum at Home Depot and cut/drill my own.

You may want to locate your own hole position or have two holes into the roof. Or maybe you want 2" wide or 3" wide.

$15 for 36" piece of aluminum. Cut as you like. Drill to match the shape & slope of the roof.

Or maybe 2" angle is better.

Ahhh! Low SOC battery bank draws more current! DUH! I am so glad I posted. Maybe I should wire them in parallel and get the Morningstar 45A PWM instead. BFL, I want to be able to run the convection oven (1580W draw...tested that) about an hour a day on inverter (about two 30 min sessions but the 2nd session can be done on generator if needed). That's the goal anyways.

mena661 wrote:
Rig has a rubber roof. I'm going to put the two panels in series and get the Rogue 20A MPPT controller. Doubtful I'll ever get the 20A output with a fixed roof install AND I don't know if I can add more panels (they'd have to be smaller than the 150W I think) so no larger controller will be purchased. I'm looking for 50-70Ah a day. Anything more is gravy.

EDIT: I'll get the panels first before ordering the brackets.

I got 56AH a day with my 130w lying flat at 49.3N in mid-May, and got 7.2 out of 8.3a Isc at noon. You should get higher noon amps being farther south. Just using my one time results there, in proportion you should expect 300/130 x 56 = 129AH and noon amps of 8.95/8.3 x 7.2 x 300/130 = 17.9a with an extra 10% for MPPT= 20a.

Being farther south you will go over 20a at noon for sure, but the controller will clip any extra so no worries about the gear.

The 129AH is huge for the purpose intended. That is almost an hour of MW operation. ISTR you want 20 minutes of MW? So somewhere in all that you can WAG if your set-up will be enough for your needs, allowing that not every day will be sunny all day.

EDIT---He's back! hmknightnc--how's the Tracer? :)

mena661 wrote:
Rig has a rubber roof. I'm going to put the two panels in series and get the Rogue 20A MPPT controller. Doubtful I'll ever get the 20A output with a fixed roof install AND I don't know if I can add more panels (they'd have to be smaller than the 150W I think) so no larger controller will be purchased. I'm looking for 50-70Ah a day. Anything more is gravy.

EDIT: I'll get the panels first before ordering the brackets.

Hey Mena

Be careful with a 20a controller on 300 watts. I don't know anything about the Rogue but some MPPT controllers can safely clip excess amps and others can't. 300 watts in full sun with a large battery bank at 50% SOC on a MPPT is going to be pushing 25 amps (300 watts outputting 12.1 volts)

pianotuna wrote:
Hi,

Hmmm $100 is 1/2 tank of fuel for me. I'd go with the 30 amp Rogue.

$100 extra for the 30A is $100 less for the panels. I'd rather get the panels sooner than later.

Hi,

Hmmm $100 is 1/2 tank of fuel for me. I'd go with the 30 amp Rogue.