Chapter 142...Our New Solar Panels Being Installed

I love not having any electric bills:)  Finally the day we have been waiting for.  Time to get our new solar panels in the mounts and get hooked up.  It's so nice to not have to worry about power outages.

So back to our story and back to the second week of April.

April 8
Today I spent the day working on the garden of rocks around the solar panel mounts and Mike did the drilling for the solar panels.

On a cute note...here are some updated cow and calf pictures:)
Our big girl "Red" and in the background our unsociable cow and her light colored calf:

Mama and her baby.

And the one with the white face, like a mask:

Mike and I took a ride down to our pond and got to see some of the fish.  It's good to see the babies after the winter months.

And:

Enough animals...now it's time to work.

We have a couple of bags of concrete left so Mike and I decided to use them up and fill up all of the holes.

Mike is spraying the bottom of a pole with the rubber paint for protection:

All the concrete is used:)

Next Mike works on leveling the 4x4's so I can start filling the gardens with rock:

Mike is pounding rebar into our 4x4's and into the ground the make the garden more solid:

Now I can start filling them with rock.  First I put the weed cloth down, then I take the shovel and the 5 gallon buckets back to our rock pile.  I use the hand truck to bring the full buckets of rock back to the garden:

While I do that, Mike works on drilling holes into the solar panel mounts.  This is so we can install the solar panels.  He needs to drill a total of 50 holes, ten holes in each rack:

Finally after thirty 5-gallon buckets I get the garden finished and we have no more rocks.

Mike is hosing them down to make it nice and clean:

It was a good day and it feels so nice to have nice weather.


April 9
More blue skies.  It's time to paint.

We are going to paint all of the solar panels mounts green to match the building and while we are at it we will paint the side of the shipping container.

Laying out cardboard to protect the rocks:

Mike using his new paint spray gun:

All the solar panel mounts are done:

Once the mounts are done we start on the side of the building.  We might as well while we have the chance.  Once the new solar panels go up we won't be touching this side of the building ever again.

We start at the front top corner of the building.  While I hold cardboard up to protect the driveway, Mike starts spraying.  He also sprays my hands but at least the driveway isn't green, lol.

Almost done with the building:

The painting is done:)

We have to let everything dry before we can install the solar panels.


April 10
Today is the day we have been waiting for.  It's time to get our new bigger solar panels on the new mounts that Mike designed:)

The solar panels are big so Mike and I will have to work together to get them on the racks.  The first one is the hardest as we don;t have much land to stand on.  I really hope we don't drop one.

The first one is in the rack:

And presto...eight of them are in.  We work so fast, lol.  Since Mike and I had to work hard to get them in I couldn't take pictures.  You can see how much bigger these are compared to the old panels which are on top of the shipping container.

We also got the two panels installed that stand alone to catch a different angle of the sun.  After all the panels are screwed in, Mike wants to clean up the ground.  Here he is grading out underneath the panels:

Next I raked it all out and Mike starts seeding:

And:

I put the hay over the seed and Mike waters it:

Now it's time for the really important part and since I can't do any electrical, Mike is on his own.  Mike has to get all of the wires hooked up so we can make our own electric.


Mike installed two combiner boxes on the outside of the shipping container and under the solar panels.  A combiner box takes all the wires from the solar panels, combines them into one, and then sends them to the charge controller inside the shipping container.

Mike has 5 panels going into each combiner box.  Each solar panel has it's own circuit breaker.


Mike uses the torch to seal the shrink wrap over the connectors to make them weathertight.

Skip to April 16 as we had other work going on at the "store" property:)

Mike is getting getting ready to put the wire from the combiner boxes into the charge controller.  This is a really thick wire and you need strength in your hands to do this kind of work:

Peeling back and clipping the strands that aren't needed:

Mike hooking up one of  the charge controllers:

And the finishing touches:

Here are the circuit breakers onside the combiner box:

Our wire mess.  Mike will clean this up soon:

Now we are set to go.  Next I will help Mike take down our old panels and he will hook up our new system:)

I hope you all enjoyed this story and I will write again soon:)

Chapter 140...Finishing Our Solar Panel Mounts

Finally we are finishing installing the solar panel mounts for our new off grid system.  Woo hoo.  It has been a tough winter/spring, weather wise, to get this job done.

So on to the pictures for this chapter:)


April 1
This morning starts out good so Mike and I decide to go for another pole.  It's a little muddy but we are tired of being cooped up in the house.  Mike starts off by shoveling and clearing some of the ground before we move the pole over.  

What a muddy mess.  I hope we are able to pull the trailer with the pole over there without sinking it or having a mud bath.

We unwrap the tarp and get another one of these awkward poles onto the trailer.  From there we start to work.  Since our land goes higher at this point we have to cut down the pole so it will match the others that are in the ground.

Mike cuts the pole down:

Then he wraps painters tape on the bottom and sprays the portion of the pole that will be in the ground with a rubber undercoating:

This one has a lot of rust so we have to sand it off.  Here I am sanding some of the solar mount.

Now the fun part...sorry no pictures of this.  We are a little busy:)  Mike and I push the trailer closer to the hole.  We push, pull. shove and do whatever is necessary to get the pole into the hole.  It is in and of course it isn't stable until we get the concrete in the ground.

Mike uses a post hole digger to keep it in place:

Next we mix the multiple bags of quikrete and get it in the hole around the pole.  We have to hurry.  The weather is not looking good and we still have to get this painted before any rain comes.

Using a jack and the post hole digger we lift the pole a little to get it level with the other solar panel mounts:

Our temporary set up until the concrete hardens.  Another creative idea, lol:

Uh oh...it looks like rain.  Mike tells me to grab a tarp and wrap up this last mount.  Here is our handy work:

We went down to the house and hoped for a break.  We really have to get this pole painted.  Mike is getting antsy and pacing.  Finally he says "let's go"

We get up top and I pull the tarp off while Mike mixes the paint.  We don't like how the silver paint looked on the poles and mounts.  It had a very rough finish and really stood out so we are going back to our old standby using the same green that is on the shipping container.  We hate when things don;t blend, lol.

Mike mixing the paint:

Instead of using the big sprayer and making a huge cleanup mess, Mike bought a new little gadget.  Oh yeah...boys and their toys but hey if it gets the job done faster I'm in:)  He bought a handheld Graco sprayer from Lowe's.  Our New Paint Sprayer


Testing out the new sprayer:

Looks like fun if it wasn't so windy:

It looks great and Mike is very happy with his new tool:

Woo hoo.  We beat the rain and got the 3rd solar panel mount in the ground and painted.  Time to take a break.  It may not seem like a lot of work but when you really do it all it takes a long time.

I will be so happy when all five solar mounts are in the ground:)


April 2
Oh look....digging another hole for the 4th pole, lol.  Seriously though we "are" getting there and it is going to be awesome:)

Here I am using the bar to help break up the rock in the hole.  Just once I would like to be able to dig a hole with just a shovel.  Of course Niki has to help,  For some reason she has an obsession with holes.  Some day I fear something will jump out of a hole and bite her.  Thankfully nothing is living in this hole since we dug it:

Mike uses the tractor to try and get the spot more level and lower:

We had to stop work here and meet with our grader.  Mike and I go over to our lot and talk about getting a rock delivery in for the concrete man.  While we are there the concrete guys show up and put the form boards in for our slab:)


The next few days we couldn't work on poles.  We watched our granddaughter one day and then we had bad weather.



April 6
Yay....it's warm and sunny.  What a great combo.  It's time to get some work done.


This 4th hole is giving us grief.  Mike takes the electric chisel to try and help us break up the rock:

We do the same thing.  Get the solar panel mount on the trailer, Mike paints the bottom of the pole, we drop it into our hole and add the quikrete:

Nik is enjoying the weather while we work.  What else is new:)

I'm finally digging with a shovel:

It's a good day.  We also got the 5th and last solar panel mount in the ground.  Only 2120 pounds hand mixed concrete later:

This last mount is set apart from the others.  The solar panels on this one will be on their own electric breaker.  It will catch more of the winter sun for us.

Mike painting:

The first four solar panel mounts lined up:

Mike digging out the ground the add some 4x4's.  He wants to make a small garden of rock around the poles to keep the area clean:

While he does that I work on my garden a little.  I am getting really anxious for some plants to start growing but I have a long wait for that.  Here is my garden and the square foot grids:

That's all for now.  Mike and I are very happy to have the poles in the ground.  Next we will have to paint the first poles green and also re paint the side of the shipping container.  Then we can get the new solar panels on:)

My stories for the next few months will go back and forth from our "off grid" home and our new store that we are building.

I hope you enjoyed this story and I will write again on Monday:)