Solar Panel Installation

Solar panel installation may be a daunting task for most people — it requires you to know where and how to site your solar panels. Moreover installation on roofs exposes you to the danger of falling. You are also at risk of electrocution while wiring your inverters.

But we do not have to be discouraged. Knowing what to do can help us tremendously and keep us away from danger. Some important installation know-how can make your job much safer and easier. Here are some points to consider before you install your solar panel…

In the northern hemisphere, we’d like our solar panels to tilt towards to south so that it can receive the most sunlight throughout the year. If we have a south-facing roof, all we need to do is line the solar panels along the surface of the roof. Otherwise we’ll need additional brackets to tilt the photovoltaic panels toward the south.

The roof is usually the best place to site your solar panels, but there are exceptions. Therefore you have to do a thorough survey to know where is the best place to locate your panels.

During the survey, you’ll have to take into consideration shading from plants and nearby structures. Shading has an adverse effect on solar energy production. The amount of electricity generated by photovoltaic cells reduces by a significant percentage with slight shading.

Through different seasons of the year, the position of the sun changes. So you’ll have to take this into consideration. An easy way to find the location that receives the most sunlight throughout the year is to use a Solar Pathfinder. This instrument shows you at a glance where shadows will be at different times of the day and different seasons of the year.

If the ideal location is on your rooftop, you’ll have to find out the maximum loading your roof can withstand. If the solar panels are too heavy, you will need to provide additional reinforcement to the roof structure before installation.

After the location is finalized, actual work can begin. You’ll have to get the correct solar panel mount to fix them at the ideal place — there are pole mounts, roof-ground mounts and flush mounts.

When installing on roofs, we frequently use flush mounts. This is the cheapest and easiest way to mount small solar panels. These are metal brackets that support both ends of a solar panel. It elevates the solar panels a few inches away from the roof to form a gap in between. This allows air to flow through, cooling the solar panels. It is vital to moderate the solar panel temperature so as to maintain the efficiency of photovoltaic cells.

Roof-ground mounts are grid-like structures that are used primarily for large solar panels. They can be installed on the ground or on roofs. A pole mount is used mainly for supporting a small, single solar panel.

After the solar panels are fixed, you’ll have to run and connect the electrical cables. The actual connections depend on whether you want a grid-tied or off-grid system.

With proper solar panel installation, each panel will be able to withstand strong winds and work efficiently for decades. You can also expect your property to increase in value with a solar energy system installed.

Continue Reading:

1. Solar Pathfinder – What Does It Do For You?
2. Installing Solar Water Heaters
3. Solar Panel Efficiency

A device known as an energizer generates a (brief) high voltage impulse that’s repeated every second or two. Whenever an animal comes into contact with the fence, electricity passes through a muscle in the animal.

Although this does not harm the animal in any way, it produces an uncomfortable muscle contraction. The animal remembers this sensation and learns to avoid the fence.

To use solar energy to power the energizer, we’ll need to a few things:

Electric Fence Charger

1. A fence charger together with its accessories.
2. A 10-watt solar panel
3. A 12-volt rechargeable battery
4. A 12-volt Charge controller

There are different types of energizer you can buy. Most of them require 110 Volt AC as input. Therefore you may also need to use a DC to AC inverter. (Your existing energizer will most likely be using 110 VAC.)

The main purpose of the solar panel is to charge the 12-volt battery. Even though solar power disruption has no adverse effect on its performance, it is good to make sure your PV panel supplies as much power to the battery as possible.

So before you begin, you’ll have to find a location to site your solar panel such that it will not experience shading.

After installing the solar panel on a suitable site, you’ll need to connect the output terminals to the charge controller. Then wire the charge controller to the battery.

Please note that the battery and charge controller has to be kept in a sturdy waterproof casing to prevent moisture and precipitation from damaging the system.

Finally, you’ll have to connect the DC-to-AC converter between the electric fence charger and the battery. This device converts the 12-volt direct current into 110 volts alternating current so your fence charger can work.

Note:

• You can design your solar electric fence charger (or energizer) such that it gives an output of 8kV open circuit voltage. This will be sufficient to energize an electric fence that surrounds an area of about 10 acres.

• For a solar electric fence, you must design it to have low-impedance so there is less drain on the battery. This also means you won’t need to buy solar panels that are larger than necessary.

• You can bury the waterproof box into the ground, leaving only its top portion above ground. This can prevent people from accidentally tripping over the system.

Continue Reading:

1. Sizing Your Solar Energy Panels – Part 3
2. How To Build A Solar Panel Charge Controller
3. Lighting Up Your Yard or Garden Using Solar Energy

With this, you can also get a good feel on how sunlight intensity changes through the seasons…

A sun chart helps you estimate the sunlight and its intensity over the course of a day in an intuitive, graphical form. It helps you determine if skyline effects are of concern to you. Different objects like trees, buildings, mountains, towers, et cetera affects your skyline. (These details should be included in your sun chart)

If there is a mountain at your skyline, you’ll perhaps experience sunshine only at 7:30am instead of 7:00am. This affects the energy production of your solar panels. Knowing this, you can consider another location where you can get sunlight earlier instead.

Interestingly, each location at your property has a different skyline. But your best chance for maximum sunlight is usually on your roof, where elevation is highest.

The best instrument that can help you plot a sun chart is a Solar Pathfinder. It is quite expensive, but you can rent it for a week for a reasonable fee. So grab hold of one of these, because it helps you in many ways.

A Solar Pathfinder

You can bring your solar pathfinder to the place where you believe it’s best for PV panel installation. Then look into the dome to find out where those obstacles (shading) may be.

Usually, for most of us, there is only so much space on the roof. Thus we can’t really shift the solar panels much further. But if you have a really big, flat roof, you should be walking to different spots just to find out which one is the best.

To use this instrument, all you have to do is point the instrument southward and level it. There is a compass provided for you to point it in the correct direction. It also comes with a bubble level so you can level it without too much hassle.

Looking into the dome glass, you can see the reflection of all the objects that will shade your solar panel and the time it occurs. This reflection is superimposed onto a chart marked with the hours of the day and months of the year.

With this instrument, you can easily find out the shade information at any particular location. This information is certainly crucial for proper solar panels installation.

Continue Reading:

1. Solar Panel Installation
2. Do-It-Yourself Solar Panels – Electricity Conversion From Sunlight
3. Solar Pathfinder – What Does It Do For You?