................................--- Mount For Six 80 Watt Solar Panels ---
.........................................................................................--- Part I ---
We had added 200 watts of solar to our MacGregor 26 and knew we want solar on the Endeavour. The 200 watts was adequate 90% of the time on the Mac and we ran the gen-set we made for the other 10%. The Endeavour had more room for panels and the cost of solar has come down so we decided to go to 480 watts with six 80 watt panels that we bought on sale (of course the price is down even more since then) from Solar Blvd.
This first 4 part series will be the making of the mount for the panels that was made at home and then taken to the boat and installed. The second part will show how mounting hardware was made and the third part will show the install on the boat. Later I'll also show the wiring of the panels.
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All projects have to start somewhere and this one started with some 3/16 inch X 3 inch aluminum strap that I had ordered from onlinemetals.com along with the rest of the aluminum for this project. They have good pricing and the shipping is reasonable to our remote location in Utah.The pieces above were cut to a rough length and then taken to their final length and squared up on the ends with the larger mill I have.
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They were then welded into a right angle bracket.
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Next some bottom pieces were added for strength. I chose 3 inches since it gives me room to mount the panels down inside of this mount which should give them a little protection from above and also the sides.
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The is one of the ....
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Six outside corners of the mount. The mount will hold a ...
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....total of 6 panels. The first two and one corner are shown above. The arrows point to the pieces that were made. The top most arrow points to a corner that will be there for the back two panels. There will be four across the near side above.
The long pieces or strap are also 3/16 X 3 inches and will be used for the outer and inner parts of the frame. After hitting and breaking a panel on the Mac on a piling at Marco Island, FL I wanted this frame to be robust. Almost all of it will be within the rub-rail of the Endeavor, but a small section will stick out past near the back of this front section. I'm hoping that the frame and panels will survive a slight brush if that happens.
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Another view with the panels and some strap mocked into position so that I can see if things are going the way I envisioned. The top right arrow points to the other side of the front of the frame.
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Next more aluminum was cut and squared up to length and ...
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... drilled on the smaller mill/drill and then...
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Welded into more brackets. All of the drilled holes for all of the brackets are the same distance from the top and bottom of the bracket and will interchange with each other. The nice thing about drilling holes with the mill/drill is that you have this accuracy and repeatability.
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More bracket parts. Note the left ones are drilled different that the right ones. The left ones ....
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.... were welded to the centers if the right ones which resulted in the brackets above.
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Next the process of drilling holes in the long pieces of strap began after they were cut to length.
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Above you can see where some of the brackets are going. The top arrow points to one that will hold the second frame with the 2 panels in it.
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Here some of the pieces have been temporarily bolted together. Notice that the tops of the panels are a little lower than the sides of the frame and the divider pieces, piece between the two panels.
