Building our First Solar Array. Easy, Low Cost Solar Ground Mount. 

Dude you and Lumnah Acres have it going on !!’

I’d rethink putting those panels on the roof of your workshop. Keep them on the ground.

How do you maintain your sanity with all the wanna, coulda, shoulda comments you get? Every project that you do someone has to put in their 2cents. You’re quite competent, do it your way! Your videos are one of our favorites.

This is the best TV show I have ever seen. Fun on the Farm with Evan. 👍

You mentioned the final place for the solar panels is the pole barn roof. Just a recommendation-I would try to stick with a ground Mount system. Roof mount systems are a maintenance challenge on a good day. JMO God bless.

Evan, the one video that I think you should watch most of all is wild. Wonderful off grid. That family started out in a little camping trailer and now they have got a beautiful A-frame home. It’s a very good channel to watch and he excellent electrician. Good luck on your bill. I’ll be following you.

Ground mounts are just so much easier, nice job. 👍

You're such a thoughtful dude. This test winter project to see how much power to expect in real life so your final product will be what you want. Really enjoy your content.

Hi Evan, I would put a rubber grommet under the fender washers. As for the ends, it looks like you have room for a block of wood or use a piece of conduit to run the lag bolt though to hold the panels down. Another thing I would do and that is to put a 2 by 4 at the bottom for added safety to help hold the panels in place! These are only my opinion's.

Throw a cooling /heating loop into that lake for a heat pump powered by solar array, with wood stove and generator back up. Lot of things to do.

Awesome! Run a 2x4 along to bottom to carry the panel weight Temporary, I would think there’s some kind of angle bracket that would be made for this to make it easier to hold the sides down

I have been off grid 5.5 years now and have 16000 watts of panels. 1/2 the year I can run everything in my house and my shop easy. I would say 10% to 15% more than I need in the summer. Now November December and January I could use 15% to 20% more panels. I have 56kwh's of chevy volt batteries and I think 70kwh's would be great when I get there.

We’ve got a lot for our retirement house with a camper on it that we’ll power off-grid for the next 3 years to give us an idea what we’ll need. So finding stuff like this has been wonderful

We are starting an off-grid solar experiment this coming week. It looks like we are going about it the same way.

Would love to see a cost breakdown after you give this a trial run

You do know that temporary is semi permanent don’t you lol. The homestead is coming along over the years. I remember you cleaning up all the steel around there and getting the barn in shape.

Very nice job Evan and Rebecca!

Nice work can’t wait for the update

Very nice, hope they work out. I look forward to seeing you guys do more with them. Thanks for sharing.

Love your videos. I'm glad you made it through that bad winter

Great job you two work good together love your videos thank you

Evan, love your videos and the wide range you cover. If I may offer some advice, you live in a wooden house, you have two battery storage devices full of lithium ion batteries, if they go faulty and go into thermal runaway that’s 1800deg c and almost impossible to put out. Put them away from the house in a fireproof enclosure .. few feet of cable for the safety is a must 👍

Evan, If you are serious about Solar, I would go with a ground mount, for easy snow removal and to benefit from using Bi-Facial panels. Because you, like us, have a good number of days with clouds during the winter time.

thanks we love your videos. please keep it up.

Evan the ground heaving with the frost will rack your frame! It could damage the panels.

Awesome setup great solar system install

put a 90 degree bend in your washers close to the center hole for the outside panels, it will keep them from wanting to tilt. Love watching your videos.

Hi Evan, got to get you up to a mil subs and beyond

You guys are amazing. I am so envious of you.

Need to add a bottom support bar to prevent the panels dropping as the materials change with temperature changes.

Very good job. I much prefer ground mount panels as they are easier to clean. Greetings from Jamaica.

Looks good, I think your going to get some real good usable results for your needs. I just set my house up for a gas generator, along with the disconnect, so I'm ready to go. I might try it within the next few days to a week, due to the snow and possible ice coming. Good luck on your results, I hope they turn out the results your wanting. Thanks for sharing, have a great week.

Nice set up. Love the team work with you and Rebecca. I too would love to set up array down by my tractor shed and it's nice and sunny there. Enjoyed full-watch. 👍🏽🤠 1/28/23

I like the idea of screwing into the treated 2x4 instead of a traditional metal channel. I've been trying to decide the best option for mounting to our timber-framed ground mounts. Thanks for the idea!

Great video! Just two suggestions--Ground Mount, and move east of the Wabash!🙂

for the end lag bolts , cut a small block and pit it the other side of the washer so it tightens down evenly.

Awesome!!

Thank you!

Great video. Thank you. This is very interesting.

Thanks for the video, as always.

A Newbie here. Following THIS very intently !!! Thanks for sharing these !!!

I'm right behind you, currently building my solar array. Like you I am figuring out my needs and what will need to be upgraded in the future.

Thanks! Seeing this gave me a great idea how to build my array easily adjustable for summer and winter :)

Evan you give me the guts to go off grid. Thanks for you videos.

Great info. Thanks for the link. Adding more solar is our next big project.

Bought similar (different wattage) Canadian Solar panels also from Signature Solar recently and I'm going to be building a ground array that will double as an equipment shed (the panels do double duty as roofing material). Planning on installing a couple of off grid inverter/solar charge controllers to be the primary power source for the farm with the grid as a back up.

Real world test results are always interesting to see.

Awesome job done Rebekah and Even. Hopefully it’s going to save you some $$$.

Good luck with it all!

LOVE IT! Was trying to find a ground mount that was easy (and inexpensive) to build vs buying something. This was perfect, so thank you so much for posting!

Thanks 😎

All the best!

You do a great job very smart thinker

Great video educational THANKS

Madman. You're a genius! You just gave me a great idea!

Great job, very professional looking and much cheaper than buying the regular metal mounting systems.

Hey. I went to SanTan solar. I bought forty of their used 240 watt panels for 2k including shipping. Although used they work fine. Now setting on 13-14 kw of power per hour. BOOM!!!

Agree with earlier comment about keeping as a ground mount, where you can brush the snow off in winter and wash dirt/pollen off on other seasons. A cut piece of PVC pipe slightly shorter than the thickness of the panel for the end panels (lag bolt with fender washer goes thru pvc piece and wall of PVC prevents fender washer from angling down too much. Usually, you want some type of grounding on panels, even Romex with stripped wire every 40" wrapped around a bolt attached to each panel (panels should have a few holes on underside of frame) would work when coupled with 2' of rebar driven into ground with U bolt gripping stripped end of the length of Romex.

Very interesting video, Evan. Good luck on this project.

Nice. Just remember, when you think you have enough, add a minimum of half as many more. That goes for panels and storage batteries.

I have a stack of panels with an inverter and battery gathered but yet to attach together. I the shipping company left your yellow cardboard 'do not stack" cone intact. Mine was squashed flat, and four panels were fork truck fork speared. Replacement panels shipped also had a flat cone and oil stains on top but those survived.

good job !

New subscriber here. Thanks for the video. I live about 30 minutes from signature Solar here in Texas. They are very helpful for the DiY community. I am in the process of sizing my system on paper and consulting with signature Solar. I am considering various options (partial coverage, emergency generation only, or total off-grid). We just had another ice storm in north Texas. I grew up in northern Minnesota and I have seen cold weather make a mess of things. So I am motivated once again to keep the lights on and provide emergency backup power at a minimum. You are doing a good thing with your real world trial. Keep learning and asking questions. God Bless!

I love it

Pretty smart!!

Goooood Job sir !

Nice and cheap mounting. Be aware with washers and corrosion especially if they are not also aluminium based. Versus time corrosion will appear here. Maybe with some plastic washer between, will save the situation. Cheers from France.

Nice job

Good luck evan hope it works out

Cold weather makes our panels put out more. The colder the better.

I have 15 72/37 inch solar panels on the roof of my garage, 280 watts each broken down to 3 , 4 panels sets and one three panel set. If your not getting good info from an installer or the company you got your panels from let me give you some true Diy things that I have discovered in the 4 years I have had mine running. My panels are on my garage roof because I have no room in my yard. You on the other hand have plenty of space. It's been said in the comments, snow is a pain on a roof, maintenance is a pain on a roof, you will be on your roof a lot. On the ground all you have to do is walk up to them. Your temp solar panel rack is fine. As you said it's temporary. The one thing that I see on this video thats worring me is your wiring from the panels to your basement. You do realize that the power from the panels is DC? Distance matters when is comes to DC power lines. Another thing that I didn't see or hear you talk about was circuit breakers for the DC lines coming in. Thats a must if you don't want to destroy your solar equipment. It sounds to me that your plan is to go off grid. There is a lot more to it then a few solar panels and 2 battery backups and testing. On RU-vid go to Ambition Strikes and look at their setup. They have already done what your looking to do. They had help installing all the stuff they needed to make it work for them. Im sure they got a cut on the price for putting the install on their chennel. Please be safe don't kill a bunch more fish. LOL

Don't forget about wind turbines and a lot of areas where there's a lack of sun in the winter time there is a lot more breeze blowing a lot more wind that maybe something to think about too, if need be you can probably as one and your generator being The last resort from power.. good luck with your system.. God bless and have a good day.

Great video…very interesting

You got a good start on your system 👍

We've installed 1 of 3 hybrid inverters with our panels and batteries that are hooked to the grid to run first from solar, second from battery and if not enough solar they automatically switch to pulling power from the grid. The aim is to have a backup for power outage plus daily reduce our electric bill.

nice work, looks good. I like the roof idea

I realize it is temporary but you may want to consider some ground anchors and straps as well as keep taps on weather as strong wind gusts will get under the panels and rip them from framework. We had over 30 tall pine trees rips from ground with gusts only. (No tornados).

Great temp solar video so far. Will follow your next video on the output during the winter. I’m interested in adding solar to charge our electric car.

So far so good. I like your plan and hope it works. Creating mounts for the pole barn will be a challenge.

I would put a 1x1 or a 1x2 across the bottom of your panels. It’s just added security to keep them from sliding down. It can also take some pressure off of you lag bolts too. If you don’t have any, just rip a couple of 2x4’s down the middle. Just added peace of mind. I also think putting them on the roof would cause issues with cleaning snow, but I don’t know how much snow you get at a time and how often you see that kind of snow fall.

Would be nice if we all had this and some wind power.

Check out Wild and Wonderful Off Grid as they are running a full house from their array and he is a master electrician.

Just a thought, why dont you put a board on the bottom to act as a footer to hold the panels and give added support than just relying on those lag bolts? Food for thought especially if you are gonna roof mount them.

Fun Project Guys‼️‼️ GOOD LUCK 👍 Vinny 🇺🇸

Good to see you making a difference to your environment, energy is way too cheap in the USA here in Europe and UK it's makes real financial sense to fit panels, we have had ours for 8 year's and have paid for themselves. We are now reaping the benefits 👍

O so interesting this is nice

Amazing video on RU-vid ✌️

I think a batten along the bottom of the panels to stop any downward slippage would be a quick nd cheap option, even if the rig is short term would be a wise move.

You can grind half of your washer off so it fits the way you want it too

That was very well done, really looking forward to next weekends video of your testing, how many panels you end up going for, and the permanent install later in the year. 👍👍

You can't get a building inspection for a wood ground mount, if you need those. And you save a TON of money by building a legal ground mount, because with county approval you can have a grid-tie instead of batteries. (Which are a huge expense!) The problem is that your home-brew ground mount can warp and crack the panels. Your clamps are not engineered to keep the panels in place during a storm, and your garden posts are not that sturdy. My ground mount is approved. It uses 1 1/2" pipe in 18 inch concrete piers that go 26 inches into the ground. The aluminum rails that mount on the pipes, and the panel clamps are all engineered to hold the panels in place in 120 MPH wind, even though we never get hurricanes here. There are several manufacturers that sell ground mount systems complete with free engineered plans you can take to your building permit department.

Could of used 3rd pearlling at the bottom with 1x1 or 1x2 to make bottom rest for panels take some of strain from lag and washer hold downs

Enjoyed this and know you know what you are doing. You said it is temporary, hence no need for treated lumber touching the ground... I was also wondering if you might expect a bit of ground heave that might through your level or plumb off should it occur. Sure looking forward to seeing how this works out for you!!!

Great job keep us posted.. I'm very interested in this especially if it means we could go off grid in future.. our electricity prices are going a bit daft just now. Stay safe 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Yes keep them on the ground… I can’t clean snow off mine on the roof unless a climb up there which I won’t do due to my age lol…. Also could you do a vid on the connections on the panels. Thanks

For the ends use some small pieces of angle iron. That is if u have some.

For testing and trial runs..... I used a dozen folding chairs I had around the house. Just prop the panels up on the back of the chairs and wire them up. 6KW array was making almost 5KW during summer testing. Zero cost of materials.

Good solar app I have used to figure angles and direction of panels - Sunnytrack. Agree with Cynthia Flick. Best is solar on the ground for many reasons. Also see wild wonderful off grid, my green dream project and good for house size solar-Ambition Strikes but mounted on conex.

On end panels with those fasteners, put a block of wood the thickness of the panel on opposite side, nice build

Consider a foot plate, or shoe, on each panel as wind vibration with rattle the array and create a slipping force.