Balcony solar PV

[Joeboy]

I suspect we are too biased. I love the look of PV, second only to the majesty of large wind turbines.

At least you got the weather for it. Been windy and peeing down all day here. Still, good for the Ripple WT.

Oh wow! Not looked all day, brilliant! Gon the Welsh!

[Fintray]

Feel free to disagree (open forum n all that), I think it looks significantly better with a panel than not? The floor is yours.

Just think how good the whole roof would look if covered the same way!
Get some scaffolding and get up there.

[Joeboy]

Feel free to disagree (open forum n all that), I think it looks significantly better with a panel than not? The floor is yours.

Just think how good the whole roof would look if covered the same way!
Get some scaffolding and get up there.

Yeah, yeah!

Who can say how it will all play out. Never say never!

[Mr Gus]

I "suspect" that at this point in general public acceptance of solar & kerb appeal (ie getting those hideous concrete tiles (we have em too) out of sight, you just improved the look of the street & upped the price of housing stock, before you even contemplate energy generation)

Find a friendly estate agent & send em the before & after pic, you might be onto something there! not to mention additional weather proofing.
Proof is in the pudding beyond our own making.

It looks spankingly good Joe, ..is the lad happy? (or confused about solar & taking his obsessed dad's word for it)

Which side is the other panel going on?

[Joeboy]

I "suspect" that at this point in general public acceptance of solar & kerb appeal (ie getting those hideous concrete tiles (we have em too) out of site, you just improved the look of the street & upped the price of housing stock, before you even contemplate energy generation)

Find a friendly estate agent & send em the before & after pic, you might be onto something there! not to mention additional weather proofing.
Proof is in the pudding beyond our own making.

It looks spankingly good Joe, ..is the lad happy? (or confused about solar & taking his obsessed dad's word for it)

Which side is the other panel going on?

He is very happy, brought up to know the score and live the life. String 2 (ta-dah!), is going directly above string 1. Hopefully parallel and hopefully with minimal bracketage.

I love that, one panel string, I'll get my coat! It was a scorcher up here today for the PV. As we were doing it I kept berating myself for not doing it sooner. All those 10's of millions of vieable residential nooks & crannies across the island If I was minister of solar instead of some random in the Heelands I'd be blending engineering art with PV across the whole island. Teamwork is everything.

[Mr Gus]

See, that's the thing joe, small low, = more likely to be taken up as a community venture.
Minimal height, minimal kit, minimal expense..

Hows about one panel to the left & right at same height, on the frontage? (curious)

[Joeboy]

See, that's the thing joe, small low, = more likely to be taken up as a community venture.
Minimal height, minimal kit, minimal expense..

Hows about one panel to the left & right at same height, on the frontage? (curious)

Would depend on string 1&2 working well. Maybe next year but he's not a heavy user and is KH'd & DW'd.

There is room on the inverter.

[Joeboy]

Messing about with prep work for the second vertical faced panel and running it thru the remains of my mind. How to hold it up there while I fix it in place with brackets?

SWMBO's flatscreen TV throwaway line had the answer built in. Messed about in the scrap metal box and ironies abound. Found some strong metal brackets from of all things the old plasma TV!

A bit of heating and bending and I've got two hangoff brackets to fit later in the year. Will mount them both on a thin piece of wood with a bubble attached. Should take most of the work out of the at height level work. Also have 4 handmade aluminium two tone brackets and s/s nuts n allun headed set screws. Silver to the wall and black along the edge of panel.

It has been great to source or mildly fab some parts for this job. It has been fun so far and easy as I know what I'm aiming towards but it's also made me realise that the kits on sale in Germany are decently priced?

Sure, I'll save a couple of hundred quid, end of with a system potential (if we bought another two panels) of 1.6kW and have added fun in the process of rummaging for nuts n bolts & insulating tape but not everyone has that time, spares or dare I say it, ability/inclination?

I've chopped the mc4's off the first panel and replaced with the same manufacturer for the whole job. I've also made up some cable run/clamps out out a piece of old exterior plastic facia that was a never used offcut. My vertical pillar drill doesn't get much use so it was grand to kid on I was engineering again.

Also decided to run the cables into the porch rather than mess about with IP68 jb's and that expense. I'll make up a passthrough out of the same white exterior plastic and try to keep it all neat. All these wee bits keep the costs flat and my interest high.

+1 for the German diy kit.

Costs to date
1.6kW mini inverter £155.00
2 x 405W solar panels £320
8 of MC4 connector sets £9.00
Running total £484 @ 800W solar diy install. (£804 if 1600W)





Edit 24/07/23 Had a little time before heading off. Made the porch wall passthrough. Tapered edge and angle cable entry so water runs off cables and doesn't pool.

[Joeboy]

Oh look, balcony PV and battery store.

[chris_n]