hey everybody sam here and angela and welcome to the channel welcome to our
tennessee property today we're doing more work because well that's just what we're gonna be
doing here forever what are we gonna do today we are going to start clearing out the area
that is going to be the workshop which i guess you could kind of call the greenhouse workshop
yep the greenhouse workshop also probably a little bit area that the soap shed is going to move to
and the area where we're going to be building our off-grid solar panel array oh yeah all in
one area awesome stuff so what are we starting with well i have already kind of behind the scenes
started taking out some of the vines some of the trees shame shame the camera wasn't rolling but
for the fun part we are now bringing in power tools yes we have the trail mower that sam is
going to run over the area because it is riddled with vines i can't tell you how many times i have
almost tripped walking through this area yeah same here so we're gonna go ahead and use it
to mow it all down we do have a push mower but it's not gonna cut it for this there are some
limbs and stuff like that so we wanna bring out the big boy for this here i am let's go
so
angel is using our craftsman cordless pole saw over there to take a bunch of limbs
off the trees and things i'm going to use my still ms 170 chainsaw and go ahead and
cut the stumps and probably go ahead and drop this other little tree so we can keep moving
on with our progress i'm let you guys follow me along for a little bit of stump cutting action
so
do
all right i have picked the spot where i want to put this solar array system on our property
it's going to be over here behind our camper and in an area that eventually will be between our
carport tent which is over there and where the workshop will be and the soap shed and i believe
that the solar panels will be able to live here long term with the plans we have in mind right
now that being said i'm going to install this in a way that it can be easily removed aka no concrete
with the posts in the ground and everything assembled with screws so in the future if we
decide to upgrade our solar array which we will or if we decide to move it which we might we can
do that and still be able to reclaim the materials easily and not just kill ourselves try to unbuild
the city of rome the goal for the construction is easy peasy and cheap as cheap as possible at least
i'm using off-the-shelf lumber from a hardware store four by four treated posts eight feet long
two by six treated boards eight feet long and hopefully we've got enough to make something
that works well for the short term the long term and is solid and great so we've got everything
laid out here the first thing to do is set our first posts by the time i get that post set it
should be solar noon and i'll talk to you guys about that when the time comes so let's get that
first post set then we'll talk about solar noon because that's important with your solar arrays
hey
geez that's not working very well
try a trick that one of you viewers told me put some water in the hole soften up the dirt
we'll see how that works
um
well this is not the sign of success
well that was a great failure i dug a hole and i filled it back in so yeah i
guess i built a little character right i got 10 minutes till solar noon my watch is going off
we'll be able to do this without doing the post i'll show you guys that trick at this point
since my digging of a whole experiment was a failure i think what i'm going to do
is change gears i'm going to adapt and make this solar array mount floating on top of the soil
you guys are probably like oh my gosh that's ridiculous well i work with what i got and i think
it's still going to work out fine so let's go ahead and change gears see if i have enough lumber
or what and honestly show you guys solar noon here next okay let's talk about solar noon sam
what in the world is solar noon good question solar noon is that special time of day where
the sun is at its highest point in the sky this is the angle you want your solar panels facing
this angle is going to vary depending on where you live in the world but the concept is the same
around the world since the sun shines everywhere in the world it'll work everywhere in the world
there's a link to a website down below which i found to be the best after my research to give you
your local solar noon time frame along with your altitude and azimuth angles and everything else
you may want i'll put a link to that down below what i'm going to do is go ahead and
orient and mark myself solar noon here on our property now since the sun is always changing
i have to use some things that will not change to keep that angle as i build this array mount
for that i have two simple step in fence posts little you know sticks you stick in
the ground and then i have a ratchet strap green basically i'm going to have point a
point b and then a string line between the two to give myself a constant visual marker
and reference line that i can measure off of to put things in place you put the post up front the
one facing closest to the sun then tie your rope to it put your rope on the other end of the second
post and then move it left and right until your string line is exactly in line with the shadow
there you have it easy peasy one two three z solar noon has been found and marked and as long
as no one moves those sticks or that ratchet strap rope i will not have to be as concerned
about getting this project done on a timely manner because it is locked in place that is my reference
point for solar noon the reason i went through this whole rigamarole of finding solar noon
is because i want my solar panels facing directly south with the sun high noon facing them straight
on that's going to maximize the solar input and is really the best thing to do in this scenario
sure i could probably just have oriented them with magnetic south and been close enough but
what's the point of making a video like this if i don't have the opportunity to share with you guys
and teach you what solar noon is how to find it and what it's for
versus just slapping some solar panels up and behind a camper and saying well
there you go at this point my next step is to go ahead and begin building the frame of the array
and since i had no luck at all digging the hole in the ground without hitting some massive tree roots
i mean obviously i'm going to build this as a free standing floating solar array meaning it's going
to stand on its own frame be on top of the ground i will have to anchor it to the ground but this is
also going to give me the cool added benefit of as we develop this property as our plans change
as i want to do this that and the other i can move this array wherever i want pretty cool so win-win
my method for building this array was honestly to keep it as basic as possible
stick with simple joinery just one type of hardware which are three inch long exterior
grade screws and just put everything together as easily and quickly as possible while maintaining
the strength and overall rigidity of the stand itself i had a little bit of a rough sketch in my
notebook as far as what i wanted but largely this is a wing it as you go project i knew what angles
the panels need to be whenever it's all done and said or said and done and then i also knew what
kind of materials i had to work with from there it was just a matter of building the front and back
we'll say horizontal boards and then framing it together and putting our top boards on
are right here at the beginning of december which means the sun is at the lowest angle for our area
what i'm going to do to find my steep part of the angle is i'm holding the board up until i
find my 30 degree inclination which matches with the 60 degrees straight towards the sun
and then marking it with a pencil measuring from the bottom up to the top from the rails and then
repeating it over here on this other side since i'm working with a non-level structure i'm using
dimensions pulled from itself to make sure everything's correct with the frame itself
well that took a little bit longer than expected but it always does right
there you go there is our rough framing of our solar array mount
i say very rough because it is very rough you would normally not lock everything down like i
did if your goal is to have it set on any angle other than your median altitude for the year
but for our case right now i needed it done faster than i had the time to get
all fancy and everything and it is the dead of winter so might as well put it at that angle
and as the seasons change and our angle changes we can adjust it and i have a little bit of time then
to come up with a nice cool pivoting feature so that is the frame done and honestly that's also it
for this video i have to tease you guys a little bit of cliff hanger because the next part of this
as far as trimming the tops of the posts and then putting the panels on is going to be a project in
and of itself so sit tight for that next part if you have any questions or comments on this frame
leave them for us down below otherwise take care and we'll see you guys next time on the homestead
you