Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Pole mount solar panel (from scrap materials)
Unknown11:57 AM

Back in July 2011, I was sitting out front the cabin having my morning coffee and starring at the fixed solar panels. Figured there was a better way to catch all the rays of sun with a rotating solar panel. After a few quick sketches on a scrap piece of paper, I went to the shop and found a bunch of left over plumbing parts and aluminium angle iron. The mount is based on a 1" galvanized "T" that has two arms and a body (pole) that is treaded into a 1" pipe union. The union sits nicely on top of a patio umbrella metal pole, which is inserted into a wider galvanized fence post. The left and right "arms" are standard 24 inch lengths that thread into the Tee. A U-Clamp was used to secure the pipe to an angle iron.The angle iron was bolts with stainless steel bolts to the solar panel frame. No really high tech, but it works. There is just enough friction on the union that the wind does not spin the panel, but can be easily turned by hand. The solar panel can be adjust up or down to match the summer or winter latitude.  See the video below!
In Category :
About The Author Scott Symmes Scotts career is based in the Graphic Design and the home finishing industry. Afterwork, he steps away from the computer and work on random projects. On weekends, Scott and his family head out to their small 420 sq. ft. cabin in the mountains to relax and test out DIY solar panels/wind tubines projects. In the year 2011, Scott combined his love "building Stuff" and a few videos to create a YouTube channel, cedarworkshop. After a few months, the channel had over 250 subscribers and was quite popular. A few months later a web site and Blog was added for more information. P.S. Scott is more of a "do-er" than a "talk-er", so the writting or grammer may not be the best. Thank you for your patience and feel free to comment or make suggestions. Enjoy! Facebook and Twitter