Can someone check my solar math?

Love the vine work! Filling a layout you drew, or freehand as ya go? Awesome. 

In reply to Keith Tanner :

Curiosity question. Not that your finances are my concern; but how much was all the hardware for that much capacity? Most citizens seem to think a 1' square panel will power a neighborhood!

Also, did you save on labor, DIY? Or cost of that? 
Impressive system. I've been telling my wife, that despite costs coming down, we will likely not see 'em on our property 

I love the look of that mailbox, I might shamelessly steal it for a future idea.

In reply to 03Panther :

We have very favorable terms for solar around here as well as being in an excellent environment for it. My utility has great net metering programs. Basically, this is an ideal place for solar and almost every house in the neighborhood has an array.

I had it professionally installed by a local company that's been around for years - I called them (and some others) for proposals.. I could probably have saved some money going DIY on the hardware, but the installer had access to some ridiculous 0.99% financing for 25 years that made the math easy. We didn't put any money down so there's no loss of opportunity cost. The monthly payment is lower than our average power bill used to be so we started saving money immediately - and of course we are insulated from future rate increases as well, such as an upcoming change to time-of-day rates. It was a no-brainer. There's no lien on the house, just the array. We're not planning to move but if we did we could always take the panels with us. 

Turns out it's a little oversize, but that wouldn't have made a big difference to the overall cost as it only would have been a few panels smaller but all the wiring and permitting would be the same. 

Consider attaching the post to the ground using bolts that will shear easily. Would hate to have a bollard really well set on the edge of the roadway.

03Panther said:

Love the vine work! Filling a layout you drew, or freehand as ya go? Awesome. 

I sorta sketched it out with a sharpie, then plasma the "leaves" and grinder for the vines.

03Panther said:

In reply to Keith Tanner :

Curiosity question. Not that your finances are my concern; but how much was all the hardware for that much capacity? Most citizens seem to think a 1' square panel will power a neighborhood!

Also, did you save on labor, DIY? Or cost of that? 
Impressive system. I've been telling my wife, that despite costs coming down, we will likely not see 'em on our property 

I work at a theater (which probably gives you an idea of just how rich I ain't) and we constantly get donations of crap.  We have a sister theater downtown and they are big money, so any time they do a renovation or something I scoop up their scrap.  As far as materials cost, the steel was free.  That 4x4x 3/16 post was originally for a barrier/entry fence for their children's play place which they remodeled about 6 years ago.  The steel plate for the box mount and the number box was some scrap plate I had laying around.

The flicker bulbs were $21, dusk to dawn sensor was $3, battery $30, 18 gauge wire was $5, solar panel was cheap (I forget how much).  Biggest expense was refilling the argon tank for the welder.

Since I did all of this at the shop at work, I have an agreement with the boss that I toss in a little to cover the electricity and consumables.  In exchange for this project, we agreed that I would buy a case of beer for concessions for our current production.  I consumed three cutoff grinder wheels, probably 3lbs of company MIG wire, two e26 bulb sockets, and a rattle can of rustoleum to repaint the mailbox.  My scenic painter is going to do some artwork on the mailbox to continue the theme of the post.  I think she's going to do some gold metalflake vines and leaves.  I'll try to slip her $100 for her artwork, but she'll probably put up a fight and we'll agree on $50.

Edit:  Just checked.  Newpowa 15w solar panel was $30.49.

the_machina said:

Consider attaching the post to the ground using bolts that will shear easily. Would hate to have a bollard really well set on the edge of the roadway.

Since this post is a couple inches shy of what USPS recommends (41-45 inches) I'm pouring the concrete a little high and setting four 3/8" bolts in it.  I think if the bolts don't shear, it will rip the concrete "cap" off the install.

My big problem right now is getting the old post out.  I borrowed dad's loader/backhoe which I thought would be super simple.  Loader didn't move it.  I backhoed the sod off the top and discovered that the pour they did is about 3' x 3' and no idea how deep.  Dad's little backhoe was no match.  I tried pulling it out with a chain and I was just tearing up the yard with the tractor and ripped the pole off.

Now I have to wait until Friday for OneCall to come mark the utilities so I can dig a hole beside the original.

Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:

03Panther said:

In reply to Keith Tanner :

Curiosity question. Not that your finances are my concern; but how much was all the hardware for that much capacity? Most citizens seem to think a 1' square panel will power a neighborhood!

Also, did you save on labor, DIY? Or cost of that? 
Impressive system. I've been telling my wife, that despite costs coming down, we will likely not see 'em on our property 

I work at a theater (which probably gives you an idea of just how rich I ain't) and we constantly get donations of crap.  We have a sister theater downtown and they are big money, so any time they do a renovation or something I scoop up their scrap.  As far as materials cost, the steel was free.  That 4x4x 3/16 post was originally for a barrier/entry fence for their children's play place which they remodeled about 6 years ago.  The steel plate for the box mount and the number box was some scrap plate I had laying around.

The flicker bulbs were $21, dusk to dawn sensor was $3, battery $30, 18 gauge wire was $5, solar panel was cheap (I forget how much).  Biggest expense was refilling the argon tank for the welder.

Since I did all of this at the shop at work, I have an agreement with the boss that I toss in a little to cover the electricity and consumables.  In exchange for this project, we agreed that I would buy a case of beer for concessions for our current production.  I consumed three cutoff grinder wheels, probably 3lbs of company MIG wire, two e26 bulb sockets, and a rattle can of rustoleum to repaint the mailbox.  My scenic painter is going to do some artwork on the mailbox to continue the theme of the post.  I think she's going to do some gold metalflake vines and leaves.  I'll try to slip her $100 for her artwork, but she'll probably put up a fight and we'll agree on $50.

Edit:  Just checked.  Newpowa 15w solar panel was $30.49.

 

Panther was asking about my big rooftop array, that's a different scale than your project. Sorry about the threadjack.

Shear bolts are the way streetlights and most new roadsign installations are done.

Oh... I get it.  So I threadjacked your threadjack.  That's so meta.

My artist friend painted the mailbox yesterday and then I gave it four coats of clear.

Now just waiting on OneCall to mark my utilities so I can actually set the post.

It was way too hot today to sit in the sun doing masonry work, so I'll have to put the stones on the box another day.  Then the box gets filled with soil and I'll plant something.  A spray bottle of some brine from a jar of olives did a nice jumpstart on the rusty patina.

But it's up, wired, and tested.  It works.  I'm sure I'll post another shameless photo later when the photo sensor kicks the lights on.

Dirt and plants in, now all that's left is backfill and stone veneer.

That is bad ass. Just bad ass. Love it. 

So how did the math work out in the end?

In reply to Keith Tanner :

It clicked on at 8:30 that night and was still on at 11 when I went to bed. It was on at 3am when I got up to pee, but that's all I know. I went to camp for a few days so I'll have to dig into it more when I get back