Pole Mount Solar HW

[Dayton Johnson]

Awile back i was looking for ideas regarding moving my roof mounted HW solar panels to a pole mount. This was an old 10' sattelite dish pole and was easily converted to a welded frame for the panels. Used copper for the lines and so far working great. Actually getting earlier and longer day production because of better direction and angle.

[Ralph Day]

Our SHW panel was first installed on a low slope (15deg) roof. Little to no harvest in the winter months, had to scrape snow off it all the time. I built a steel rack which mounted to the old panel mounts and had the panel mounted to it which brought the angle to 45deg or so. Now there's more heat in the shoulder seasons and summer but even more noticable gain in the winter. The snow sheds mostly on it's own without my help and we use less propane year round. The angle really makes a difference with SDHW systems.

And the angle rack was a re-use of 3/4inch square steel tubing that had sat around for 15 years gathering rust:amuse:

Ralph

[Dayton Johnson]

thanks for the response Ralph. When I first asked here about ideas to do this build(I really didn't want to punch holes in a new roof) discussion was around the proper piping to use. I asked my installer who came up with an easy fit....did say he'd never done one before but also suggested I could use a hydraulic hose if I wanted the flexability to track.
All in all easy access to clean,better angle and longer day production.
Why would anyone use a roof mount if they have space for a ground mount?
It's kind of unfair and sort of dumb that roof and groundmount PV are a different price per KW given the same reasons.

[Russell Grant]

Here is a pole mount tracking system that i have been working on,Hope to have running soon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCrHwLN7eYE