Hi all, last Sunday I made a trip to the work cabin with dads little boy.
on Sunday when I got there after unloading I was able to get the panel cables measured and the ends installed. The vendor I bought the parts from ( Hurricane wind and solar ) had me a little concerned with the assembly, but I found it as easy as crimping an electrical connector on a wire. Just requires a special crimper.
Monday I got all of the cables installed from the panels to the charge controller. ( the bulkhead fittings I used were barely big enough for all the cables but they fit and it was easy to seal up around them.) next I brought the batteries and inverter from the cabin and got them installed and hooked up, by this time it was about 4:30 in the afternoon. The panels were putting out 42 volts and topped the batteries in no time. There are 7kw there now and I have enough to increase to 21kw on the next trip. Next I hooked the inverter to the cabin, I had to bypass going under the cabin and through the floor under the panel because I forgot the anchor gun and it was too slow trying to break through the stone foundation without it.On the next morning after overnight usage the batteries were down to 27V from 30.1 full charge. by 7:30 am they are charged up again.
Next I tackled the water system. The tank was melted down flat with a tree on it.
All I had to cut with was a hack saw as my tree saw burned up in an out building, I got it cut and out of the way, then removed some old wood and rocks. to get the new tank in the ground some to help with freezing. I got everything done and filled the water tank about half way by making trips with my pickup tank and draining it into the large tank by a higher elevation on the forest road and a Long hose. each trip took about 2 hours for the truck tank to fill at the neighbors spring hose then drain it into the large tank. this one is 600 gallons. The old one was 1000 gallons but I never will use that much water and it is always filling when the spring is hooked up. I most likely won't get that done until spring as about 1000' of 1-1/2" tubing burned up and has to be trenched under the road. I thought I was going to get a hot shower on Thursday when I got water in the tank but when I turned the water on I had forgot about the outside shower that was next to the old tank and water was squirting everywhere, by this time it was late in the afternoon and I didn't have the parts to repair it, so another spit bath. I had time to secure the gates so no unwanted visitors can show up when I am not there. Most likely I will make another trip soon to finish the water and start cleaning up. The snow will fly next month.