This SOLAR SETUP Changes Everything!

you see those panels back there it's happening the legendary goat Barn container is our daughter adeli's dream of rehabbing a shipping container into kiding stalls feed storage and a milking room we spent the last several months renovating the inside adding secure field fencing repainting the outside building the awning structure and now it's time to finish the roof and fill it with solar panels okay finally we have the metal roofing panels we're going to get this roof finished n [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] so we've reached the point in the roof where the solar panels are going to have their wires coming down through we still have those two solar panels on the top of the container and we still need to use those so I'd already drilled a hole in the OSB but now we put the metal panels on top I wanted to make sure that we weren't hitting a rib when anyway I'm going to drill ho up to the metal panel pull the wires back down we'll keep going and then later we're going to have more different wires from the other solar panel array we're going to all run into it I got a special way to seal it up and make sure it doesn't leap we'll get to that later [Music] that was easier than I thought oops now this is made a very sharp edge so I'm going to put a rubber grommet on this to protect the wires and that go down [Music] through AE too small I got to squeeze this through this little gromet we got to put the other panel up I [Music] [Music] back I'm pretty sure that we've mentioned before how much we hate Roofing um so I'm taking break and I'm going to plant some plants come along I grabbed these two um they're called star Jasmin and they're a vining plant so later on I'm going to build something here for them to climb up but for now I'm just getting them in the soil [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] like the beginning weo and Stitch scks [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] oh man we had a long day yesterday putting the metal roofing on here but we got it done except for one last trim piece we'll get to that later but before we do that it's time to add solar panels So the plan has always been for the goat Barn to put more than two little solar panels on top of the roof we built an off-grid system there's a 5 KW hour battery in there with a 3000 WT inverter big solar charge controller this made for way more than two panels so we're going to be putting 12 panels up on this roof um got six in series another six in series they're going to come down to the combiner Box we're using our friend's Iron Ridge to do the racking system not a ground Mount this time it is mounting to the roof so got all kinds of hardware and specs and stuff that we're going to get into um but the first part is we got to get our our mounts in the right spot we got to get it sort of evened up so when you look at this it looks decent it's not like way up high or way down low or way off to the side um yeah we want to get it centered make sure we hit as many studs as we can then it should be easy no problem just throw the solar panels up you know it's been really handy for this roof install having a secondary roof to put things on yeah I like that yeah it makes it much easier and less cluttered and dangerous I'm talking about your butt so the first way we'll lay it out is based on my measurements and we'll see if it works we need to find the third rafter and start there J you want to grab a few of [Music] those okay so what we're going to be doing is using these there called a S5 solar foot and it's got this like be sticky stuff and then it's got four screws now I'm a little confused by the is because even if I turned it like this it's too wide to hit a stud it would go on either side of the stud that way if you turn it this way then you're only going to get into a stud or a rafter on one side I don't know so we're going to do our best hit as many studs as we can or the rafters on this side because this is the way that the Wind Blows the rest of it's just going to go in the decking there are going to be 40 of these holding these panels down each have four holes that's 160 screws either way I think I think we'll be fine and also we couldn't Center it perfectly in the roof just because we're trying to hit Rafters anyway it's complicated they're going to be a little more space here than there is over there we're okay with that so then the next step is going to be we got to lay out the other 40 of these and get them at the right height so that we also Center this array up and down on the roof if that makes sense so we'll do a bunch of measurements we'll mark it and then we'll start screwing stuff in all right so we're going to go down 15 in that's 40 + 16 66 I can't do it what was it what is 56 + 25 the answer is 81 it is 81 50 for the second one 66 for the third one and 988 these are the centers those are the centers [Music] [Music] okay find that Mark again except to the top of it okay J same thing find that Mark put it down that way just a little bit [Music] danger danger danger why are you on the tank it's it's the most reasonable position to video Dangerous [Music] just dropping everything it's a little awkward yeah they're a little long huh you're a little long can you go on this side it yep and it's going to toss it up cool I like to see you do that Javelin javeline just P up here all right the brackets are in place it's time to attach the rails and put them where we want them on the roof thought we were going to have all the panels up no maybe one row okay maybe we have our first row up the way that this thing is configured we've got two 17in of these xr1000 rails we actually have to bond and splice them together anyway uh yeah so this is real easy it doesn't require any tools it's just just got this little clip here so I'm going to push it into this one just like that and then ja can you go grab that end and then wait a minute all right come this way push it ah lift it up a little there we go that's it now I got one really big rail okay so you take your end I'll take my end and we're going to try to center it now we're attaching the rails to our feet here it's all still loose cuz we want to make sure it all works but basically there are uh these tracks that are built into this here so this piece is going to go in and then it's going to turn and lock into place and then you tighten this you don't do it there though sorry you do it here so Jack help me again there now so it turned and it locked into that track and then I'm just going to do a quick tighten there and we're going to come back with uh with the right torque wrench later we're just trying to get it cuz this whole thing is lifted up just a little so I'm just trying to to get it held into place as we go down oh [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] all right friends we got the first row of six panels up yesterday I hooked them up this morning we're pumping out about 12 to 1500 watts which is nice we got a whole other row to do so we're just going to get to it there's not a lot of us here but this should be pretty easy so let's get it done [Music] [Music] [Music] I've got two actually the two panels that were up here I had to pry them off of the um top of the container here I used VHB tape to stick them up there and some brackets like that were mounted to the actual panels and they were stuck stuck stuck stuck I mean they've been up there through 50 60 mph winds and they haven't moved um pretty impressed with the vhp tape for sure obviously not a great permanent solution that's why we're doing this this huge bolted down Iron Ridge ragging system um but yeah so I took those two off I went ahead and stuck them on there and now I'm just waiting for a little help because I don't know if you can see it but the rest of the panels are all the way down there and I can't get them up here without at least one or two other people so waiting on some kids to come help me we'll slide them in and this time I'm going to wire them up as they go and uh yeah and then we'll be able and then we'll be done with the solar [Music] [Music] [Music] all right friends we are back out to finish wiring up um this array so I don't know if I explain this but there are two rows of six panels and we're connecting each set of six panels in series which means that you basically start at the first one and you can either start with the positive or the negative let's say you start with the Positive you go from the positive of that panel to the negative of the second one and you take the positive the second one go to the negative the third one you go all the way down the line and so you still have a negative at the beginning you have to create a wire that runs all the way down and then at the end you create another small wire and then you run that into the combiner box and so my combiner box has four spots we're only using two because we have one row six and another row six anyway that jacks up your voltage keeps your amps low so you don't need crazy thick wires so I actually already ran my long wire yesterday so I can know where it needed to go and I'm going into these little uh waterproof junction boxes this one isn't screwed down yet um but uh we got the first one so I just basically I got to run this last cable down through the little box and um sort of complete that circuit right and then we'll plug it into the combiner box first we'll shut everything off then we'll plug it in then we'll turn it all back on and we should be getting double the wattage that we were getting so let's get started all right so like I said um this last row of six they've already been connected together I just have this one cable left I got to make up an mc4 connection run it down through [Music] the you ever used one of these before mc4 tool so basically you just use the tabs on this to allow you to separate the two connections so I have to do this connection uh based on how it's looking right now uh which means I need the little metal piece so hold on I don't have enough hands so mc4s are kind of confusing the one the connector with the big hole actually uses the small pin inside of it and then the other one uses the bigger pin so this is a small one it's kind of hard to see and then there's one this has got a bigger diameter so I got to crimp this on and then just snap it together all right so I have both my wires I'm going to go shut off all of the solar input real quick inside and in the combiner Box we'll plug it in make sure we're good and then we'll flip it back on all right so little dark in here so this morning uh it's pretty early with the one string connected right now we're getting 57 Watts um but I'm going to shut this off real quick that's my solar breaker so now that's gone down to zero inside here I'll also flip this breaker then it's time to plug it in all right flip it back on Hamer Paw's still hanging out in here with her adorable kittens that just started opening their eyes therey out hi hi all right breaker has been flipped back [Music] on let's see what happens there we go double the solar that's very exciting yes so I'm going to clean up a few things get some wire ties and clips and kind of make sure this looks nice um get that last port on top screwed down and then we're going to come back and do grounding another day just know that you are supposed to ground this railing system uh to your ground rod or your Earth ground we will be doing that later cuz there's some other things we need to ground but yeah this is really good [Music] [Music] of course you got to finish it off with the Caps now I mean do you really need caps probably not but number one it will keep animals and bugs out two it'll keep water out number three if you're up here walking around might keep you from banging your foot or your shin on it too cuz it's it's definitely pretty Sharp also it does look [Music] [Applause] [Music] nice those two panels were the ones that were sitting up here uh I definitely need a little bit of cleaning maybe I'll have how I do that now besides the gutter on this roof the only thing we really have left to do is uh we have a Custom Trim piece so you can probably see right here we have the container and then we have the roof and so we have this little flat area we're going to glue or VHB tape this here and then it on that side and it's going to just have a slight Bend in it and it comes down and it'll screw into the the top of these roofs so that'll be the last step that'll make sure we don't have water kind of like pouring down at this seam here um obviously we don't want that to happen why would we put a roof up if it's just going to leak um but yeah this was kind of this was definitely one of the most tricky Parts is trying to figure out how to seal this because this roof eventually there will probably be one more container and we will have a a gabled roof that goes over both of these so we don't want this to get in the way of it also we are going to paint the top of this with white elaser we'll get to that soon but for now let's just celebrate the win of massive amounts of solar power coursing through this little off- grid system it's very exciting and with that friends we're nearly at the end of our journey with the legendary goarn container as you can see from these clips we are well on our way to finishing this project and this is the last update we'll be sharing before the full build video that's coming very very soon and we can't wait to show you all the final details but we just wanted to say thanks again to all of you who supported this project because of you we've been able to build a safe secure shelter for our goats see adeli's dream realized and learn so much along the way we'll see you soon [Music]

Channel: Tiny Shiny Home

Views: 41,284

Keywords: farm life, modern homesteading, business ideas, nigerian dwarf goats, goat farm, goat shelter ideas, goat farming, raising goats on a small farm, diy goat shelter, goat barn build, goat barn design ideas, raising goats for milk, goat barns and pens, shipping container shed, farm life vlog

Id: Qa7WukZhUcs

Length: 23min 39sec (1419 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 08 2024