Solar Install continues; I take a hike

Sunday and Monday May 18 & 19, 2014
French Creek State Park
Elverson, Pennsylvania

 

SUNDAY

Greg and Ethan return again at 8 AM.

Together they have done residential and commercial solar installs and Greg has had some training by AM Solar. We are the first of three installs he is doing in order to become an AM Solar recommended installer. David is impressed that though he is inexperienced, Greg is committed to doing things right and taking as much time as needed to get it right even if that means undoing something and doing it over because it would be better. They really don’t cut corners.

They run into a number of unexpected problems. For example, the batteries are taller than our old ones and couldn’t use the original battery hold down set up so Greg had to fabricate new ones. Our converter/charger, located behind a drawer under the stove, was about half the height of the new inverter. A new location had to be found. To full time in a 35’ motorhome is a storage space challenge so having to come up with a new spot was difficult. We were already giving up bin space to acquire 2 more batteries. The inverter ended up being a very difficult install due to its location. It was mounted on the top of the bin with the two additional batteries in order to save space.

Only two batteries will fit in here.

 

The other two and the inverter unfortunately will have to go in here. Lost basement space.

 

Good thing Ethan is flexible.  This is the space the inverter/charger was supposed to go but the new equipment turns out to be too tall.  Relocation problem.

 

 

Greg works on wiring all the various systems.

 

Before the additional monitors

   David cuts holes in Winnona………..YIKES!

 

 

 

Holes ready

  Monitors in.  This wall has become monitor central.

 

 

 

Another hole!

 

 

 

Obviously you have to be an electrician as well.

 

 

 

I leave the 3 of them to it while I take a hike on the Blue Trail down to the biggest of two lakes in the park.  68 acre Hopewell Lake. 

 

It’s a lovely hike though the path is quite rocky and hilly in places.

 

The same wildflowers that were just ending at Greenbelt when we left are in beginning here so we’ve gone back to early spring.

 

Not sure what this was but there were large stands of it.  Daddy long legs checking it out.

 

 

May apple is everywhere including at our campsite.  You can see their lovely flowers blooming under the umbrella all along the path.

 

 

 

I recognize the bloodroot leaf.  The white flower comes up on a separate stalk and usually only lasts one day.  Easy to miss unless you hike daily.

 

I arrive at the lake and realize I’ve spent all the time I told David I was going to be gone.  To do the entire circle hike I had intended will put me back too late.   I know I should turn around but I’ll go just a little bit further.

 

 

Wild geranium

 

I find some false Solomon’s seal but no true Solomon’s seal with the cute little bells hanging down underneath the stems.

 

 

It’s a lovely lake that I would sure like to get my kayak on but I’m not sure time will allow that now.  We haven’t taken advantage of all this park has to offer which is considerable.  But then that isn’t why we came here.

 

 

Love these little butter cups.  Looks like someone else does too.

 

 

I make it as far as the dam and a short way along the beautiful outflow stream and then force myself to turn around and go back. 

 

 

Since I’m not gone much longer than I said, I decide to take the most direct route along the roads.  BAD IDEA!  Those roads are straight up at a much steeper grade than the trail I just took.  I should have turned around and gone back the way I came but I thought it would take longer.  Nope!

 

When I return, it looks like everything is installed, but there is a hitch in the works, we have no power at all. Of course Murphy shows up just as Greg and Ethan are going to leave.  We run out and get some pizza and beer since it is now 6:30 and they are still looking for the problem.  They stay until 9:00, no luck.  We spend Sunday night Boondocking the “old fashioned way” since we have neither solar nor shore power at this point.

 

MONDAY

Greg and Ethan also have a construction company which has a job they were both planning to work on today. Our solar install was only supposed to take Saturday and Sunday with two more days for the panel adhesive to dry.  BUT……..

So only Ethan goes to the job and Greg returns to fix the problem that we had no power even when plugged in.  He did get that fixed thankfully but now the solar panels are not registering any output. 

There are a lot of components of this system.  Getting them all working together seems to be a huge task.

We have 3 new 160 watt solar panels,  4 new 6 volt AGM batteries,  a 60 amp breaker, a TriStar MPPT solar controller/charger and the Magnum 2000 pure sine wave inverter/charger which weighs 42 pounds and had to be mounted upside down on the top of the bin above the batteries because of space.  Some trick.  Both the TriStar and the Magnum have remote monitors which have to be wired.  We also added a battery shunt, a solar disconnect switch, and a battery temperature sensor.  

We’re better off than last night, we do have power from the pole.  Remaining problems are: the panels aren’t charging and the solar monitoring system isn’t working.  Stay tuned for what will go right and wrong tomorrow.