Solar Powered Ham Shack

Posted on by September 10, 2012

Adding the panels

Finally everything fell in place… my shack is running on solar power only. An idea/project I have been pursuing for years but the circumstances were never perfect… until this July. Last fall, a hailstorm took care of the roof and I had to replace it. In July I was able to secure a large chunk of money from our City which is offering a (very) limited number of rebates for Photovoltaic (PV) installations. Together with the federal tax credits it will put the ROI within my life expectancy. Good enough for me.

PV: Panel Monitor

The complete system is a grid tied,  5.5 kW system – 22 panels organized in two arrays (one south and one west facing). Each panel has a microinverter to optimize production and to add some ‘intelligence’ to the system. Monitoring and  trouble shooting is a breeze. I can literally see when a bird poops on a panel and degrades my production :)

Since my shack consists only of a Yaesu FT-817, I am using the excess energy in the rest of the house. It should produce over 100% of our typical electricity  usage per year if everything goes according to plan – I guess time will tell.

Here a short clip of the installation:

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjCg–4V1-Q

Please add your questions and comments through Youtube.

 

 

ATTENTION !! WARNING !! There are old mountaineers, and bold mountaineers... there are no old-bold mountaineers. Hiking and mountain climbing are potentially hazardous activities particularly in Colorado with its extreme elevations. I am not accepting responsibility for any death or injury resulting from activations based on my trip reports. Proper training, experience, and personal capability assessment is required - enjoy!

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Written by: k0mos on September 5, 2012.on September 10, 2012.

Comments

Solar Powered Ham Shack — 26 Comments

  2. I am also planning to add another 5 kW to my existing installation.
    did you check if you have any RFI into you Shortwave radio from the Inverter?

  4. Hard to say since I have a very noisy environment to start with (normally S8 or worse). Did not see a difference. I think the microinverters are an advantage in this respect compared to a string inverter.

  8. Great job Matt. I’m sure that drone will be in your backpack for a future SOTA adventure. That would sure be an interesting vid. Hope the installation works out well for you.
    73
    Marc, W4MPS

  9. Hi Marc, I though about it but size and the fact that high wind is not a friend of the drone will make it unlikely :)

  10. rrr. I can see you losing control on a summit and have the drone fly aimlessly until it landed in Steve’s GoatPen :-)

  12. Very nice…Thanks for sharing. I’ll be curious to hear how the system performs over time.

  13. What kind of percentage diff you getting on avg between the west and south face panels? I’m gonna guess abt 12-15%??

  15. Very nice job, I do have one question, no safty gear, was anyone killed in the makeing of this film? I was actually scared a few times watching ;-)

  16. Nobody got killed or injured in making the movie. Doing a lot of mountaineering and I felt quite comfortable up there :)
    73

  17. solar panel with 60 cells 6×6 30volts, good solar panel layout. which micro-inverter have you used?

  19. Hello. I am really impressed by your work. I am currently writting my bachelor thesis on PV technology. Could you please tell me how much was the cost of all components used for the system you show in this video?

  21. Thats awsome Matt, that way you will have to work less & more time to climb mountains :)

  26. thanks for showing the installation you got a new subscriber thanks to
    mjlorton thanks to you both for the informative videos