DIY Solar Ground Mount (Simple, Cheap!)

just played a drinking game whenever "struts" was mentioned, I'm so hammered

Looks great! Thanks for sharing! Ground mounts are always better than rooftop :)

Easiest set-up I've seen. Thanks! I have 24 panels to set up.

Nice use of the unistrut. My solar mounts use that and it has worked well!

Great job, everybody always overbuilds. Your look perfect. People forgets you can build sheds and decks on small cinder block anchors and they are fine Love it

It is simple but practical. Looking for vertical bifacial PVs and it is close what I need. Well done!

Two things I like are the ability to tilt and built in grounding.

Next best might be elevating the panels and using them as a roof, depending on available space and shading Diagonal bracing might help secure, either rigid or cable.

I really like this. Great job. 👍

Sweet builds

4 x 4 pressure-treated posts with two or three bags of quick Crete does the job. Then is there attach your strength to those with 4 inch lag bolts or 08 4 x 4 on top of those at whatever angle you want and run 2 x 6 or 2 x 8 cross pieces. Then use 2 inch machine thread screws from the back side with quarter inch hardware. Leaving 1/8 inch gap between panels for expansion.

Awesome, thanks!

Some areas are MUCH windier than others. If you look at engineered configurator tables from the rack suppliers you will see that the higher the expected wind load, the lower the angle must be to survive. 25 degrees handles many wind cases, 45 degrees needs much lower wind speeds. If you can keep your panels in landscape and very low (perhaps one panel high) that will also help. Everything is a compromise. I think if you had rows of panels in Landscape on the ground (like Powerfield ballasted mounts) you could create on the rear of the farthest row from the sun. This would be a windbreak, then each row in front would be somewhat shielded from wing by the row "behind" it. If winter is less windy you could chance tilting for a higher angle, vs other windier sunnier seasons.

In my state of NH the highest winds ever recorded on earth 235 mph the panels would act like sails may need four 16 inch sona tubes 6 feet in the ground so it will not blow away ! Get local wind speeds on a NOAA map ! Best is a eye that tracks the sun with adjustable angle for seasons ! Thanks

Great video, just what I need. Were you able to build the frame with 8’ superstruct or did you need longer? What is the distance between the concrete piers?

You have a great design, I saw you put more superstrut to prevent panels sacking. But I have one question why you didn't bury concrete piers to ground level? I think bury them deeper will have more sturdy and stable.

Is te grounding you were describing due to the back poles being in the ground? ...or do you think the concrete pilings do the same?

I like it but there's lots of wind here I'd have to brace it up

Is it safe to install the panels onto like a piece of plywood instead? Some of us want to be able to move the solar panels around. But I'm not sure if wood is safe since there were a few incidents of people having fires from solar panels. (Although maybe this was actually from fresnel lenses being used with solar panels?) What would someone install them onto if they wanted to be able to move them around, but didn't have welding or metalworking skills? And part of why people are asking stuff like this is that a lot of the new solar panels being sold, last year they started selling quite a bit of them in flexible formats. The cheaper ones are flexible mostly now. And the more expensive ones are... wow pretty expensive to have a base built in when you could make them.

did you have any trouble getting a permit? I know each State/town differs. Looks great! Thanks.