Today we are going over this solar panel stand
and how it is super affordable when compared to other solar panel stands. This setup for
five solar panels would normally cost over $500, but today I’m going to show you how
I did that at a fraction of the cost. So normally I use these 5 ft. lengths right
here and they work really well, however what I found is a 6 ft length works better. The
reason it works better is it gives a little more room between the panels for wind pass
through, which makes the whole panel stand not so much like a sail off of a sail boat,
but also because every time I went to home depot, they weren’t restocking these.
It
was taking forever or by the time I was going back people were buying more of them, so these
were actually really hard to find at my local Home Depot and Lowes. So, I decided to order
them off Amazon because after taxes, the 5 ft was the same as buying it online through
Amazon. So, this is the shipment right here so let’s open it up. So, these look pretty
much identical, ya they look exactly the same so this should work perfect.
This is the backside of the stand here. You can see I’ve got a 5 ft length and a 6 ft
length cross beam.
I find that ether works find but I like the combination of the 5 ft
and the 6 ft because It allows me, on windy days, to make this small section right here
come closer together witch then expands the whole width so I can make a lot more wind
space in-between these panels so it doesn’t flop around like a sale.
So, for the actual panel stand here you have to get the 41 in. because this comes in a
22 in. and a 41 in. and obviously the 22 inches just isn’t long enough. The 22 in. section
is designed for when the solar panels are actually turned on its side, and going long
ways this way but that really doesn’t work for my setup because I need to get as least
5 solar panels set up for my solar generator.
Now what I love about this is during the winter
the suns at a steeper angle and so I can make it so that the panels stick up more, very
easily and then during the summer I can then lay them down a little bit more because the
sun is higher up in the sky . Now you will notice here that this star knob and this star
knob is slightly different. This has 5 point and this has 4 points and this is just the
hardware that came with the stand here, and I really do like it, it does seems to work
really well.
Now I ordered 4 different sets of these because I want to have up to 2000
Wats of solar panels. All of them came with the hardware, very easy to set up.
This is the back of the 4-point star knob and I just use a flange nut because then its
self-tightening. And then I don’t have to worry about a crush washier or anything like
that. So the reason this setup would cost normally
$500 is because this stand here is actually designed to go on each individual panel and
the problem with that is because this stand is usually a $100 well then this whole thing
would cost $500 in order to set up the panels and that wouldn’t include fasteners to put
the panels on to the actual legs here.
So that’s why I went and got these cross beams
and just used these star knobs, because I find it a lot easier then the bungee cords
as I talked about in my previous video, it makes a nice secure fit. Now on top of that
another brand of solar panel legs here has actually come out and is about half the price
as the original leg that I was using and is the exact same quality. I haven’t found
one that would be better over the other, so Ill have the link below for these specific
stands, the cross beam, and the star knobs.
That way you can build this just how I’ve
got it here. So I noticed that during the summer that I
can let the solar panels I can lay my solar panels flat on my grass here and that there
was only about a 5% to 10 % power loss between having these up at an angle to the sun and
actually lying flat on the ground. One of the issues I found was that these solar panels
acutely get really hot. So, them being on the ground and 1. Burn the grass but 2 there’s
no way for air to get under it which means that they’ll stay hot.
And solar panels
work much better when they are cooler. You’ll actually get a much higher output of energy
when they are much cooler. During the winter though, if you were to lay these down, the
sun is much lower in the sky and so these laying down will be making much less energy
than if they were up at an angle. So, I found that in the winter I can have as much as 50
– 60% power loss by not having these on a stand. The whole point of having solar panels
is to be able to make as much power as possible off my solar generator that way I can charge
up and use things as I like.
So, the stand is invaluable because It can help make twice
as much energy verses just laying on the ground. Now luckily todays not a windy day at all
and I’ve had this stand up to about 30 miles and hour outside with no problem. All I had
to do was take some tent stakes, put 4 of them, 2 on each side, and that will hold it
down just find. The panels will flex a little, but no issues of tipping or anything like
that. But on especially windy days I do have an extra cross beam that I can put here in
the middle, just to give these some extra rigidity so these aren’t flopping around
as much.
With these star knobs on the top and on a windy day ill use the bungies along
the bottom of the panels here to help hold them in place more but normally there’s
no issue at all as long as these are facing into the wind. If the wind were to come in
from the backside then the panels tend to do this quite a bit and that’s not as good.
Witch is where that crossbeam really comes in handy, so that way they don’t flop around.
It’s also a rely good thing to keep in mind that become these are flexible you need to
take extra good care of them become if these flex to hard or are in one spot to much , you
will actually hear the cells start to crack and that will lower the efficiency of your
panel .
So, you really want to make sure your taking good car of your panels.
Now these are 2 diffident legs that I’ve ordered here. And this one is the more expensive
one, and this one is the more affordable one. I’m using the more affordable ones now and
Ill put the link below as option 1 and if these are not available for some reason, then
ill put these as option 2 down below. The biggest difference you can see is that this
section here is about twice as wide as this section here. So that’s the only thing to
keep in mind is if your using ridged panels or flexural panels.
But I find that this skinny
one works well for the ridged panels as well. Another thing to keep in mind is that the
hardware that came with the more expensive one, I didn’t use any of it at all. It was
a real pain in the butt, and I didn’t like it. The hardware that comes on the skinnier
one is 5-point star knobs work really well. Now this can be a little confusing to put
together at first so I’m going to show you how to do that real quick. So, the kit come
pretty much like this. There a few other small parts that come but I didn’t use those at
all, so it comes with its own 5 point star knob and its own flange nut makes it very
easy to put on.
Separate these now the first thing you do
is see how these are lined up exactly the same, So I take one and completely flip it
over, and then I take the bottom corner and that’s going to be my bottom hinge. Now
you want to make sure that you’re not inside the grove here, because often times this corner
will rub right here and cause too much friction and you won’t be able to open it up. So,
it goes right here, outside here, outside here, line it up, put the bolt through. I
make that sort-of tight, but not all the way tight.
The next part is even easier. You can
extend this up and one of the reasons this is almost tight is because as I lift this
up, its actually tightening the flange nut and now its holding its self up It makes it
a little easier to set up. The next thing is to take this cross beam.
I can put it anywhere in here, but ill want this to go right her, take my flange nut,
take the other one. These the star knobs happen to fit right in the side of these groves just
perfectly. With is one of the things that I like.
This is why I don’t use the ones
form Lowes or Home Depot because there too big and they don’t fit. And just like that
it is put together and I’m ready to make the second one so I can put the cross beam
on here. The other thing that recommend is you take a sharpie and you put numbers on
each of these holes, that way its easier when your making adjustments when you move one
side of the panel stand, lets say your on hole 10 or hole 5 or whatever the number is.
Make the adjustment to this up here and then walk to the other sides of the panel stand
and then do the same adjustments.
Makes life a lot easier rather than having to count the
holes every single time you do that. And then when I go to store this, all I have to do
is undo this star knob here. Now ill lay it back down, ill lay that down and then ill
take this nut and I’ll put it anywhere on here just so that I don’t lose it. Ill tighten
these other ones up. And that’s prity much how I store it, just like that, and I put
it right on top of my shelves. The other thing that I really like about the
stand is how light it is.
Each of these panels are bout 4 lbs. so that’s 20 lbs. of panels.
And I’ve got about 12 – 15 lbs. in these crossbeams and legs here. So, its really easy
to pick up and take inside. So, one of the things that I love about having this so light
is that when I need to, I can bring these in during the night or during weather and
then take them back outside pretty easily. No when It comes to solar panels specifically,
you’ll notice that this ridged panel is actually about 48 in. tall. The bottom is
put into this little groove right her and then you use one of the holes on the back
which is this right here.
This will just barely fit right on the top. But you have to be careful
using these star knobs because once you get them treaded, but there barely start to touch
the back of here, once the mettle from the cross beam is actually in right here so they
barely fit. You want to make sure that you’re not pushing up into the back and cracking
the cells. You can see that this panels here is much shorter but it acutely has the same
energy output as this one. I love these smaller ridged panels here and Ill put a link below
as well.
But you can see that the flex is almost the same. This looks taller because
the bottoms have a little bit more to the bowing but it is about an inch and a half
taller and so this panel will sit in that bottom groove just right and have the top
section along the top crossbeam. And then this has got holes that hold the back o as
well. Which easily lines up with the solar panel stand and then the star knob going in
the back actually don’t even come close to touching the cells. So, its much safer
to use this one and if you want to go with the ridged panels.
I still prefer the flex
panels because there are so much lighter. There is no way if I had 5 of these panels
on the stand that I would be able to lift it. You would be close to 100 lbs. and that
is not easy to do for 1, but 2 that thin meddle digs into you hand is just not worth it. So,
the ridged panels are going to be uses. It’s going to be pretty much permanent. Or when
you take it down you take each panel off individually and then move it. Where with the flex panels
you can just pick the whole thing up and its really easy to use.
There are 3 solar panel cases that I recommend. The first one is this. Now it works really
well because its extremely light weight, its folds them when you’re not using it. It’ll
easily hold up to 30 – 40 lbs. The only downside is that it does not have a shoulder
strap. It’s very portable, very easy. It keeps all the dust and water off. And these
come with the titan solar generator kits. I’ve actually got 7 solar panels in here
right now and it works great. The other one I recommend is actually my favorite
one.
Its this one here. Now its got this extra lip that make it a lot easier when putting
the solar panels in. All I do is I lay this whole thing down. I unzip it completely and
I take this top flap, pull it all the way back and I just lay the solar panels on the
flap that’s on the ground and put all the solar panels there. I pull the whole thing
over the panels and it’s a lot easier to get in then the felt bag. In the felt back
they go in through the top. In this bag they go in through the side.
Now there is also
a little pouch here but the best part about it is I can easily put it over my shoulder
and this handle is right here at hand level so I can actually put up to about 10 solar
panels which is about 40 lbs. and is still very easy to move around. So, this one is
my favorite because when I’m not using it, it then folds down and goes and takes up no
space at all. The last one is the mac daddy and it is not
designed for solar panels but this thing is incredible. This is actually a “gater case”
and this was designed to carry a 50 inch LED or LCD TV.
Now you have to go with the 50
in, they make a 40 to 45 inch one and the flexible solar panels just barely do not fit.
Let me show you inside in here. So this has this big rugged handle, and I usually unclip
one side. Its got zippers that go all the way down on both sides. It makes if very easy
to get into. What I usually do is I just keep it slightly unzipped form the top here, flip
it over, and just like that I’ve got my solar panels. Now the coolest thing is every
single edge of this has about an inch thick foam pad around it and you can see right here
I’ve got this foam pad and this foam pad and I’ve got 5 solar panels in here and
I still easily got room for another 5 more.
So, this works extremely well and its Velcro
down here in the back, just like so. And its got this really big pocket right here. That
I can fill with all my cables and stuff like that. Its quite big. And this is also padded.
The only big downside to this is this thing is crazy expensive which is why its not my
favorite. I haven’t found any issues with the other cases of the panels getting knocked
and breaking or anything but if you need some extra padding this is the way that I would
go. Ill provide a link to all of these down below the video as well.
The other nice thing
is this easily clips right back on and goes right over the shoulder so it’s very easy
to carry. It doesn’t have a handle like this one here thought. So, it is all on the
shoulder but this one’s a really great one to have around.
Now I’m going to completely assemble the solar panel stands so you can see exactly
how I put it together. So, as you can see its really easy to set up and just the opposite
for taking it down. It actually goes a little bit faster when using the bungie rather than
these star knobs and that just because it’s a hook and loop but I really prefer the star
knobs up here.
It feels more confident and that its going to hold everything really tight.
Taking it down is just as fast if not faster. That’s how it goes! Really easy to set up.
Well I hope you found this video helpful. I really do love this stand. Its absolutely
invaluable to me. I highly recommend it. It breaks down easily, it’s very light weight.
And it doesn’t cost $100s of dollars. I think all in all it cost $110 or $130, somewhere
right in there. Doing that in order to make twice as much power is absolutely worth it.
Its the same cost as getting a solar panel and I think its absolutely necessary. So whether
it’s a black out or its camping or RVing, van life, or whatever you can think of you
would need your solar panels and you would need to prop them up, this really works well.
The other thing we didn’t talk about is because I don’t have an example of it, is
I’ve see were people take this same stand and they’ll put it, for example, on the
side of a cargo trailer and they’ll literally fold these bottom legs onto the side of the
cargo trailer and then whenever they get to there location, they then swing the panels
up, and then can use it to make power to there generator or whatever that way.
So, it’s
a very versatile stand and I really like it. I hope you found this video helpful. If you
did, please give me a thumbs up. I really appreciate that. I like to hear your thoughts
on this stand. Is it something that you would use? How would you improve it? What would
make this better? I’m always looking for ways to make this better. So please mention
in the comments below and Ill be happy to take a look at that as well as any questions.
Feel free to comment below and ill answer them. You can also contact me directly at
info@poweredprotablesolar.
com and ill be happy to answer your emails there. And if you thought
this was a great video, go ahead and subscribe. Click that bell so that you can get all the
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