22:13
When I first got my 30 watt solar panel, because I live in a condo in a tall building, I put together a hanger for the panel using shower parts. The whole setup cost me only a few dollars. Now the sun has changed position as we enter the beginning of spring. I’ve gone back to the drawing board and designed something that will work all year round.
Using brackets, hinges and tubes, I’ve put together some hardware for mounting my solar panel on an angle. As you can see, it fits nicely on top of my washing machine. For the long leg, which is the leg in the back, I used two T-brackets screwed down to a hinge. Then I took some L-brackets and straightened them out, because I couldn’t find suitable long straight brackets that were strong enough for what I wanted to do. At the bottom of the leg I put a cross tube to tie the two legs together.
In the front, there is a tube attached to the solar panel directly. I call this the short leg, although it isn’t really a leg at all, at this point. Later, if I want to add more height to the solar panel, I can make a short leg using only brackets and the cross tube, but I probably won’t put a hinge here; otherwise, the whole solar panel would swing one way or the other and fall down.
In this picture you can see I put a black adjustable strap between the two tubes, to keep the long leg from swinging out. Also, I inverted the hinge at the top of the long leg, so it will only swing so far, which means it can’t close all the way. When I put my solar panel away, on days when I’m not using it, the long leg swings all the way upward, not all the way down. The whole arrangement again only cost me a few dollars.
We bought a hefty hanger for putting plants in, which hangs on the inside of the balcony. That way they get plenty of sunlight and we don’t risk them falling 20 floors down. I took the plants out and put my solar panel in there, getting more directly sunlight on it. It’s still near the washing machine, so I can power that from solar at any time. I can also add more brackets to the front or back legs, raising the solar panel higher and allowing me to adjust the angle more throughout the year as the sun changes elevation.
I got the idea a long time ago, when we lived in our old condo on the other side of Taiwan. I had been putting small CIGS panels in single plant holders and positioning them outside the window. Not the safest idea, but I put a leash on the hardware each time and never had any problems. Using plant hangers for putting solar panels in the sun puts the green in the green!
