Spoke to a licensed engineer today, and he did some quick numbers over the phone. I mentioned the 30 psf figure and he said I only need to calculate somewhere around 13-16 psf. My local codes call for 90 MPH wind load rating, but the location is shielded heavily. Basically, he said it would...
I don't want failure, I am OK with overkill.
I can attach FOUR 2" steel sch-40 pipes coming down from top of the beam tied into the foundation 2 feet out from the beams base. Making lots of triangles..
Then when I encase the beam, will also encase a all four pipe at the bottom and top and...
Beefy beefy beefy... I can do beefy..
The max worst angle the array will be is 70 degrees. And the weak axis is between a house and a mountain side, so pretty good wind shielding.
I can go up to 16" column encasing the I beam with 6 or 8 extra rebars epoxied into the concrete base. I'll...
Hi Jayrod,
The foundation is 52" X 50" by 5' deep. Surrounded by undisturbed earth on the 3 main support sides- With 7/8" rebar cage. It took about 3.25 yards of 300 psi concrete to fill. Yes the beam goes to the bottom of the foundation.
I tried to follow the 1/3 buried 2/3 exposed logic...
Edit this line: "One flat of the L is welded to the web, and the other flat is welded to the inner wall of the outer H pieces"
I meant- One flat of the L is welded to the web, and the top and bottom sides of the other flat are welded to the inner H frame.
Thanks for the reply.
The tracker will constantly change orientation following the sun both North and South and East and West. The main weight will be mostly Facing South. The array will almost never be horizontal, or facing north unless a storm is coming. then I may make it horizontal to limit...
Hi all,
So I messed up and need advice. I'm building a solar tracker on a pole mount. Pretty large, 20' x 12' on a 11' high mast.
So I went to the scrapyard to find a pipe and ended up bringing home an I-Beam. It's 16' length.. I poured 3 1/4 yards of concrete (13,000 lbs) and mounted the...
