Batteries are installed!

The pavilion solar project uses two marine batteries to store solar energy during the day.  This past week, the students hoisted the batteries into place, on a shelf in the attic space.  Special thanks to Interstate Batteries for donating the batteries for the project.

Thank you Interstate for donating the two batteries used on this project.

Question:  What do you do when no one remembered to bring the right tools?
Answer:  You improvise!

Without fish-tape, we had to manually thread wire down the conduits, and even disassemble a few joins, but in the end we pulled several sets of wire, thanks to the persistence of the students!

Cookie Time!

There's serious work going on here.

Installing a light sensor so that the lights only turn
on at night when operating off of 120vac backup power.

Spiders, measuring tape, and fish-tape... a typical day

A typical day at B.L.A.D.E!

We had a great day at the pavilion, and pulled our first wires!

  

Solar panels installed!

March 20:  Beautiful weather!  Met with Mr. Jarmon to install the two 215 watt solar panels, donated by a renewable consultant in San Marcos, TX.  We utilized his simple flush-mounting method, which involved two flat plates that channel-lock onto the panel interior edges.  We screwed the panels down with metal roofing screws and pasted plenty of sealer under each screw hole.

One challenge was figuring out how to run the cables through the roof in a water-tight manner.  We had two options:
1. A rubber boot meant for roof vent pipes (my idea), and
2. A flush electrical box with sealer and flashing (John's idea).
We ended up going with #2, John's idea.  It was simpler and more rugged.

To get panels onto the roof, John pushed from the ground, sliding up the ladder.

Installing panels with PSIDA's flush-mounting system.

My proposed method of going through-roof
using a vent pipe boot.

Installing a thru-roof junction box with sealer