Solar installation progress!

Since returning to Mesa on Friday, Michael and Dwayne (and sometimes Patti too!) have been working on the installation of the solar panels!

Saturday:

Step and scaffolding that we use to help to lift materials up onto the roof.

We were making stands out of aluminum...

Michael has a "brake" that we used to bend the aluminum into stands. (The uni-strut material is laying on the floor under the brake.)

Michael could do the bends himself, but Dwayne and I teamed up to do them...

Quite a few completed!

Dwayne and Michael lifting the panel onto the scaffolding in preparation to get it up onto the roof.

Sunday:

Two fixed panels are in place. We were working on the framing for the next panel that needs to lift up so we can continue to get into the storage pod on the roof.

The washers that we got were a little too large to fit into the smaller uni-strut that we were using to make the hinged frame - so Dwayne was grinding off the side of the washers.

Michael was drilling the "hinge" hole in the uni-strut.

Putting the frame together on the ground. We had thought we could get it all square and tight on the ground, but eventually decided to just get it together but not tight and take it onto the roof to make sure it fit within the rails already installed.

It fit well!

We were losing daylight, but we eventually got the panel put into place that goes onto the hinged location.

We are planning to use gas struts to help with lifting the panels that are installed over the storage pods and spare tire. I spent a bit of time Sunday researching and calculating the length and strength of struts that we would need. We got a pair of gas struts on Monday and tried out where we thought they would be installed... but it didn't work as designed (the storage pod was in the way of the strut) - so late on Monday we got a different sized strut... it is a work in progress at this point, but we're hoping to have that figured out soon!