Rebuilding the solar set up

Our first big job was emptying out the van and setting up the (new to us) secondhand solar panels. We got these off marktplaats for 400 euros. We brought 10 panels to Portugal and left 4 panels at home to put over our small garage. These are 145 watts, huge and heavy. Today it is easy to get a 455 watt panel the same size as one of these, but for our penny-pinching Portugal project, these are great. For speed, we set them up against the concrete wall and use bricks and a wood beam that was in the garage. The cost of setting them up against the concrete wall was less than five dollars of concrete mix as all the rest was recycled from the barn. 

We got to limewashing and cleaning up the corner where the solar set up was going back to (it has been moved a few times)

In the morning the sun hits the 4 panels on the right of the picture. Mid-day the sun hits all of them and in the evening it hits the four on the left of the picture. There is a cork oak planted in the corner that will some day shade the concrete patio that is under the sunshade frame. This was the most quick and speedy set up we could come up with. It will be improved on in the future.

New cables were brought in from the panels and sent through the hole in the wall. 

We are slowly insulating the ceiling, but we still have a lot of air coming through the roof tiles, which is fine at the moment. The Alentejo fireplace has a serious draft that uses a lot of air.

 

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