I am putting a single row of seven panels in Northern CA. The array's footprint will be roughly five foot wide by twenty five foot long. I plan on putting the bottom of the panels about 12 inches from grade with the top of the panels about 5 foot tall. The twenty five foot length will be supported by four triangualr shaped mounting brackets, similar to Sunlinks. These brackets will be welded and fabricated by myself. The panels themselves will be mounted onto a horizontal frame made of 2 inch bar channel. Everything will be welded together. Each panel weighs 70 lbs. roughly and I would like to pour at grade slabs of concrete under each support bracket and attach the brackets with 1/2 inch red head anchors. I'm figuring the whole array (panels, brackets, horizontal frame ) should weigh no more than 700 lbs.
With concrete weighing about 2000 lbs a cubic yard, I'm thinking a two foot by five foot by eight inch deep at grade slab will give me about 550 lbs per footing. I'm open to pouring a larger slab if needed.. overkill doesn't bother me.
Of course this all sounds great but will my county permit office buy it? Has anyone done something similar to this?
Comments
Sounds to me like you may have enough ballast weight for your system. If figure at about 22psf. Without doing any formal calculations you may be in a pinch when you go to get a permit. They may ask you to prove your work to show that it will work for your particular wind zone.
I would recommend consulting your building department as to what requirements they would ask of you when you go to submit for the permit. This way there are no surprises.