Solar - Moving the Panels - Part 2

The Trench
Hi

Well now here we are with a giant trench going through the bush from our cottage to the garage, and another that goes out from the other end of the garage to where the panels will ultimately go.  

 There is sand where sand is supposed to go.  

 So far, so good!
Wouldn't that have made a great table?

 Next up ?

 Lay the cable.  

 Now this is no ordinary cable.  It is thick, stiff and pretty darned heavy (armoured, about an inch and a half in diameter with 4 separate wires contained). It came on a giant spool that the supplier needed a $375 deposit on – so there went my idea for another table near the fire-pit. 


Our orange friend (the backhoe), essential for moving stuff around, helped us get the thing off the trailer and on the ground.  
Rolling
Then of course this cable needed to get laid in the trench.  

 So – how exactly should this be done ? 

 Well the nice thing about spools of any sort is that you can roll them, and yup, that is what we did – rolled the giant spool through the bush, along side the trench and laid the wire into it.  This worked surprisingly smoothly.  For any area where the trench went across the driveway the wire was also laid inside a pipe for extra protection.



Like the head nets ??

Along with the wire, in the spirit of preparedness,  we laid a pipe for future water deliveries to the garage and a number of cables for internet to the garage (or from the garage if we decide to move to satellite for our internet).  The water pipe got rolled too - but no spool in that case.  In any case, maximum use was made of this giant slice into the ground.
The white pipe added extra protection 

Next up was the Electrical Safety Authority inspector for the first visit – which went fine. They have to see the installation in the ground, but prior to filling. The current code has a lot more rules for solar than the previous version (which we were compliant with), and this move is significant enough that we need to meet the current code (sigh!). 



Now back-filling began with more sand, cedar protective boards in some areas (left over from the original build), a red warning tape that is buried a few inches above the cable, and more dirt.  
Filling in
Still looking pretty rough

All to be smoothed out and will at some point look OK.  (We hope)

 Now of course it is a bit of a scar – but ultimately it can be the path from the cottage to the garage.  We are thinking (hoping) that once we go through an autumn, and the leaves fall it will be much less scar-like.  

 We hope.

So – now there is a cable from point A to point B.  

 Next we move the panels themselves, 

 Oh -and the battery.


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