New garage time!

[Pixguy]

You could use a bigger building. That garage looks awfully full to me.

Never big enough. . I've filled my 36x42 with vehicles and "precious keepsakes"

 

[ericm979]

So I'm going to run power to the shop, real power. My house has 200a service, 100a per leg. I want to run full power to the shop, all 200a. The reason for that is I eventually want to generate all of my power in the garage, and backfeed the house, so I want the ability to send it all both ways.

I used this site: https://paigeconnected.com/calculators/wiresize-calculator

This said I need 1/0 copper or 4/0 aluminum.

So I found this: SWEETBRIAR-CUT :: Sweetbriar, (2) 4/0, (1) 2/0, Aluminum, Cut to Length :: Rexel USA

so I think I'm going to go with that.

I think 200a @ 240v of solar is a lot of panels. When I ran PVwatts for a 16kw array it said it will make a max of 45 amps (240v) at full output on June 21. If the 16kw array makes an actual 16kw, that's still only 66a @ 240v.

 

[fatjay]

Other side done. Much faster this time. Tweaked the saw so it's making better cuts and quicker.

I ordered a new mask and welding shirt, so I don't have to collect slag with my bare skin.

 

[goeduck]

Never big enough. . I've filled my 36x42 with vehicles and "precious keepsakes"

My wife has a LOT of "precious keepsakes". Most have not moved in 30 years.

 

[fatjay]

Other side done. I picked up this plank to put between ladders to make it less safe. It's coming slowly because it's a lot of up and down the ladder, every piece is bolted up, measured, marked, and cut by hand, then back up the ladder, and welded in place.

And I built another of these mud kitchens for underprivileged kids that my wife keeps wanting me to build.

 

[fatjay]

Doing this with one person, in the dark, in the rain, on a ladder is proving to be slightly dangerous.

So I switched gears to work on my battery, bms, and busbar setup.

I have a JK 100a bms, my busbars are 12" copper. I am installing 4 growatt 3k bms and 6 15kwh batteries. I'll drill and tap the bus bars every inch giving me a total of 11 holes.

The BMS has 2 10ga leads for the battery, but I was under the impression I needed 1ga copper for my battery wire. I feel like the 2 10ga is on the small side.

I am currently top balancing my 280ah batteries, I have a feeling it will take a while.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

I like your bracing under the roof!

 

[fatjay]

Had to redesign the cross member support. The webbing doesn't work for the side to side cross members. So I needed to add some stubs down then diagnoal supports to support the load. Then a horizontal support to pull it together.

Doing it on paper is easy, but everything is heavy trying to clamp in place so I can tac it in place. I want to pick up some T channel for the diagonal, I don't think the flat stock is strong enough over this distance.

 

[fatjay]

Playing with a couple different designs, I think a joist style might work better.

 

[fatjay]

Strength is important, but really the strength is already there. I'm just looking to combat sag. Over the span there's about 1cm of drop. Since this will be covered in panels which are rigid, sag may compress them and result in cracks. That's the biggest thing I'm trying to avoid.

In the first design, the outer two triangles will keep it supported mostly, but it can pivot, without the lower horizontal member. The lower horizontal pulls it together.

With truss design trusses sag all the time. They're still strong enough, but I'm looking more for rigidity and resistance to sag. I think the original design is the strongest.