Mounting for solar battery tender

[RalphVa]

I bought a solar battery tender and am currently using it to maintain a spare utility battery in the carriage house. Have the panel mounted on the sunny front of the carriage house.

However, it makes sense to use the solar panel for my standby generator and to save the plugin one now on the generator for winter time and other short usages.

The thing came with no mounting other than screws that go into holes in the corners. My generator is inside a chain link fence about 20 ft to the right of the sunny front of the carriage house. Not easy to mount it onto the chain link fence or even on a pole above the fence, unless I do a wooden pole. Also, the chain link and generator are in shade of the garage pretty much in the winter. Would have to go 20 ft or so north up the fence to get much winter sun.

Wife came up with the idea of putting a mounting on the generator side of the carriage house and running the line over to the generator. I have a couple big approximately 4 inch by 20 ft long pipe sections stored. One could be used for a line support at the chain link fence. Thinking of running some PVC conduit between the carriage house over to the top of the pipe in the ground to protect and improve looks of the tender line to the generator.

Anyone have any other ideas on how to do a mounting? It would be on an approximately 16 1/2 inch square board to which I could put screws into the corner holes.

Ralph

 

[SPIKER]

What about putting one of those poles vertical in the earth beside the generator? Panel should be able to be mounted on some electrical conduit mounts to the pipe, heck even a 4" x 6' hole filled with gravel on a 20' pole has 16' up in the air w 4' in ground... Use some 57 gravel in the hole and you should be able to adjust the pole using a pipe wrench to align the panel to best fit for sun. Then a small bracket to the roof of the shed by the generator (dig hole so pole sets against the barn/shed roof edge.)

Mark

 

[RalphVa]

Think I'll make up a PVC frame and attach it to a pole. Attach the solar battery tender to the PVC.

If I go north a little bit up the fence, I should be able to get out of the shadow cast by the garage to the south. Will take a picture of what I do. I've a 25 ft extension for the 5 ft line off the battery tender.

Guy at Central Battery (been there for years) says BatteryTender is the ONLY good one around. Others on here have mentioned they've had bad luck with others. The solar panel on this one is glass covered.

Ralph

 

[RalphVa]

Here it is in service. I don't have the last 7 ft of conduit (to protect the line from the solar panel from solar UVA degradation) in yet; just got it at Lowes today.

I made the mounting for the solar panel (includes the voltage converter/workings at bottom of panel) out of 3/4" PVC. Then I just attached this to the 1 inch (1" to allow room for the line and big end to go past where I screwed the conduit to the vertical post) conduit through which the line from the panel runs to the generator. I just drilled about a 3/4" hole in the 45 degree elbow at the top of the conduit to stick the line into the conduit.

The vertical hollow metal pole is just one that I had leftover from dismantling the roller for a swimming pool solar blanket.

Ralph