Project Erica: Frustration (without indecision)

After yesterday’s frustrations, we were determined to make progress today: it was to be a dry day and we were going to get the solar panel fitted.

Bright and early I gave Erica a wash, paying special attention to the roof, then we loosely fitted the brackets to the solar panel and offered it up onto the roof, before spending time measuring.

It’s a critical requirement that Erica has to remain under 2m high, as we need to retain the ability to use council tips (which is also a reason we were keen to get car rather than a van). We had, of course, measured her height as best we could before we bought the solar panel and had concluded that we had just enough clearance. It is, however, difficult to measure accurately the highest point of a vehicle whose roof is a long way from being flat, and it soon became apparent that something was awry in our measurements, as the highest point of the solar panel was coming in at only 5mm under 2m. For me, that’s not enough breathing space.

We tried the panel in various positions until we found a place that gave us the required clearance.

Method: A piece of wood was placed across the panel, then with a spirit level it was moved into a horizontal position, thus measuring the highest point on the panel. The horizontal piece of wood was then measured against a measuring stick, held in a vertical position alongside Erica.

We might then have proceeded to fix the panel down, except I thought it wise to double check our measurements by repeating the process on the other side of the vehicle. A good job we did, as for no obvious reason, we came up with different figures and we were now measuring exactly 2m high.

Options were considered:

1. We could return the solar panel and not have one at all;
2. We could return the panel and replace it with a non-fixed one that we throw up on the roof when needed*; or 
3. We could come up with a different way of fixing it, so that it would be positioned lower to the roof and/or be removable.

Option 1 was not favoured. We could manage without a solar panel, as we did for 6 years in Colin (and Erica will have much less equipment drawing power) but we also know from experience with Bertie how good it is to have solar.  

Option 2 would be the easy option (and would solve the electronics issue over which I spent hours vacillating yesterday, as they have the solar controller built-in), but not very practical. Aside from needing to find somewhere inside an already small space to store the panel, we wouldn’t want to leave it just sitting on top of Erica’s roof whilst we were out, and if we only used it when we were both in and stationary, then its utility would be severely reduced.

So, we need to veer away from off-the-shelf mounting plates and make some bespoke ones, which will also involve drilling new holes in the aluminium frame of the solar panel, invalidating its warranty in the process. Yikes and gulp! Fortunately it didn’t take me many minutes to find and buy what I was looking for: some unequal (50mm by 25mm) aluminium angle.

As the new fixings won’t be with us until the middle of next week, further work on the solar installation is now postponed, which in turn postpones our ability to fit the insulation to the roof, which in turn postpones our ability to refit the roof liner.

There are, however, other things that we can be getting on with, and I’m pleased to say that a small piece of construction was completed today, albeit another piece that will be completely hidden once the cupboards are built. There was an 'oh no!' moment at the end of the day when I realised that we'd overlooked a major consideration in our design of that piece, but I *think* we’ve got away with it.

(*It could be considered that a fourth option would be to have a semi-flexible panel, which are only 5mm thick and can be bonded directly to the roof, but we discounted that possibility as they're more expensive to buy and tend to have a short life due to overheating, due to not having an air gap under them.)