{"id":86,"date":"2017-08-08T15:25:13","date_gmt":"2017-08-08T15:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gridtiepower.com\/?p=86"},"modified":"2017-08-18T20:12:43","modified_gmt":"2017-08-18T20:12:43","slug":"florida-aquifer-didnt-agree-with-engineering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gridtiepower.com\/index.php\/2017\/08\/08\/florida-aquifer-didnt-agree-with-engineering\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Recent Heavy Rain Didn&#8217;t Agree with Engineering"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_88\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-88\" class=\"wp-image-88 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/www.gridtiepower.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/20170808_095419-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"12 Solar Array Footer Holes\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-88\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">While I await the engineers to provide their expertise, I watch my security camera while daydreaming about this system becoming a reality. \u00a0Here is a photo of my view as I sit on the couch writing this documentation.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>We tried to dig our twelve holes but at 42&#8243; deep ran into water. Digging any further caused the hole to collapse. There are several options at this point. In the following order;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Increase the width of the hole and decrease the depth. The downside is that I would need more cement to hold the array and more area to dig with the 140 mph wind load requirement in the area. With the design I originally chose I would be close to 25,000 lbs of cement.<\/li>\n<li>Put a 12&#8243; cement footer above the ground. I&#8217;m waiting for engineering to see if this is an option. Not ideal and may not meet the engineering requirements as the footer is partially above ground. I will wait to see what engineering gives as an option.<\/li>\n<li>Lower the height of the solar array. I have spent the time, money and energy to put the array 8 foot high on the south facing side or lowest point. Depending on the extra effort and cost of the first option, I may choose this compromise. I am waiting on the engineers to provide the specifics.<\/li>\n<li>Install a shallow well and pump the water over a period of time and dig the extra 13 inches required by the original engineering specifications. This will take more time and several hundred dollars of equipment. If I knew for sure this would work, I would probably use this option.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>I also have a video of the holes being dug up to this point. The left side or north side holes are just 12 inches by 42 inches deep as we wait for engineering. The holes on the right or south side are \u00a0~24 inches wide by 42 inches deep.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Two Teenagers Helping Install Solar, Who Says They Are Lazy!\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/HKtB5_Li16E?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Update 8\/11\/2017:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Engineering came back with the requirements for option 1. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>24\u201d diameter x 36\u201d deep concrete footings at each post location.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>24\u201d x 24\u201d concrete grade beam installed between leg pair footings<\/em>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Reinforcing steel is required<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>Option 2 was not an option as it needs to be buried to meet 140mph wind load requirements.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Option 3 was not really an option as I have too much time and money invested at this point and I really want the array as high as possible.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Option 4 was the first option I tried and it has worked so far. I think this is the route I&#8217;m going to take moving forward.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; We tried to dig our twelve holes but at 42&#8243; deep ran into water. Digging any further caused the hole to collapse. There are several options at this point. In the following order; &nbsp; Increase the width of the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gridtiepower.com\/index.php\/2017\/08\/08\/florida-aquifer-didnt-agree-with-engineering\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":88,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[12,9,10],"class_list":["post-86","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ground-mount","tag-footers","tag-ground-mount","tag-solar-array"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gridtiepower.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gridtiepower.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gridtiepower.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gridtiepower.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gridtiepower.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.gridtiepower.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":120,"href":"https:\/\/www.gridtiepower.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86\/revisions\/120"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gridtiepower.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gridtiepower.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gridtiepower.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gridtiepower.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}