American Made? SIRIUS Solar Panels And New EG4 Brightmount Installation!

[@MatthewYBarbo]

Awesome job on this! Those Sirius panels have been flying off the shelf and a lot of people are happy about their product. Enjoyed the watch!

[@CountryLivingExperience]

Thanks Matt!

[@SuccessWithLark]

I like the tape idea. I'd use painters tape so no residue to clean off.

[@davefroman4700]

Good tip with the tape to hold the clamp, but I would suggest painters tape instead. A lot less likely to leave a residue.

[@SuperWhizy]

Thanks for sharing and allowing us to live vicariously through your awesome solar set-up. Stay best!

[@CountryLivingExperience]

You’re welcome

[@donaldhoudek2889]

Add sea shells under the panels. They are bright white and always stay white as the sun fades them. I have a 3' border around my privacy fence. Bright reflections. Oh, make sure you put weed screen under the shells. My EG4 6000XP is supposed to arrive tomorrow some time. Let the fun begin!

[@CountryLivingExperience]

Good call on the sea shells. Thank you.

[@dertythegrower]

99% reflective greenhouse plastic.. and its made 6ml so common things do not jab through it as easy... probably cheaper also, as seashells are expensive to ship to midwest areas not near a coastal region

[@CountryLivingExperience]

@@dertythegrower I am in Texas not that far from the coast.

[@Moes_Prep_and_Tech]

There is a way to fit all your panels on those. I have my 460 watt Sungold power Panels which are 44.7 inches slightly wider than the panels you are using. brightmount has an extension kit to accomodate wider panels. You'll need 2 of them one for each kit they are like 12 bucks a piece plus they have a modified (longer) bonding kit if you are combining 2 sets together. You should try one of those T-handle Hex when you're mounting the panels on the frames it made life so much easier for me

[@CountryLivingExperience]

Yep. I need one of those extension kits.

[@Moes_Prep_and_Tech]

@@CountryLivingExperience I just checked their website, they are sold out of them at the moment 😞

[@CountryLivingExperience]

@@Moes_Prep_and_Tech No worries. They are selling out of things like crazy.

[@justinfowler2857]

I'm taking your advice. I'm not buying anything until i can pay cash. Might take a little while, but bit by bit I'll build my system.

[@CountryLivingExperience]

Awesome!

[@rockygrindstaff7312]

This was one of your best videos. Very informative for my needs

[@CountryLivingExperience]

Thanks. Glad I could help.

[@bradmesserle999]

Your having way too much fun with your solar setup ! :)

[@CountryLivingExperience]

Absolutely!

[@RCTVAccount]

I recently (8/2024) received two of the latest brightmount racks and seven Sirius panels. Because of the panel sizes, an extender is required when mounting 4 in a row. SS sells easy to install extenders. I also notified the Signature Solar that there is a defect with the bolts that come with the mounts in the latest production run. When the nuts are tightened, the threads on the bolts become bent, therefore the nuts will never come off without breaking the bolts. This only becomes a problem if you ever have to dismantle the mount. I also created a wooden base for my mounts because I did not want to permanently place them. Thanks for your video.

[@RainerSchuhsler]

@@RCTVAccount where did you order the panels?

[@RCTVAccount]

@@RainerSchuhsler Signature Solar.. bifacial 410W Sirius panels x7

[@RainerSchuhsler]

@@RCTVAccount their website shows minimum order 10. How did you get fewer?

[@RCTVAccount]

@@RainerSchuhsler I ordered the the 24K hybrid mini split. It came with seven panels. I don't think electric rates are ever going down. The hybrid mini split was the best ROI I could get, with ground mounts everything was $4K. The ROI for me is about 2 years, then heating and cooling will be free.

[@trentvlak]

Signature Solar is annoying. I got four panels with the EG4 12k hybrid mini split but they wouldn't sell me four more Sirius panels. Had to buy a pallet minimum. WTF?

[@RiggerBrew]

Are you planning to put any of them in a vertical orientation for those bifacials? Projects with every day Dave showed how to use Bifacials to even out the daily production curve with vertically mounted bifacial panels, neat concept.

[@CountryLivingExperience]

I haven’t watched his video on that experiment yet.

[@Moes_Prep_and_Tech]

I saw that video, Rodney Hunt put me on Dave's Channel. I was seriously contemplating on doing a vertical install for a East/West Configuration with bifacials to get some extra early morning late afternoon power going in.

[@CountryLivingExperience]

Maybe I will try that with the 3 extra panels that I have that won't fit on the Brightmounts.

[@Slurgical_3D_Terrain_Channel]

This is awesome! You are living my dreams. Thank you for making this. You should look into 3D printing and design. You could really benefit from this. I truly believe it. I have saved myself tons and being more sustainable by making and manufacture my own stuff. You manufacture your own things to fit what you need without having to depend outside infrastructure and impact on environment.

[@CountryLivingExperience]

You're welcome. I'll check out the 3d stuff.

[@dertythegrower]

3d printing with hempcrete... better than concrete, and cheaper if you grow hemp plants as its made from lime and hemp stems people usually burn or toss out (big in texas believe it or not, and Montana has premade hempcrete blocks by pallet shipping now)

[@Slurgical_3D_Terrain_Channel]

@@dertythegrower very cool. I live in Canada, as progressive and open minded we may be perceived our government is a total sell out to monopolies. Anything environmental or for the benefit of the people is being stripped away with our own money. We are taxed at 46% of our wages and 13% on all purchases. We had a hemp movement……it’s with the Dodo bird.

[@stevenfrazier8939]

i made an adapter to fit all four of our SEG panels. now signature solar sells something that does the same thing. your Sirius PV 415W Bifacial Solar Panel have the same dimension and specs as our SEG panels.

[@CountryLivingExperience]

I can buy a small extension kit

[@stevenfrazier8939]

worth it to get another panel in production

[@CountryLivingExperience]

@@stevenfrazier8939 For sure

[@lisahoffmann3274]

You explain everything so clearly, thank you .

[@CountryLivingExperience]

Glad it was helpful!

[@colormaker5070]

The brightmount kit is good for what it is the only problem you cannot get spare parts. The clips are odd size and you cannot order them separately. The rails are just to short for any >330 watt panels. The extended rail adapter was there fix but its to short. I finally ended up adding my own rails.

[@CountryLivingExperience]

The clips fit my other racks just fine. You can buy random panel clamps and they fit.

[@colormaker5070]

@@CountryLivingExperience Where did you get the clips ? SS sells mini rail clips which are to small for the brightmount. I have ordered a few from amazon from there spec sheets W&H and the part that goes into the rail are either to wide or to narrow not sure if there is a standard but it got frustrated so I finally gave up and bought new rails so all my panel infrastructure uses the same clips.

[@CountryLivingExperience]

Are you talking about the bonding clips or the panel clamps. I am confused now as to which part you are specifically referring to.

[@jjoncm1]

Signature solar sells extenders for the new bright mount for solar panels that are a bit wider just FYI. Might give you room for 1 more panel.

[@CountryLivingExperience]

Yep. I just didn’t have any and wanted to point out that they wouldn’t fit on the regular rack.

[@jjoncm1]

@@CountryLivingExperience good deal, looks sweet regardless

[@moniquewright312]

I just saw your previous video and I just wanted to let you know that in the past they've cracked down extremely hard on "black salve" which is made with different ingredients (blood root and zinc chloride? I can't remember) I reckon you calling it black salve could be the culprit. If this is the case then your other videos should be ok.

[@DIY-Elvin-Productions]

EG4 has the extension brackets to place in between the rails to extend them a few inches to hold these wider panels

[@CountryLivingExperience]

Yep. I will add those in the future.

[@arksonephimmasane5134]

Thank you for sharing and very educational! Where can I learn about what you do?

[@CountryLivingExperience]

You're welcome. We have 50 videos on building your own solar systems here.....kzbin.info/aero/PLe8gvCbPFkexFmUtg3xRS4sTZQ1Ve-ft1

[@umustbbornagainActs2-38]

Now my pockerbook is really itching. Great video :-)

[@majorhavoc9693]

On specs for these mounts say that their adjustable between 25 and 35 degrees. 35 degrees is useless here in the northeast where I need 60 degrees.

[@CountryLivingExperience]

lol. Then why comment? Btw, You need no more than 45 degree if you live in upper Maine.

[@russellkamp8923]

Adjustable, 25 - 45.

[@mdinning123]

Hello - Was looking at the Series specs. Looks good and close enough that I could pick up and save some on shipping. With the bi-facial design, how do you calculate when trying to get the max Amp and Voltage to ensure it does not exceed the '6000XP PV input specs ( I have one 6000XP). Do you add together the Vmp and Amp specs from both sides or ?

[@rodneyross5282]

It seems no one told you about the extension bracket between the bright mounts. You could have all 8. Have a blessed day.

[@CountryLivingExperience]

I know about them. Just don't have any and wanted to point out that if someone is retrofitting these to the brightmount, they won't fit.

[@DIYSolarFarming]

Nice simple rack for a small DIY system! 👍

[@CountryLivingExperience]

Thanks

[@thaddeustroyer]

Thanks for sharing. Love your videos It looks to me that if you swapped the "through bolt top mount style" mounting clip for and "under panel clip mount" and scooch all those panels together, you could gain the 4 inches you need to mount the 8 panels you wanted. Now, im not there and dont have the exact measurements, it just appears that way from what im seeing. Just an idea, more panels is always better, at least i haven't found that not to be true yet. Keep up the great work.

[@CountryLivingExperience]

Thanks. I tried off camera to configure it differently but they are just a bit too wide. There is an extension kit that I can buy which will work.

[@bobcole3852]

You discovered the same issue I did trying to maximize panels on the Brightmount racks. SS doesn't offer a rail extension to allow you to add that "one more" panel

[@joaof1225]

@@bobcole3852 SS does have a 5 inch extension kit on their website. I don’t know if 5 inches enough but it’s worth checking out.

[@CountryLivingExperience]

I think they have an extension kit albeit a small one.

[@cajun1253]

Ever try putting them on a timer in order to get them to follow the sun as it tracts across the sky? Edit- Example- faces sun in AM and rotates/pivots to always face sun throughout the day. Having the panels truly follow the sun for max efficiency would be great however as for now I can only see it done with a timer. Just curious as to what you think about this?

[@CountryLivingExperience]

All of the tracking units that I have seen are very expensive and very small. Not worth the investment in my opinion.

[@cajun1253]

@@CountryLivingExperiencereally? When I did it i was able to rob this part from this and piece it all together and then wired it up myself but I had no idea that aftermarket units were so expensive. Thanks for the info.

[@Mrs.Patriot]

Thank you for this- i had no idea there were double sided panels! I do have one suggestion...duct tape can leave a gooky residue so I would use painters tape to hold the brackets.

[@CountryLivingExperience]

You’re welcome

[@Robertbush-s7t]

They have exstebtors For the now so you can fit the wider panels

[@CountryLivingExperience]

Yep. Thanks.

[@dariush.4241]

What do i need for energy that only uses atmost 1kw a hour i guess, with 120v?

[@P81OS2]

Fantastic job, sir!

[@CountryLivingExperience]

Thank you kindly!

[@IHGChick]

@countrylivingexperience would you tell us what area of TX you are in? It is so beautiful there. I'd love to check out the area.

[@CountryLivingExperience]

We are in Eat Texas near Tyler.

[@medicmanfd]

It seems like the the spec concrete slabs are huge overkill for this array, they would weigh over 720 pounds each per the instructions and use 12 bags of concrete each to build per the specs. I see you used 6 inch concrete tubes, is that enough to support the array? I’m thinking about using 10 inch tubes 5 feet in length (3 feet below grade due to frost line).

[@CountryLivingExperience]

Mine has been up for a while. I used 3 bags of concrete for each hole and they are 2.5’ in the ground. Has held steady and has not moved a millimeter. The engineered instructions are way overkill for sure. Probably designed for worst case scenario x 200.

[@rickthelian2215]

Would stainless steel give you a good reflective ray on the bottom instead of rocks.😊 Can you add one more brackets one concrete support to add the one panel? 🇦🇺

[@CountryLivingExperience]

Stainless would be good but expensive. Someone said add seashells which is a good idea. They only sell the kit which has 4 brackets. I can (and will) buy a small rail extension though.

[@johnpeter366]

I do not see a link to that fashionable recommended hatwear? do tell....

[@CountryLivingExperience]

Lol. Just got it at my local Cavenders (boot and western wear store in Texas).

[@stubbshomestead1316]

I picked up 4 of those panels from SS with a eg4 500v charge controller. Some really good panels, I put down a silver tarp behind them I still need to do the concrete for my eg4 brightmount Its not easy putting that in...I have 1 and then it got hot so now its a winter project. Got any tips for the sono tubes?

[@CountryLivingExperience]

Using the sonotubes is fairly easy. I just dug a hole with my tractor auger and slipped them in.

[@stubbshomestead1316]

@@CountryLivingExperience Ah ok, That would be easy. Im over here with post hole diggers.

[@RainerSchuhsler]

I’m in Texas. Where did you order those panels from?

[@CountryLivingExperience]

Here is the link to them....www.signaturesolar.com/?ref=countrylivingexperience COUPON CODE for $50 off: Countryliving12

[@RainerSchuhsler]

Are their panels minimum order 10 or is there a way to get fewer shipped?

[@trentvlak]

@@RainerSchuhsler You can't get fewer than 10.

[@russellkamp8923]

​@RainerSchuhsler I believe if you pick them up you can specify the number you need. I'd call SS to verify.

[@gunnerjoe53]

They should sell an extender bracket.

[@CountryLivingExperience]

They do. I just didn't have one and was pointing it out.

[@johnmorrison8193]

Put something between the concrete and the aluminum. Concrete corrodes aluminum, bad!

[@SuccessWithLark]

What size Sono Tubes did you use?

[@CountryLivingExperience]

8”

[@tlteal]

I’m guessing everyone got their free Sirius solar panels because they are being reviewed by lots of KZbinRS…..

[@Doc1855]

I never got them

[@tlteal]

@@Doc1855 you will soon. All the youtubers are reviewing their free sirius solar panels

[@Doc1855]

@@tlteal Eric, we don’t have solar. You’re confusing me with someone else

[@myparadiseonbantayanisland9030]

Got to ask... Price?

[@CountryLivingExperience]

For the panels or the mount?

[@myparadiseonbantayanisland9030]

@@CountryLivingExperience panels

[@CountryLivingExperience]

@@myparadiseonbantayanisland9030 $187 per panel

[@myparadiseonbantayanisland9030]

@@CountryLivingExperience how does that price compare with similar wattage chinese panels?

[@CountryLivingExperience]

It is a bit above them but not by much. Some chinese made panels are even more expensive.

[@Tikun-Israel5784]

Not wood Bcause?

[@CountryLivingExperience]

?

[@egtex2287]

Are they really made in America or China bought parts and then get assembled in America? There are very few and i mean very few US companies that actually make solar panels in the us and there are many us companies that order all the parts from China assemble the parts here and pass the product to the consumer as a US made product. Becareful all do you research . I do see a couple of their products do say assemble in Texas . Not the same as nade in USA.

[@CountryLivingExperience]

I know exactly what I said and I know what they are. By that logic, you cannot call anything (99.999%) made in the USA. I will take American jobs over a Chinese imported panel any day! We do not "make" the pieces. Watch the video of the plant in Texas that employs 200 Texans and be happy.

[@OGknowbuddy]

jane akre vs fox news...... all media based on revenue/views is entertainment and the judge stated that people know its not real. whats good for the goose is good for the gander but just like fox YT does not have to publish your video.

[@Struppi_084]

It‘s a monstrosity. 😂