A Pipe sticking up out of the Ground

A pipe sticking up out the ground sounds simple enough.  It is, after all, just a pipe in the ground.

And then comes along a certain Mr. Mitch Hegman to overthink the entire concept.

I will start to explain all of this with an incident that occurred somewhere near twenty-five years ago.  At that time, I (Mitchell George Hegman) was attempting to explain the methods of installation and physical routing I preferred for a run of electrical conduit.  Somewhere about halfway through my explanation, the coworker I was speaking with reached out with both hands and grasped my shoulders.  “Stop right there,” he said earnestly.

“What?” I asked.  “What’s wrong?”

“I’m lost here,” my coworker responded.  “I swear, Mitch, you could make digging a ditch complicated.”

Historical background established.

Now, we can migrate back to our story about a pipe sticking out of the ground.  I am in the process of installing my own solar PV system: a pole-mounted array.  On a typical pole-mounted array, an installer sticks a pipe upright in the ground and then attaches the array to the top of the pole.  Obviously, that is not near complicated enough for my taste.  I want my array to look more organic, more like the trees around my house.  My pole has arms at weird angles and will sport three sets of modules.  Here is a list of what my pole required:

A bunch of measuring and trigonometry calculations on my part

Shop drawings (produced by me)

An eight-inch and a four-inch steel pipe

A mini-excavator

The hiring of a welder for cutting and fabricating

Three yards of concrete

A Solmetric SunEye to assure we achieved a proper southern orientation with the array arms

Help from several very tolerant friends

 

Yesterday, I finished planting my pipe sticking out of the ground as witnessed by today’s two photos.

--Mitchell Hegman

Note: That is Geddy Parker in the machine.  He is the owner of Ascension Electric.  I could not be doing this complicated thing without his help!