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Tower of Power IV: Building the Power House

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The Tower of Power has additional solar power equipment that needs to be connected together, including charge controllers, inverters, circuit breakers, and batteries. Bob built a “Power House” out of 18 gauge steel to contain these components. He designed the wiring layout and wired all the connections, installed the two yellow inverters (each weighs 130 pounds), the two charge controllers, and the four batteries (100+ pounds a piece) in the shop. The complete Power House weighed something around 1000 pounds. Here is a video summary of the process, including moving the completed unit, intact with batteries, out of the shop and to the base of the tower. Once in place, the main house wires were dug up, spliced, and connected to the Power House connectors. Then the wires from the solar panels were connected at the combiner box at the top of the tower, and the circuit breakers flipped on. With its two inverters, this system makes 240V, so we can run power tools. Solar Power, baby!