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Solar & remote sites

A jobsite trailer is a catalog build: panels, charge controller, batteries, and mast. Watts stay on the part page. Solar Trailer Designer reads them when you size a ZIP.

Open Solar Trailer Designer

Size a trailer for the ZIP

  1. Pick the trailer, or a panel and battery from the catalog. A missing part stays labeled Typical until you suggest it.
  2. Enter the ZIP. Sun hours come from NREL PVWatts and are cached. With no API key the page says sun hours are unavailable.
  3. Add cameras, the router, the recorder, the switch, lights, and speakers. Catalog watts are used when a part is selected.
  4. Solar Trailer Designer is Pro. A free visitor sees the landing page and can start a 14-day Pro trial. Panel watts, battery amp-hours, autonomy, cellular data, and the monthly chart stay on the server.
  5. A warning shows when winter sun falls short, the load reaches 80% of generation, cellular use reaches 80% of the plan, or the battery misses the target cloudy days.

Ground a jobsite trailer

Bond the trailer frame, the mast, and the equipment enclosure to a driven ground rod with a listed lug. Keep the array frame on that same bond. A PoE camera on a mast still needs the surge path to land on the bonded bar, not on a floating bracket. Check the rod and the lug after the trailer is towed.

LTE and CBRS

LTE is the default backhaul when the carrier has a band the router is certified for. CBRS is a local radio hop: it needs a sector you control and a radio that is on the catalog, and it does not replace the LTE plan when the sector is down. Size the cellular plan from the camera bitrate and viewing hours, then add the router overhead Solar Trailer Designer shows.

LiFePO4 in the cold

Charge current has to stop at or below the cell cutoff. The HireLV reference battery lists that cutoff on its part page. A heater or a charge lockout belongs in the load, not as a guess pasted onto the trailer. AGM can take a cold charge and uses a smaller usable fraction. Solar Trailer Designer takes the usable fraction from the battery part when one is selected.

Theft and tamper

Lock the tongue, the battery box, and the mast winch. A camera that watches the hitch should be in the load budget. Do not put the site address, a plate, or a company name on a Bad Installs photo. Part numbers belong on the catalog page, linked from the post.