Field of the invention

The invention relates to an installation cabin, which is generally intended for installation of parts of solar or photovoltaic cogeneration plants.

Background art

Concrete cabins are known, which are designed for receiving parts of a plant mounted therein, such as a photovoltaic plant or a solar cogeneration plant, and are adapted to be placed in sites reached by terminals of power carrying lines from and to a public network.

Typically, these cabins are provided in the form of a one-piece product, which is composed of a load-bearing floor, peripheral walls and a covering roof.

An opening is formed in one of the peripheral walls, which is designed to receive a door for access to the interior.

Once these prior art cabins have been manufactured, they must be carried to the site in which they have to be placed, where a support base has been carried and installed on the soil beforehand.

This base has appropriate holes for the passage of cables connecting external equipment and internal parts of a photovoltaic or solar cogeneration plant, such parts being mounted in the cabin once it has been finally positioned.

Manholes are formed in the load-bearing floor, for accessing the underlying base, and through which the connection cables running in the soil and extending through the holes in the base, may be introduced into the interior of the cabin to connect with the parts of the plant.

Particularly, a photovoltaic plant is known to require a large number of wiring and connecting cables, many of which have a large diameter and a heavy weight, and are thus difficult to handle and bend for orientation toward and connection to the part of the system for which they are intended.

Once these cables have been introduced into the cabin through the manholes, they are laid on the load-bearing plane of the cabin, possibly protected in special cable ducts, to reach the points at which they are connected to the parts of the plant.

This prior art suffers from certain drawbacks.

A first drawback is that these cabins have considerable sizes and weights and their transport from the manufacturer to the installation site is often difficult.

Furthermore, special permits may be required for transit on the road.

A second drawback is that the some or all of the parts of a plant that are designed to be mounted in the cabins must be mounted after placement of the latter at the intended site.

Therefore, the operators are required to introduce and/or connect each part, and to operate in the cabins.

This considerably affects the comfort of operation and access to the parts, due to both the restricted space available to the operators and to the need to operate in a substantially closed space, which is strongly affected by weather, i.e. is very hot in Summer and very cold in Winter, doe to the low thermal insulation coefficient of concrete.

A third drawback is that the positions of the manholes for passage and access to the lower base must be set during fabrication of the cabin floors, which will restrict in an unchangeable manner the arrangement of the parts of a plant to be mounted therein without allowing any change to be made for any unpredicted adaptation.

A fourth drawback is that the large number of cables that connect the parts of the plant and the power carrying lines lie on the floor of the cabins or at the best are disposed in special cable ducts which in turn lie on the floor thereby cluttering it, and create obstacles to access and walking by operators for assembly and periodic maintenance.

Disclosure of the invention

One object of the invention is to obviate the above mentioned drawbacks, by providing an installation cabin that has a light weight, is easily transportable and is composed of assemblage parts.

Another object of the invention is to provide an installation cabin that allows easy mounting therein of all the parts of a plant, e.g. a photovoltaic or solar cogeneration plant.

A further object of the invention is to provide an installation cabin that allows quick and simple wiring of all the connection cables required for operation of the plants mounted therein, while preventing such cables from cluttering the floor or walking surface.

Yet another object of the invention is to provide an installation cabin that does not require preset, unchangeable positions for the manholes or openings for access to and connection of the parts of a plant to respective power cords and power carrying cables.

In one aspect the invention relates to an installation cabin as defined in the features of claim 1 .

The invention affords the following advantages:

- it may be pre-assembled at the factory and transported in an almost final assembled state to the destination site;

- it allows the parts of a plant to be mounted at the factory, before mounting the peripheral walls, i.e. in a simple and convenient manner, allowing access from every side, as it is entirely open;

- it is substantially lighter than prior art cabins, and hence it only presents difficulties in transport when cabins have a non-standard size;

- it allows the cables to conveniently reach the wiring points without running on the floor, as the latter is composed of modular grid elements, which can be possibly removed in a temporary or final manner as needed, without requiring special predetermined arrangement positions;

- it allows all the wiring cables to be contained in the support base resting on the soil, thereby clearing the walkway surface of the floor;

- it allows replacements of any part that has been damaged by outdoor exposure; and

- it allows the thermal insulation coefficient to be modulated as needed, unlike the unchangeable thermal insulation coefficient of concrete cabins.

Brief description of the drawings

Further characteristics and advantages of the invention will be more apparent from the detailed description of a preferred, non-exclusive embodiment of an installation cabin which is shown as non-limiting example in the annexed drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of an installation cabin of the invention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of a detail of the installation cabin of the invention;

Figure 3 is a cross sectional view of the cabin of Figure 1 ;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged view of a detail of Figure 3;

FIG. 5 is a detailed sectional view of an alternative method of securing a base wall of the cabin of the invention;

FIG. 6 is a further detailed sectional view of a further alternative method of securing a base wall of the cabin of the invention.

Detailed description of a preferred embodiment

Referring to the above mentioned figures, numeral 1 generally designates an installation cabin, which particularly adapted to receive therein parts C1 , C2, C3, C4, C5, C6 of a plant, such as a photovoltaic plant.

As shown in the Figures, the cabin 1 comprises a concrete base 2, with side walls 3 and a covering roof 4 mounted thereto.

The base 2 has the shape of a tank with a bottom having a raised edge 6 that acts as a side board supporting both the side walls 3 and a floor 7, which will be better explained below.

Apertures 8 are formed in the base 2, for allowing the passage of cables from the exterior to the interior of the tank 2 and vice versa.

Referring to Figure 4, the side walls 3 are shown to have respective bottom ends 103, which are fixed to the raised edge 6 by means of brackets 9 and are received in a special concave notch 10 having a right-angle geometric profile, designed for mating connection to the profile of the section of the side walls 3.

Figures 5 and 6 show two possible alternative embodiments of the fixation of the bottom ends 103 of the side walls 3 to the base 2.

More in detail, Figure 5 shows that hinge elements 20 can be interposed between the bottom ends 103 and the concave notch 10, which elements have wings 21 and 22, that are adapted to be fixed to the bottom ends 103 and the concave notch 10 and allow the walls to be mounted in a lying position and be later raised by rotation, as shown by arrow "F".

On the other hand, Figure 6 shows that the walls 3 are fixed to the base 2 by means of rivets or screws 24 which extend through the bottom ends 103, namely in an oblique direction, to be secured into the base 2.

The concave notch 10 is shaped in view of preventing infiltration of water and moisture from the soil upon which it is designed to rest, as well as the passage of grass, whereby it forms a step 1 1 all along its periphery, acting as a barrier, and against which the brackets 9 and the bottom ends 103 of the side walls 3 abut.

Referring back to Figure 4, the brackets 9 are shown to have a right- angled profile, with respective flat sections joined together and abutting against the corresponding surfaces that form the step 10, and secured thereto by known means, such as chemical anchors or expansion bolts, or other means known to the skilled person.

The floor 7 is composed of a plurality of grid elements 107 which are juxtaposed to form a seamless surface, and lie on a series of beams 12.

The beams 12 form a support framework that is raised to the bottom 5 and have respective ends lying on the raised edges 6.

Each grid element 107 actually consists of a quadrangular panel formed with a load-bearing net, typically made of metal, which is adapted to support walking by operators.

Wiring may be performed at each element C1 -C6 by removing the panels 107 where the cables are designed to pass through the floor to be connected to the destination elements.

The operation of the installation cabin of the invention is as follows: the installation cabin 1 is typically assembled at a factory.

Thus, the base 2 is first formed, and the framework 12 is later laid thereon, for receiving the parts C1 -C6 that form a plant to be mounted and held within the installation cabin 1 . Later, the gaps between the beams 12, whose height is slightly greater than the thickness of the panels 107, are closed by the latter, by sliding them below the parts C1 -C6 thereby forming the floor 7.

The cables for wiring the parts C1 -C6 are passed to the bottom 5 of the base 2 and accumulate thereon, such that they may be connected to their respective parts, without restricting the space for the movements of the operators.

Once cable arrangement and connection have been completed, the side walls 3 are mounted to the base 2, by fixing their bottom ends 103 to the brackets 9 or the hinge elements 20, which are designed for this purpose and are in turn fixed beforehand to the edges 6, by being coupled to the peripheral step 1 1 .

Alternatively, the walls 3 are mounted to the base 2 and fixed thereto by the screws or rivets 24.

Finally, if required, inner partitions 30 are also mounted, and the roof 4 is laid on the walls 3 for closing the installation cabin 1 , in which most of the parts C1 -C6 of a plant, e.g. a photovoltaic plant, have been already mounted and wired.

At least one access door is provided on one of the side walls 3, allowing operator access.

Then, the installation cabin is loaded on a transport vehicle and carried to the installation site in which it will be placed.

After installation, the operators may pass the connecting cables from the exterior to the interior of the cabin through the apertures 8, namely to the interior of the base 2, and lay them on the bottom 5 below the floor 7, and quickly complete the last connections with the parts C1 -C6 of the plant.

It shall be noted that, the cables may be passed from the bottom 5 of the base 2 to the destination parts C1 -C6 by removing certain panels 107 (or part thereof) of all the panels that form the floor 7, i.e. those located where the cables are designed to pass through the floor 7 to reach their respective elements C1 -C6, without requiring cable ducts lying on the floor 7.

The invention was found to fulfill the intended objects. The invention so conceived is susceptible to a number of changes and variants within the inventive concept.

Furthermore, all the details may be replaced by other technically equivalent parts.

In practice, any materials, shapes and sizes may be used as needed, without departure from the scope of the following claims.