Browse Forums General Discussion 1 Mar 24, 2013 7:35 pm Hi all,
I'm looking to build a new home and will refit the current 4yo PV solar panels on the new roof. The thing I'm worried about is that the roof may sag in the coming 5-10-20 years So the question is whether roof reinforcement on trusses & beams is necessary for my 6 panels ? how about possible future ones (let's say up to 15 panels) ? Has anybody with a new build had to get such reinforcement ? Do builders and/or solar installers advise about this ? I just wanna to come to discussion with my builder armed with lots of information, so thank you all in advance. Re: Reinforce the roof to bear solar panels ?? 2Mar 24, 2013 9:34 pm Find out what the weight of each panel is plus any other hardware to fit them and then just ask the builder if the roof would be OK with that extra weight. Stewie Re: Reinforce the roof to bear solar panels ?? 3Mar 25, 2013 10:36 am Looking at the Suntech brochure, my panels are 15.5Kg each and as they (16) are spread across a large area I think you are worrying about nothing with current code requirements of under-purlins and struts. Arfur Re: Reinforce the roof to bear solar panels ?? 4Mar 25, 2013 3:34 pm oohrah, I've found out the weight of each panel is 16kg, so adding the frames in makes our system weigh 110kg or thereabout - just a burly tradie with his tools 15-16 panels weighing nearly 300kg is a different story. Although their weight is spread around, are you sure the building code requirements are satisfactory, Uncle Arfur ? any doc links ? The concrete roof tiles the builder's gonna be using are specified at 52kg/sqm in data sheet. By my calc the panels, with frames & some spaces in between each other, would weigh ~ 14.15kg/sqm or ~ 27% more than the weigh of the tiles alone. That's not an insignificant load ! Re: Reinforce the roof to bear solar panels ?? 5Mar 25, 2013 8:18 pm Quote: any doc links ? No but there are hundreds of thousands of homes with panels and with all Ive read about systems prior to mine beig installed, you are the very first to raise this question. One place to ask is the Whirlpool site in the Green forum where you might get a reply from Solar tradies who lurk there, provided they think your question warrants an answer. Arfur Hello - we were hoping to apply laminate click lock panels to our concrete ceiling, but not too sure how to go about attaching the panels to the concrete. Any idea what… 0 1664 0 10919 I looked into it a few years ago and my conclusion was to just build a carport that will support panels and get a system installed separately. The company I looked at had… 1 6457 |