Renewables: "talking 'bout my generation"

legoman62

Thought it was groundhog day yesterday. Same as Sat/Sun til lunch then.....glorious sunshine. Made 4.88 O's:D

orrery

Oscargrouch wrote: »

Anyone know how thunder & lightening storms affect PV installations? Can it boosts generation with a full strike or is it time to 'screw me lid down' ? .

If you have any spare body parts (plus customary nut and bolt) that you can sew together and strap onto the panels then you could be in for a Nobel Prize.

[Deleted User]

First thing this morning at home it was nice and warm, very bright if a little cloudy. Wind forward a couple of hours and it is thunder, lightning and very heavy rain...

Only got 21.9 miles to cycle home... I generated the same in kWh yesterday

Guess the hot dry dusty panels needed a good wash

The price you pay to be green :cool:

Martyn1981

orrery wrote: »

If you have any spare body parts (plus customary nut and bolt) that you can sew together and strap onto the panels then you could be in for a Nobel Prize.

Or a Darwin Award!

Mart.

Sirlaughalot

Right then chaps just had a conclusive answer to the size of the roof and after all the measurements using every gadget you can think of(Google maps/infra red device etc.,) It took a roofer to get up on the roof and manually measure the area space (7.2M x 3.8M) and it`s a positive result. We can get 16 Sanyo panels on the roof in a uniform layout(HOORAY!).

But the roof inspection has highlighted another problem just as the dormer one has been solved. The guttering has struggled to cope with the deluge of rain we have had overnight and as a result a downpipe has come away from the guttering. This is not the first time the guttering has struggled to cope with extreme conditions so it has not come as a complete surprise but it has left me with some major concerns.

My main concern now is what`s the effect of extreme conditions i.e torrential rain/snow when using solar panels on the drainage system(guttering and facia).

Looking at a tiled roof i would have thought the flow/force of rain/melting snow would be reduced by the cascade effect of the tiling system. With solar panels there is no such slowing/breaking effect, would be more like a slide effect which with my guttering could cause extensive damage to the guttering and fascia.

Has there been any research on this matter and have anyone got any opinions regarding the effect of solar panels on the roofs guttering system.

Thanks

SL

agentk

snowguards! but then you will be worrying about loading on the the roof!

Sirlaughalot

agentk wrote: »

snowguards! but then you will be worrying about loading on the the roof!

Thanks,

Don`t think roof loading is a problem just a case of a poor guttering system not being able to cope with the additional stain placed on it by a solar panel system

SL

agentk

mine are plastic very cheap and reusable as long as they dont get smashed on the way down or brittle with the sun and age. if youres are metal or plastic and not in good nick .maybe repair replace but put extra fascia brackets on 600mm or less spacing rather than the 900mm while the scaff is up. i never had any problems last winter with a foot of snow.

John_Pierpoint

My gutters survived last winter's snow - they are high volume "square flo" grey "Hunter" on 900mm bracket centres, and nearly 40 years old.

The snow slides down my 30 degree panels in big drifts and a lot of it jumps the gutter completely, unlike the interlocking concrete tiles, where it just lies there.

The panels are black and smooth, so the sun shines through the snow and warms the panels and so the avalanche starts.

If the snow is likely to fall on children, visitors or onto a flat or glazed roof. I would think about fitting snow guards. People who live in houses with a roof of charcoal coloured Welsh slates, have a similar problem.

As my place is a bungalow, I actively encourage the snow to slide off, partly to get the panels generating again, and partly to dislodge any "wall" of avalanche building up over the joints.

tunnel

Thought i'd post earlyish, my ESE only managed just over 3kWh today, if the SSW did the same that's a measly 1.5 O's. In fact when I returned from work at 5.30 the ESE had shut down due to a thunderstorm then sprang back to life around 6-ish. I only wanted 20kWh in 12 days to make my PVGIS target, should do it(just) if it keeps on like this(flippin weather)