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Renewables: "talking 'bout my generation"
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No my panels seemed to cope well with the tremendous winds a couple of days and nights ago, its more the flow off the top of the panel in a downpour that concerns me. But, if as you say the rain will just drop/run off the panels in to the gutter...again, I will just have to wait and watch.
Jan x0 -
Martyn1981 wrote: »Hiya Jan, like others I heard of the 300mm 'loose' rule, perhaps 200mm at a pinch, but I think it's slightly more complex (or less depends how you look at it).
For the top edge, there are rules, since you can't alter the height of your roof without permission, so if the panels are too far up, they could be visible above the ridge, since they sit around 100mm proud. Hence they need to be down a bit due to rules. But not a problem, since the roofers won't want to lift the ridge tiles, to secure roof anchors, so will aim to be a bit lower anyway.
Sides and bottom, may be an issue of wind lift, but not sure if there are actual rules, also need to find anchor points again, so in a bit.
The bottom though, as you point out raises an extra issue, since ideally, you want the rain to run off the bottom panel onto the roof before going into the gutter, to prevent it blowing over the gutter in heavy rain and wind. So the gutter guys may have a point, but I'm not sure if there is a 'rule', or just 'guidance'.
Thinking about it, this really doesn't help at all. Sorry.
Mart.
At some point in its life, nearly every roof is likely to need the ridge tiles replacing so a reasonable gap between ridge and top panel seems a good idea. In our case, the bit of roof supporting the panels is very shallow and the roof the other side of the ridge very steep so I needed to leave a clear space above the panels to allow future access to the ridge.
At times of very heavy rain, water from most rooves will surge across the top of the gutter and miss it completely. In my case that's a disaster since I want to collect the water but for most people it doesn't really matter because the gutters are there to stop gentle rain trickling off the roof, dribbling down the wall and soaking into it. Anything shooting past the gutters is unlikely to dribble down the wall.
Since our annual rainwater 'delivery' significantly exceeds our usage, panels were fitted very close to bottom of roof and I'm happy to live with the slight losses during heavyish rain.
I don't think the 'edge effects' are all that important. Panels are (or should be) securely bolted to a framework that is in turn firmly fixed to rafters and far less likely to blow away than single tiles which may be 'secured' by a single nail (or often no nail - just the weight of the one above).NE Derbyshire.4kWp S Facing 17.5deg slope (dormer roof).24kWh of Pylontech batteries with Lux controller BEV : Hyundai Ioniq50 -
Good point.
From my extensive study of roofs following the 1987 hurricane, the most probably thing to blow away was the ridge or hip tile (if the same design rather than a bonnet).
Now one of those flipping off complete with a big chunk of mortar at each end , could do end of damage to the panels as it bounced down the roof.
Having a bungalow, I think its roof needs a sit on the ridge inspection next summer.
John.
PS I have only about 175mm of tile skirt below the bottom of my panels.
PPS My Mozilla "English" spell-checker does not like rooves.or roovs0 -
John_Pierpoint wrote: »PPS My Mozilla "English" spell-checker does not like rooves.or roovs
It's probably using an AmerEnglish dictionary.NE Derbyshire.4kWp S Facing 17.5deg slope (dormer roof).24kWh of Pylontech batteries with Lux controller BEV : Hyundai Ioniq50 -
1.28 O's Today......
2.5 kWp PV system, SSW facing, 45 Deg Roof. ABB Inverter, Monitor: 'Wattson'.
Reg. for FIT Nov 2011. "It's not what you generate; it's how you use it that matters". One very clean Vauxhall Diesel Sri, £30.00 Road Tax:
Definition of 'O's = kWh/kWp (kWh = your daily & accurate Generation figure) (kWp = the rated output of your PV Panels).0 -
My inverters have been kicking in and out all day. Rubbish. 2 of them added up to a massive 0.5kWh, couldn't be a**ed to climb in the garage loft to check the other. Promised a better day tomorrow...heard that before2 kWp SEbE , 2kWp SSW & 2.5kWp NWbW.....in sunny North Derbyshire17.7kWh Givenergy battery added(for the power hungry kids)0
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Oscargrouch wrote: »1.28 O's Today......
:eek: 0.06 O's....0 -
0.325 O's today. No, make that 1300W:D16 Sanyo Hit 250s.4kWp SMA 3.8kWp inverter. SW roof. 28° pitch. Minimal shade. Nov 2011 install. Hybrid car. Ripple Kirk Hill. N.E Lincs Coast.0
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Exactly 1 "O" today.... second best day in December........ some has been diverted to my water cylinder as that is pretty hot.3.995kWP SSW facing. Commissioned 7 July 2011. 24 degree pitch + Solar Immersion installed May 2013, after two Solar Immersion lasting just over the guarantee period replaced with Solic 200... no problems since0
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And so it shouldn't - the plural is roofs. Didn't we have this conversation recently?John_Pierpoint wrote: »PPS My Mozilla "English" spell-checker does not like rooves.or roovs2kWp Solar PV - 10*200W Kioto, SMA Sunny Boy 2000HF, SSE facing, some shading in winter, 37° pitch, installed Jun-2011, inverter replaced Sep-2017 AND Feb-2022.0
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