Solar panel install advice sought

[Captain Kirk]

I had also been thinking about costing solar panels, but I was concerned about the roof loading. Fortunately I knew a structural engineer and he came and had a look.

The house is a 1992 build and the inner outside walls are sort of eggbox cardboard sandwiched between plasterboard and insulation sheets. The roof trusses are engineered using 70mm x 30mm dressed timber.

Apparently these are right on the very limit for existing roof tile loading and exceed the limit for unsupported ceiling span of two rooms. The concrete roof tiles are spaced at below the minimum lap, this appears to be a favourite developer trick to miss out one whole row of roof tiles and save costs, but in this case may have also been an attempt to reduce roof load.

Even worse the tile clips have been fitted incorrectly and are practically useless. The engineer suggested solar panels even unconnected would be a good idea just to hold the tiles on!

The estimate for reinforcing the trusses for solar panel loading on just one elevation was £7000.

Not even thinking about solar panels now - too worried about the roof.
I wonder how many people get the roof loading checked?



Split from Hi-jacked thread

 

[binky]

I had also been thinking about costing solar panels, but I was concerned about the roof loading. Fortunately I knew a structural engineer and he came and had a look.

The house is a 1992 build and the inner outside walls are sort of eggbox cardboard sandwiched between plasterboard and insulation sheets. The roof trusses are engineered using 70mm x 30mm dressed timber.

Apparently these are right on the very limit for existing roof tile loading and exceed the limit for unsupported ceiling span of two rooms. The concrete roof tiles are spaced at below the minimum lap, this appears to be a favourite developer trick to miss out one whole row of roof tiles and save costs, but in this case may have also been an attempt to reduce roof load.

Even worse the tile clips have been fitted incorrectly and are practically useless. The engineer suggested solar panels even unconnected would be a good idea just to hold the tiles on!

The estimate for reinforcing the trusses for solar panel loading on just one elevation was £7000.

Not even thinking about solar panels now - too worried about the roof.
I wonder how many people get the roof loading checked?

Rip off the tiles, install 'in roof ' mounting system such as GSE, and reroof correctly. This will remove the weight of the tiles which is almost certainly less than the solar panels.

Locked to prevent being resurrected (again)