24Jun
Posted by: Simon In Photovoltaic
One of our recent clients wanted a large array but only had limited space available on the roof of his house. The south east facing roof had a velum window and the south west roof was cluttered with a dormer and adjacent soil stack, all of which limited the array to a disappointing 1.25kW. Switching to Panasonic’s smaller hybrid panels meant we could fit one more panel on the main roof and utilising the flat roof at the back allowed a total of 11 panels. Suddenly the array was 2.64kW and our client was much happier.
Using the flat roof wasn’t completely straightforward as the local planning department had to be approached (Permitted Development rights don’t apply) and we didn’t want to add too much ballast which could overload the roof structure. Once the Planners had given the green light, we fixed the top of the panels to the wall behind and the feet of the panels to a modest amount of ballast sitting on acrylic pads. We even worked around the perspex dome as the natural light was an important feature in the room below.