Panel support for flat roof

This post is not energy monitoring related but it is open source.

My 3.8kW PV array consists of sixteen 250W panels of which seven are mounted on flat roofs. The flat roof support system provided by my installer was very crude and because my bungalow is located on a hill the wind sail effect was creating a serious problem for the building. In addition although the result stood much higher than the planning regulations allow the pitch was only 10 Deg. This photo shows how ugly they were.

After a lot of searching I failed to locate any flat roof support system to my liking and decided to design my own.

Not being a mechanical engineer I looked for a modular system of components from which a reasonable design could be built. The result was that I used a galvanised steel chaneling system called Unistrut which is essentially big boys Meccano. This photo shows the new mounts in place on the top roof, the elevation angle is now 15 Deg

Prior to fitting the panel, a close up and this is a mechanical drawing.

Robert Wall's picture

Re: Panel support for flat roof

"This photo shows how ugly they were." I can't disagree with that.

When I was doing mine winders, we used to have the civil contractor cast unistrut into the concrete floor, onto which our site guys would bolt the equipment cubicles. It made for a neat and flexible fixing arrangement, much better than drilling for holding down bolts.

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