Solar Energy Articles

Different Types of Solar Panel Installations

It all depends upon a solar panel installation company’s domain expertise and experience, as to how they go about with the installation process of the solar panels at the premises of the customer. In this article, we are going to have a look at the two main installation types as they are most commonly used by the solar panel installation companies.

PV installation

It is the best practice in order to make the installation process a quick one when the home is being re-roofed. This saves the cost of labor and most important the cost of alteration in construction. Solar panels installed on the roof tops of the houses can be flush mounted or in a lifted up manner. This type of solar panel installation equips a technique called as “flashed-in”. Hence there is a possibility, by all means, of the elimination of roof leaks, if any.

This type of installation process also caters easy location of the rafters when the roof is off. This practice of solar panel installation makes sure that the solar panels are securely bolted to the top of the roof into the rafters. This is generally known as wide-wise method in which the solar panels are installed on the top of the roofs. This makes the future cost rendered to be low in terms of the removal as well as the re-installation of the solar panels.

This technique usually makes use of the sloped roofs to install the solar panels on to them so that the angle of tilt of the solar panels is obtained easily, thus minimizing the cost of additional elevation structures to be mounted on to the roof top. This process of installation needs to be equipped with great care since a brittle roof can cause a lot of labor damage as well as damage to the premises of the customer (installation site).

Basically, the mounts need to be glued on to the upper surface of the roofs. This is done via stainless steel lag bolts. Then the metal flashings need to be carefully aligned and placed over the mounts. Then the solar panels are to be oriented in the form of an array with interconnections of one solar panel grid to the other appropriately done and tested. This is to make sure all the solar panels are connected together in order to make up a photovoltaic system altogether.

This kind of installation can be considered as clean, unobtrusive, low profile one. It is however, nevertheless, green energy harnessing machine component.

Solar Panel Racking Installation

This kind of installation differs from the one described above in the fact that it requires a flat roof in order to be installed. The attachment process of the mounts to the solar panels is done on a structural basis.

Here the mounts are placed on the rafters and drilled on to the surface of the roof top. Care should be taken when drilling the rafters because it can cause them to split. The rafters are usually placed at about 16 or 24 inches apart. Hence a common spacing between the mounts is taken to be as 24 inches. Mounts however, need to be in a straight line which can be ensured by drawing a straight chalked line or also with a help of a thread which is tightened at both the ends.

An additional installation component called post is used in this installation type. The post-mount assembly is male-female types. The thread of the post is screwed without effort on to the base. Metal channels are then placed on top of the posts. Racks made up of aluminum are placed on this assembly. This overall will form a rack system on which the products of the company viz. solar panels are installed.

Thus, the two techniques that are commonly used by any solar panel company are highlighted with differences.

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