BIPV Help

SRE · Sep 7, 2011

One of the customers that we couldn't fit in has sent me these photos of her BIPV installation today. It's "finished" - now we don't install BIPV but it doesn't look right to me and she certainly isn't happy - I can't find a photo of a good BIPV installation, does anyone have any constructive comments and/or a photo of a decent job she can compare it with?

For some strange reason her structural engineer reckoned that the roof wasn't strong enough to withold the weight of the panels and suggest BIPV instead - the house is only 10 yr old and in Scotland where the quality of build is usually far superior to the English equivelant.

solarsavings · Sep 7, 2011

I've not done an in-roof pv install but plenty of in-roof thermal, which flashing wise are similar. Not good or weather proof is it. And it's in Scotland with plenty of wet and windy weather. Small wonder their not happy.

SRE · Sep 8, 2011

Any other thoughts??

SolarCity · Sep 8, 2011

It doesn't look watertight from the photos you have supplied, although I'd be reluctant to criticise too much without physically seeing the install.

SRE · Sep 8, 2011

Had a brainwave and sent her back to her structural engineer and Building Services - they should be able to assess it and it saves me from commenting on someone else's work!

DomB · Sep 8, 2011

For what it's worth here's a picture of our naked BIPV, we did it with slate. I havent got closeups of the final product sadly.

First thoughts are that the tiles probably compound the problem. Their edges might not come as low down as some do, i.e they leave a gap so the next tile can connect in and continue the downward part of the 'wave effect'. If they came right down at the edges they might sit on the side flashings instead of sitting high..

Or, same thing said a different way, the array is sat too low compared to the tiles. We did it on a slate roof and were told to drop the whole array down by just 5mm, i.e all the batons behind the array were 5mm less deep than those holding the surrounding slates. That meant the slates sat on the flashing's lip very nicely. 5mm was specific to slate, perhaps they need a different height for the tiles they've chosen

The flashings along the bottom; we had troubles with them too, they just come with sticky stuff that doesn't stick in order to form one long piece of flashing. The joints loosen up and are generally a bit crap. I ended up riveting the joins togethor, that helped the whole thing lie flat.

Hope that all makes sense, & it's only a few thoughts eh

MorganPVI · Sep 8, 2011

The workmanship is very poor, but does it leak?

I'd not hand over a job that looked that poor.

SRE · Sep 8, 2011

Nope, me either but I feel a bit guilty because she wanted us to do the job but we're too busy.

dansk · Sep 9, 2011

Hi, can't really tell from those photos, I'm doing two roofs in two weeks time, so I will know then and report back, bit late mind you by that point. I keep telling you, pass em my way ;-)

dansk · Sep 23, 2011

Here's this week job as promised. Renusol BIPV (semi intergrated)

SRE · Sep 23, 2011

Nice job - did it take much longer??

dansk · Sep 23, 2011

Overall 2 days, .5 for electrical, .5 for mounting panels and 1 day for roofing with 1 roofer and his mate, me and my mate and customer was keen to be involved.

I loved this job, it looked mint once completed, and we had some training from Renusol the week before which helped.

grandfortune · Sep 25, 2011

i see you fixed your panels in landscape, did your roof hangers fit onto the roof trusses? if not how did you fix them i have one comming up and was wondering what you used to fix them as i cant see me being lucky enough to have them on all trusses.

Worcester · Oct 8, 2012

@DomB - nice job - what was the system you used?

We've got a 4kW east west (2.5 -3 / 1.5 -1 ) to do on a brand new roof - rafters just gone up today, covering not due for a few weeks yet and then will be finished with slate, so are looking for a simple to install cost effective in roof system. to get the 2.5 we are going to be pushing the limits of the roof size, so edge detail may be important

I'd welcome any advice -

What have you used?
Would you use it agin?
Good Points?
Tips to make life simpler installing it..
We may need to go down the solar-edge route to achieve the output, so would also be interested to hear how much space under the panel there is.

Many thanks

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