Solar Panel Fixes
Solar panels were installed on our roof to aid in the charging of our four lithium ion house batteries. We wanted as much charging power as possible so our off-grid life would be more convenient. As it turned out, we were able to fit six large panels around the other roof mounted appliances like the air conditioners and roof vent fans.
Three out of four screws are missing.
Unlike the European practice of applying the panels right down tight onto the roof surface, our builder decided to use commercially made supports that hold the panels about an inch or so off the surface. I haven't quite decided yet which is the better way to do it, but our problem with the way our builder did it began when I noticed that a number of the screws that hold the panels firmly in the mount, had completely fallen out.
We were shocked to see that along the leading edge of the roof, where three panels were nested tight together, over half of the screws were missing. One panel had only one screw left holding it in place. If it fell out, the pressure of the wind under the panel when driving at highway speeds would have easily lifted the panel out of the mount, and torn it off the truck. If the flying panel were to hit someone on the side of the road, or hit an oncoming vehicle in the windshield, loss of life could easily be the outcome.
Only about 1/8" of thread engaged the threads of the riv-nut installed in the panel. And no lock washers were used anywhere. You can easily see that the amount of thread contact by looking at the rusted end of the screw. The screws were stainless steel, but the riv-nuts certainly aren't.
We had to do something about this right away. After an inspection of all of the panel mounting screws, we found that most were loose, and a number were missing. We unscrewed one of the loose screws, and then compared its length with the job it was trying to do. What we discovered was that only about 1/8" (3mm) of the end of the screw was actually engaging the threads of the riv-nuts that were installed in the solar panel aluminum trim. The reason the screws were loose is that not a single one had any form of lock washer, or thread lock compound. Brilliant.
But there was more. When up on the roof to inspect the screws that we couldn't see from the side of the truck, we discovered that three of the panels formed an inside corner, and there were no fasteners holding two of the panels down. Oh, they hadn't fallen out, there were simply none installed. There wasn't even any holes for them.
In order to correct this oversight (I'm being polite here), we had to make a small and rather complicated fabrication that had a top fold-over edge that would prevent either panel from lifting. It was drilled and screwed into the fibreglass panel mount. Once it was made and powder coated, we installed it to once again finish the job that we had already paid someone else to do.
Are we starting to sound like a broken record yet??
