[MassHistPres] solar panels in historic districts

[Garrett Laws]

Wow! There's a lot of caring people here.

1) I was part of the installation in question.
- This was a fairly complex installation that would have simply looked ugly
with traditional solar panels, historic or not!
- There were two penetrations through the roof, one on either side of the
dormer.
- This specific product allows the removal of individual "panels" if they
fail in the future.

2) I would guess that the majority of historic houses no longer have their
original roof material, and it's highly unlikely that asphalt  was original,
but is commonly allowed as a replacement material. I would guess that there
are ways to install many materials to have them look favorable on a roof in
most districts.

Side note; having an energy auditor on your commission may be able to help
people see many ways to save energy which may or may not get them thinking
more about installing solar panels.

Garrett laws
Copper & Slate Co.

On Friday, September 2, 2011, Willa Bandler <willa at keyfitz.org> wrote:
> On Fri, 2 Sep 2011, jdianeol at aol.com wrote:
>
>> Although I have not worked with them, I believe you have an incorrect
understanding of how photovoltaic shingles are wired.
>
> Entirely possible. I'm going on what I was told a few years ago by a
NABCEP-certified solar installer, and have never worked with them myself.
Even if each wire does not penetrate the roof, I would still want to know
more about how they are connected, because eventually some of the shingles
are going to fail either as solar panels or as shingles, and individual
replacement sounds tricky with all those wires running behind them. But
again, my information is secondhand and a couple of years out of date.
>
> -Willa
>
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-- 

Cheers,
Garrett

The Copper & Slate Company, Inc.
Fine Roofing and Exterior Finish Carpentry
238B Calvary Street, Waltham, MA 02453
(781) 893-1916

What we do:
http://picasaweb.google.com/copperandslate

Where we've worked over the years:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=206210316541901083869.00049065ef8543e1ef9c3&ll=42.40115,-71.126862&spn=0.125241,0.289421&t=h&z=12
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