[MassHistPres] Ooops -- house next door

[Willa Bandler]

On Sun, 4 Sep 2011, Dennis De Witt wrote:

> My understanding concerning a couple of non-shingle photo-voltaic 
> collector arrays proposed for or installed on flat roofed public 
> buildings in Brookline is that those numbers didn't make sense either

Yeah, other than for tax incentives, it usually doesn't. And even then, 
sometimes. Oh, that reminds me of something...preservation? :)


> With respect to flat roof installation another problem is that 
> projecting solar panel arrays produce enormous wind loads that the 
> existing underlying roof structure sometimes cannot accept, as a result 
> of which they are sometimes installed at compromise angles which further 
> lessens their efficiency.

I'm pretty sure there's some other solution in these kinds of situations 
rather than installing panels at an inefficient angle. But then, putting 
solar panels on roofs is kind of the worst choice anyway. It's just that 
most people either don't have the room for them on the ground or aren't 
willing to look at them down there. I grew up totally off the grid, and 
our solar panels were (still are, actually, I'm just not living in that 
house at this point) on tracker racks on the hillside next to the house. 
The racks allow the panels to track the sun through the day for greatest 
efficiency, and also allow the panels to be easily accessed if repairs are 
ever needed. Which they're mostly not, but still.

-Willa