Roof Suitable for Solar Panels

rodred

Hi,

i have just been granted planning after a long year of stress.
anyways, i am looking at solar hot water etc, but am unsure about
the roof as we have 2 dormer windows, can the panels be split
or do they need to be side by side? also a panel is 2m x 1m is there
a certain amount of clearance on either side that is required?
Any info much appreciated. i have attached a site layout and roof
layout.

cheers
Rob

homer911

I'm guessing the rear of the house will face SW

Can you provide more details on the dormer roof - gap between dormer windows, gap between dormer windows and gable ends of the house, gap between dormer window and gutter, gap between dormer windows and roof line?

Also what space would you have for hot water storage and heat dump?

rodred

Hi Thanks for the reply,

i have attached the roof layout with dim's added.
yes the rear faces SW.
the plan is to locate the boiler and tanks etc in the attic.
sorry, dont know anything about these systems or whats
needed in them really.
thanks a million
Rob

homer911 wrote: »

I'm guessing the rear of the house will face SW

Can you provide more details on the dormer roof - gap between dormer windows, gap between dormer windows and gable ends of the house, gap between dormer window and gutter, gap between dormer windows and roof line?

homer911

I'd say you wont want to place anything higher than the cill of the dormer windows, unless the roof of the windows is an option. Either way you are probably best looking at sideways mounted flat panels.

I'm not an expert though - hold out for Quentin or one of the other pros to post to this thread. Otherwise, give one of the SEI installers a call. They should even be able to give you some idea of whats possible based on these drawings and most if not all will give you a free estimate.

bertie1

Doesn't look like there is enough space on the roof with the dormers , why not put them on a concrete plinth on the ground in a south facing position, & try & keep the run of pipework as short as possible

quentingargan

You can split up the panels OK, but they will need separate temperature probes because sometimes one panel would be more shaded than another. If you use flatplates in that situation, you would also need separate pumps or at least separate motorised valves, as you won't want to run your hot water through "cold" panels. If you use vacuum tubes or flasks, you can connect them all up to one pump, but you will need either an East-West controller or a more flexible multi-panel controller which is about €300 more than the normal ones.

Your roof with the dormers is pretty difficult, but if your tanks are in the attic, it doesn't make much sense to have the panel on the ground.

One thought is that I've seen panels with very short tubes which were used as window shades. You put them over the windows, and they have a secondary effect of shading the window when the sun is high in the sky in summer, but allowing low light in during the winter, thus controlling your passive solar gain, and giving you hot water. The tubes were 58mm in diameter by 800mm long. Getting these tubes is no problem and they fit into standard manifolds, but it is more expensive per square metre than a regular panel.

There seem to be higher dormers on the front of the house, which are in line with the main roof ridge. (just under the text "concerete roof tiles..." The dormer roof itself on this would appear to be quite long and facing SSE. Do you have dimensions for that roof? If they can accomodate panels, I'd look there.

Lastly, if the panel is less than 50cm from any edge of the roof, it isn't exempt from planning. That may or may not worry you, but you should be aware of that. Q

rodred

Hi Guys,

thanks so much for the feedback, the dormer roof is 1200mm x 2100mm approx on the SSE face. i guess the 800mm panels would be quite suitable then, to have a set of tubes on the roof of both dormers facing sse. ??

cheers

quentingargan

rodred wrote: »

Hi Guys,

thanks so much for the feedback, the dormer roof is 1200mm x 2100mm approx on the SSE face. i guess the 800mm panels would be quite suitable then, to have a set of tubes on the roof of both dormers facing sse. ??

cheers

I think you may find flatplates a cheaper way to use this space, though my preference would be for tubes. You would probably be able to get a flatplate that met this size, though you technically need planning to do this anyhow (as you are too close to the roof edges).

Q