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Hello everyone
Forgive me if the question of "solar panels as a primary roofing material" has been asked before, but...
Sometime next year I plan to replace the flat roof on my garage with an apex roof. The ridge will run roughly north to south.
Aside from potential planning issues about building upwards, and the dubious wisdom of placing PV panels on east/west facing slopes, I would like to look into the feasibility of covering both sides of the new roof with PV panels (instead of tiles).
I'm not in a conservation area, and I would be happy to have a standing seam roof, or even a corrugated 'tin' roof if there was a price/robustness advantage over traditional tiling. As I plan to cover the roof in PV cells anyway, why go to the expense of tiling it first if I'm going to cover it in PV solar panels?
I have seen the PV shingles that look like tiles, but I'm not worried about the aesthetics. Plus I think the cost of these shingles would be prohibitive.
Can I use large PV panels as the primary roofing surface instead, with a suitable weathertight supporting structure/membrane beneath?
I look forward to your answers and debate!
Forgive me if the question of "solar panels as a primary roofing material" has been asked before, but...
Sometime next year I plan to replace the flat roof on my garage with an apex roof. The ridge will run roughly north to south.
Aside from potential planning issues about building upwards, and the dubious wisdom of placing PV panels on east/west facing slopes, I would like to look into the feasibility of covering both sides of the new roof with PV panels (instead of tiles).
I'm not in a conservation area, and I would be happy to have a standing seam roof, or even a corrugated 'tin' roof if there was a price/robustness advantage over traditional tiling. As I plan to cover the roof in PV cells anyway, why go to the expense of tiling it first if I'm going to cover it in PV solar panels?
I have seen the PV shingles that look like tiles, but I'm not worried about the aesthetics. Plus I think the cost of these shingles would be prohibitive.
Can I use large PV panels as the primary roofing surface instead, with a suitable weathertight supporting structure/membrane beneath?
I look forward to your answers and debate!