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Old 04-24-2018, 02:54 PM   #1
PNW Fireguy
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Solar panels and roof real estate

I am in need of a bit of assistance from those that are familiar with the Montana roof construction. The wet season in the PNW has appeared to come to a close and as such I am taking advantage of the weather to make a dent in my list of chores. I laid out my 3440RL roof for 300 watt residential mono solar panels last fall. In the interim I decided to add tilt capability. To make a long story short that extra 3/4 of an inch is making a big difference.

There are only a couple of ways that the four panels will physically fit on my roof real estate. Two of the panels will overlap the fantastic fan flange, which has a significant amount of dicor on it. They will not interfere with the fan cover operation. If the entire assembly was to need to be removed in the future the panel mount would need to be removed as well as one of the foot screws looks as to line up with the edge of the flange. While this would be far from ideal would this be a really bad idea waiting to happen to install into the flange?

Second question is how close to the roof edge can I mount the opposite feet? Is there a rounded under structure that provide ample support on the edge.

Here are a couple of pics to better illustrate my scenario.
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Old 04-24-2018, 03:21 PM   #2
Lenny K
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In regards to where you want to mount your panels to the edge of the roof that is about where mine are mounted without any problems.
As for mounting by the vents as long as your screws bite into some plywood they also should be good to go.
I dicored under the feet of the legs and they provide a watertight seal.
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Old 04-24-2018, 08:24 PM   #3
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Thanks Lenny K,
As luck would have with regards to the outboard mount the inboard screw catches meat no problem. However the outboard screw lands within aluminum round over. There is nothing behind that area for the threads to bite into. At least nothing within the 2 1/2" allen wrench shaft that I had handy to gauge the depth of the hole. Not feeling confident about the holding ability of a screw in that aluminum round over edge.

I am hoping that if I drill the mount about half the distance between the manufactured holes that I will catch OSB. Treating this 1st panel as a prototype to workout the kinks before moving on as all three remaining panels will present this same problem on the most outboard mounting screw.
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Old 04-24-2018, 08:41 PM   #4
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There isn't really anything behind rounded over edge at all.

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Old 04-24-2018, 08:46 PM   #5
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Looking at your pic can you move your bracket in so its on the plywood?
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Old 04-24-2018, 09:12 PM   #6
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That particular bracket is designed to mount on the edge so that the attachment bracket lines up with the long edge of the panel frame. I thought about using a different style bracket moved further inboard from the current location however I will lose the ability to tilt the panel toward the outboard edge. At that point I could just change the mount types and move them both inward from the edges...non tilting install. I guess that is my last option.\

All of the brackets are mounted but found a pic of them online. Hopefully that illustrates what I was saying regarding the inability to move the attachment bracket away from the corner of the panel.
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Old 04-24-2018, 09:34 PM   #7
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You are so close to edge of the wood you only need to move in looks like an inch. On my old montana I mounted them just flat I haven't solar on are new one yet.
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Old 04-25-2018, 12:10 AM   #8
Lenny K
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I'm not familiar with the bracket that you are mounting onto the panel but can't you move them in a little bit on the ends that land up on your vents. You would then be able to tilt your panels towards the outside edge at least.
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