4 ms·

What happens when you add that much weight to a flat roof and then the snow comes? I'm guessing the snow load is just enough in most cases.

PTOB 3y ago
This is the right question. Warehouse roofs are designed to counter snow load and wind uplift at "x" mph. Once those forces are exceeded, you can expect damage.
deleted 3y ago
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davnicwil 3y ago
this might be a bit silly but... maybe not... could you siphon off a little bit of power from the panels to heat an array of heating wires just enough to melt snow on impact and then it'd drip off like rain?
- _Microft 3y ago
  Not at all. Afaik you won‘t even need wires for that. You can occasionally feed energy into the panels which produces a bit of heat there. It wouldn’t even have to melt (a lot) of snow - just enough that the bulk of it slides off.
  - LgWoodenBadger 3y ago
    Slide off the solar-panels-on-the-flat-roof onto the flat-roof itself?
    - _Microft 3y ago
      Good point, I had regular roofs in mind because that‘s the context in which I discussed that before.
    - dzhiurgis 3y ago
      Panels are typically installed at an angle
  - usrusr 3y ago
    That snow will then still be on the warehouse roof though. But I wonder if some "maintenance bot" could eventually become established that's designed around the benefits of the regular grid structure. Perhaps "walking" from socket to socket like a gravity-well capable descendant of Canadarm? Wouldn't start as snowplows, but for maintenance tasks at lower frequency, large solar parks could even make very expensive units worthwhile, and from there the magic of mass market might bring prices down sufficiently far.
jupp0r 3y ago
Solar panels are pretty light weight compared to snow loads.
- voisin 3y ago
  The parent comment is that the roof is designed for the structural load of the snow load and not much else. Solar panels need ballast, racking, thick teck cable, etc and can easily overload the structural design. I’ve just gone through this on a warehouse I own. Cheaper to build over the parking lot than add structural reinforcements for every column.
iancmceachern 3y ago
This is a solved problem. Flat roofs exist in places like Colorado and New York, they are just designed to the appropriate snow load and then move on

PTOB 3y ago

This is the right question. Warehouse roofs are designed to counter snow load and wind uplift at "x" mph. Once those forces are exceeded, you can expect damage.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

davnicwil 3y ago

this might be a bit silly but... maybe not... could you siphon off a little bit of power from the panels to heat an array of heating wires just enough to melt snow on impact and then it'd drip off like rain?

_Microft 3y ago
Not at all. Afaik you won‘t even need wires for that. You can occasionally feed energy into the panels which produces a bit of heat there. It wouldn’t even have to melt (a lot) of snow - just enough that the bulk of it slides off.
- LgWoodenBadger 3y ago
  Slide off the solar-panels-on-the-flat-roof onto the flat-roof itself?
  - _Microft 3y ago
    Good point, I had regular roofs in mind because that‘s the context in which I discussed that before.
  - dzhiurgis 3y ago
    Panels are typically installed at an angle
- usrusr 3y ago
  That snow will then still be on the warehouse roof though. But I wonder if some "maintenance bot" could eventually become established that's designed around the benefits of the regular grid structure. Perhaps "walking" from socket to socket like a gravity-well capable descendant of Canadarm? Wouldn't start as snowplows, but for maintenance tasks at lower frequency, large solar parks could even make very expensive units worthwhile, and from there the magic of mass market might bring prices down sufficiently far.

jupp0r 3y ago

Solar panels are pretty light weight compared to snow loads.

voisin 3y ago
The parent comment is that the roof is designed for the structural load of the snow load and not much else. Solar panels need ballast, racking, thick teck cable, etc and can easily overload the structural design. I’ve just gone through this on a warehouse I own. Cheaper to build over the parking lot than add structural reinforcements for every column.

iancmceachern 3y ago

This is a solved problem. Flat roofs exist in places like Colorado and New York, they are just designed to the appropriate snow load and then move on