The solarblogger is Concerned For You
While out and about near Cambridge, I
passed a building site and snapped this photo.
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| Discretion is my middle name |
I guess I was planning to rant on my blog
about one or all of the following (take your pick):
- The box-ticking mentality that results in house builders giving their customers a 0.5kWp solar photovoltaic system – something that no one would ever buy for their own home (see my earlier blog Specifying Solar for New Build Houses)
- How there’s really no excuse for these solar panels to be installed like an ugly roof-rack (see one of my most popular blog articles – The Best Looking Solar Panels You’ve Never Seen)
- Why the designers didn’t choose one of the many low-profile roof integrated solar options that would have been so very easy to do as a new roof was going on anyway.
It was only when I downloaded the photo and
reviewed it on a larger screen, that I realised what I’d inadvertently caught.
Did you see that in the background? If the guy working on the roof between the solar panels slips, they’re both coming down.
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| Can you see what it is yet? |
I’m guessing what we’re looking at here is the result of having to
install to a price. In new build, the panels are often fixed in place by the roofing
contractor and you can’t complete the electrical installation until there’s
mains power in the house (which normally means long after the scaffolding has gone). Repeat
visits to site are costly, better to do it all in one trip than to make the
electrical connections to the panels when the scaffold is up. Must be really tempting to just nip up there on a
ladder and get it done.
Is there a better way? Well,
one option is to roof-integrate the solar panels at the same time the roof
covering is going on, pass the electrical connections from each panel through into
the roof space and the whole system can be connected up from inside the building.
Perhaps you think I'm worrying unnecessarily for the welfare of my solar colleagues? Is this 'elf and safety gone mad? If the ladder was tied on, would that make it OK? Please post your thoughts in the comments box below...
Note Added: 22/07/2013
People have started to send me photos of their own - I have started an image set on Flickr here. Please keep 'em coming!
