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  • Mounting question on cedar shake roof

    Hello Putting in panels on a cedar shake roof. Last week we had a house burn down in town because of leaves gathered up under the solar panels(asphalt shingle roof).My question is is it safe to mount panels using z brackets to cedar shakes or should I put concrete backer board down and mount panels to that.Im only using 4 100 watt panels wired in series.These cedar shakes are 50 years old and would burn very easily .Thanks for your time in answering.

  • #2
    There are a lot of theories about fire prevention and having watched my area of Sonoma County burn over 2,000 homes I am still not clear about sure fire protection.I drive through burned out areas and have no clue why one house survived and the two next door burned to the ground. One incident up here had a guy on his roof watering it down but the embers blew across his yard, up the side of his house into the attic vents and the fire started in his attic. He got off the roof and away from his home before it burned to the ground. If you want some protection replace all your shingles with lightweight concrete shakes and change your attic vents or at least build a fence around your house to deflect the wind so the embers don.t blow up the side of your house into your attic. A lot of what you need to do to reduce fire risk is based on location.
    Last edited by Ampster; 05-08-2019, 11:23 PM.
    9 kW solar, 42kWh LFP storage. EV owner since 2012

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    • #3
      Originally posted by Ampster View Post
      There are a lot of theories about fire prevention and having watched my area of Sonoma County burn over 2,000 homes I am still not clear about sure fire protection.I drive through burned out areas and have no clue why one house survived and the two next door burned to the ground. One incident up here had a guy on his roof watering it down but the embers blew across his yard, up the side of his house into the attic vents and the fire started in his attic. He got off the roof and away from his home before it burned to the ground. If you want some protection replace all your shingles with lightweight concrete shakes and change your attic vents or at least build a fence around your house to deflect the wind so the embers don.t blow up the side of your house into your attic. A lot of what you need to do to reduce fire risk is based on location.
      +1 on that. I'm on the fire safe council around here. Things were so dry in another HOA I lved in about 5 miles up the road that we replaced all the roofs (being all cedar shake) with lightweight concrete tile and financed it w/ a special assessment. A lot of bitching/moaning and a lawsuit, but ( and perhaps as a testament to local sentiment) the HOA prevailed. I'm not sure I agree with all the chicken littles around here, but I too have seen what fire can do, and do it in a short time, and in unpredictable ways.

      Cedar shakes are outlawed by the building code around here in fire prone areas. Get rid of the roof. You are living under a matchbox and mother nature may have a torch.

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      • #4
        Originally posted by greghost View Post
        Hello Putting in panels on a cedar shake roof. Last week we had a house burn down in town because of leaves gathered up under the solar panels(asphalt shingle roof).My question is is it safe to mount panels using z brackets to cedar shakes or should I put concrete backer board down and mount panels to that.Im only using 4 100 watt panels wired in series.These cedar shakes are 50 years old and would burn very easily .Thanks for your time in answering.
        Mounts and railing are a part of fire code rating. Z brackets would not help, and would not help with weather resistance.

        4 100watt pv modules indicates a small 12v system. Do you have arch fault interruption, or ground fault interruption?
        OutBack FP1 w/ CS6P-250P http://bit.ly/1Sg5VNH

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        • #5
          Something was still required to ignite the leaves, panels or not.
          Powerfab top of pole PV mount (2) | Listeroid 6/1 w/st5 gen head | XW6048 inverter/chgr | Iota 48V/15A charger | Morningstar 60A MPPT | 48V, 800A NiFe Battery (in series)| 15, Evergreen 205w "12V" PV array on pole | Midnight ePanel | Grundfos 10 SO5-9 with 3 wire Franklin Electric motor (1/2hp 240V 1ph ) on a timer for 3 hr noontime run - Runs off PV ||
          || Midnight Classic 200 | 10, Evergreen 200w in a 160VOC array ||
          || VEC1093 12V Charger | Maha C401 aa/aaa Charger | SureSine | Sunsaver MPPT 15A

          solar: http://tinyurl.com/LMR-Solar
          gen: http://tinyurl.com/LMR-Lister

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          • #6
            Originally posted by Mike90250 View Post
            Something was still required to ignite the leaves, panels or not.
            Perhaps an ember that travelled on the wind ? I thought the burning embers thing was a bunch of B.S./scare tactics until I saw some burning embers floating down from a fire about 1/2 mile away in 2007 as we were evacuating. Pretty windy at the time as I recall.

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