I have an installation question before I dig too deep into something I can't do:
I live in a house in SoCal in a hilly area with a flat roof (slight angle, but basically flat), it gets REALLY windy once a year at least. In 2011 a windstorm came through that blew so hard that it peeled the roof covering back, and then it rained and screwed the whole house up for over a year, very stressful. I'm told that that's a once in 100 year storm, but who knows for sure? It was up over 80mph for sure, maybe higher. Trees were knocked over, power was out for days, lots of damage, it was bad. Now I have a new roof, and lots of other stuff.
So my house was nailed, most of my neighbors were spared getting much less severe damage. One of whom got Solar Panels shortly before or after that storm, but it's so hilly around here that his situation is not the same as mine when it comes to the hills amplifying the wind.
So what I'm wondering is: What do people in Hurricane prone or frequent wind storm areas do who are in a similar situation to myself? I'd assume for good functionality the panels would need to be at an angle since I have a flat roof, then again that would make them more susceptible to being blown off, would it not? Anyone have any experience with this?
There's a couple of variables where hills may interfere with the solar panels getting enough light and all that, but before I get into that I need to know if I can safely mount solar panels without making my roof more easily damaged or risk of the panels blowing off, stuff like that.
Thanks!
I live in a house in SoCal in a hilly area with a flat roof (slight angle, but basically flat), it gets REALLY windy once a year at least. In 2011 a windstorm came through that blew so hard that it peeled the roof covering back, and then it rained and screwed the whole house up for over a year, very stressful. I'm told that that's a once in 100 year storm, but who knows for sure? It was up over 80mph for sure, maybe higher. Trees were knocked over, power was out for days, lots of damage, it was bad. Now I have a new roof, and lots of other stuff.
So my house was nailed, most of my neighbors were spared getting much less severe damage. One of whom got Solar Panels shortly before or after that storm, but it's so hilly around here that his situation is not the same as mine when it comes to the hills amplifying the wind.
So what I'm wondering is: What do people in Hurricane prone or frequent wind storm areas do who are in a similar situation to myself? I'd assume for good functionality the panels would need to be at an angle since I have a flat roof, then again that would make them more susceptible to being blown off, would it not? Anyone have any experience with this?
There's a couple of variables where hills may interfere with the solar panels getting enough light and all that, but before I get into that I need to know if I can safely mount solar panels without making my roof more easily damaged or risk of the panels blowing off, stuff like that.
Thanks!
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