Originally posted by RShackleford
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Listen to JPM, who is offering sound advice. Either 1) you need a building permit and that comes with a list of requirements, which may include engineering; or 2) you don't need a permit, but still should want to ensure your system is soundly designed and constructed. In either case your system design needs to be, at minimum, reviewed by a PE with experience in that sort of structure.
If you just want to get an initial "wet finger in the wind" estimate of how beefy your wooden structure would need to be, you could multiply 50 PSF by the total area of the panels in square feet. A typical panel is around 18 SF, so figure around 900 lbs total load from each panel. If you figure uplift, down force, and horizontal drag force could all be that high, that should be very conservative (unless you're in hurricane alley or Buffalo, NY). Then depending on how many panels are supported per "A-frame" (and assuming your design looks something like a series of triangular frames, each consisting of two posts and a "rafter" across the top), you can design the A-frame to support the total load for that group of panels. Again being VERY general, the structure should end up being somewhat beefier (maybe 2X) than what you'd need to support a backyard deck of the same total area.
All I'm giving you here are some ideas for how to think about the problem, using back-of-the-envelope calculations. If it seems like your approach holds water, then the next step is to enlist a qualified engineer to draw up a design. Nobody can give you any detailed help based on a textual description of your intended approach.
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