UniRac Wrench Feedback Requested [RE-wrenches]

Jim Hartley grail at inil.com
Thu Jan 11 17:24:59 PST 2001


Roy Butler, Four Winds RE wrote:
> Jim,
>     That's just about the best write up regarding roof mounting concerns
> that I've ever seen....my sentiments and concerns exactly! Potential 
> roof
> problems, difficulty of access and the inability (or difficulty) of 
> being
> able to clean snow off the array is what has put me solidly in the 
> ground
> mount camp.
>     Unfortunately, there are times when the roof is the only place the
> array can go....thus the need for the most reliable mounting method.
> There's your mission should you decide to accept it, Uni-Rac!
> Roy Butler
> Four Winds RE


I hear ya, compadre.

UniRac needs to sit down with some roofing contractors, PEs, and, 
perhaps, some builders to look at this situation if they plan to have 
some of their product considered "roof mountable."  Interestingly, here 
in Illinois at one point, the only construction trade that required 
state level licensing was roofing.  That may be different of late, but 
last I heard this was the one construction process that absolutely 
required this level of approval.  There must have been a really good 
reason to have this be so.  

Also, one must be very careful about just willy nilly slapping up solar 
arrays on homes whose roof may be about to go kaput.  The temptation to 
just go ahead and throw something up there without knowing how long the 
roof may last is a temptation to resist at all costs.  When in doubt on 
this [which is much of the time], I will consider building, in essence, 
a ramada type structure for an array apart from or attached to the 
dwelling.  Oftentimes, this serves a useful muliple purpose offsetting 
the added cost.  Naturally, you need to have the space for such a thing 
and have it be well exposed to the sun through the year.  Such a 
structure also permits greater ease of maintenance.  Most housing stock 
in this country is older stuff, much of it having numerous problems.  
The one problem you don't want to add to these is trashing someone's 
roof.  Unless, of course, you want to go into the roofing business 
yourself.  Or worse.




Jim Hartley
http://www.homestead-specialties.com
Business Email: JamesHartley at homestead-specialties.com
Direct Email: grail at inil.com

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