PV roofing material [RE-wrenches]

[asap at podnine.com]

Chris,
If you plan on going with UniSolar shingles vs. the UniSolar laminates, you
might stick (no pun intended) to the laminates for ease of install, but you
will need an expensive metal roofing system to do that with.  This new roof
MUST be Galvalume, bare, or as we recently discovered Galvalume Plus, the
only available now.  Galvalume Plus has an acrylic coating that UniSolar
WILL warrant (as long as you have a UniSolar trained install crew as well).
A $5000 residential composition shingle rooftop suddenly becomes a $15,000.
So much for saving on the racking costs.  I have quoted one residence and am
bidding on a very large job with the PVL's, but have yet to install them.  I
like the sound of what I've heard from others responding.  I am finding out
that if it's all new construction and not a retrofit, the metal roofing is a
great way to go since its costs are much more readily absorbed into the
general new construction costs.  I wasn't sure if you had all new or just
new roof going there.

On to the shingles:  be prepared for lots of sweaty under rooftop work
amidst fiberglass insulation and the spiders etc, and don't forget about the
protruding nails.  We rewrote UniSolar installation instructions for two
city jurisdictions in Southern CA, got UniSolar's blessing for a letter of
apology that we wrote for them (as it were) for confusing the inspectors
with two sets of instructions floating around, each with problem areas
related to the collection or collation of wires through penetrations and
along under a plywood roof substrate.  There were actually many issues and
areas to educate inspectors in.  Myself and our star C-10 sought comfort and
consolation for our shattered timelines deep within the NEC and found solace
there finally which we offered to our inspector brethren.  They concurred on
both a low voltage (<50VDC nominal) and a high (378) VDC system and in turn,
gave us their blessings, as did the utilities, and the systems have
performed at or beyond expectations.

Now if they can take that shingle product and get all kinds of different
lengths like they did with the PVL's AND offer a real inexpensive "dummy"
shingle for cutting in, they'd really have a system.  Even though the
installs above were very difficult installs full of trials, I'm comfortable
with them now and am even putting a small 14 shingle, 2 string, 48V charging
system together for lighting and battery backup at my house (uh, it won't go
through permitting).

Other manuf's:  I have had no experience with Atlantis or Powerlight stuff.
A new offering, perhaps not until next year, will be announced by a company
called Terra Solar from what I understand.

Sincerely,
Peter Duchon
ASAP POWER!
Photovoltaics * Wind Power * Fuel Cells

Chris Daum wrote:

> Dear Wrenches:
>
> I've got a project coming up this fall that will be able to nicely utilize
some
> roof-integrated PV material (with a Sunnyboy).  All I've really heard
about is
> Uni-Solar's product line.  Do any of you have practical experience with
any of
> this type of product?  Installation?  Lead times?  Costs?
>
> Thanks for your help,
>
> Chris Daum
> Oasis Montana Inc.
> 406-777-4321 or 4309
> 406-777-2632 fax
> http://www.oasismontana.com
> e-mail:  info at oasismontana.com
>
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