[RE-wrenches] squirrel problems

Chris Worcester chris at solarwindworks.com
Fri May 15 10:41:40 PDT 2009


Hi Kirk,

We have gone to the 9” standoffs as they give us about 12” to bottom of
modules with the Unirac rails and L feet to the flat top standoffs. We
haven’t, knock on wood, had any squirrel damage to date on our systems with
the tall standoffs. I like the extra cooling for the modules and the
building below the array this provides, along with enough room to actually
crawl under the array to do any maintenance if that becomes necessary.
Unirac makes the standoffs up to 12” tall. I wonder if the squirrels like a
tight space to crawl into and the more open 12” space helps keep them away. 

This won’t help on the arrays in question but it might be the ticket moving
forward. Using ¼” hardware cloth around the perimeter of the array ought to
keep them out although we haven’t had to resort to this.

 

Sincerely,

Chris Worcester
NABCEP Certified PV Installer
Phone: 530-582-4503
Fax: 530-582-4603
www.solarwindworks.com <http://www.solarwindworks.com/> 
chris at solarwindworks.com
"Proven Energy Solutions"

 

From: re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org
[mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] On Behalf Of Kirk
Herander, VSE
Sent: Friday, May 15, 2009 10:20 AM
To: 'RE-wrenches'
Subject: [RE-wrenches] squirrel problems

 

I just had to rewire an array because of squirrel damage. They chewed the
insulation off of the use-2 on almost every panel within 2 inches of the
j-box. This was discovered because the inverter GFI kept intermittently
tripping, so one of the uninsulated positive leads must have shorted to the
grounded array frame, verified by measurements and arcing.  At least the GFI
did its job
... We found a massive nest underneath the array. And I just got
another call from a customer with the same issue, although we don’t know yet
if damage has happened. Both these arrays are mounted on Unirac Solarmount,
parallel to and stood off from the roof about 6 inches. I’m thinking of
skirting the perimeter of the array with a metal mesh of some sort. Any
other ideas? Thanks. Most likely they will come back if I do nothing.

 

Kirk Herander

Vermont Solar Engineering

802.863.1202

NABCEP(tm) Certified Solar Installer

NYSERDA-eligible Installer

VT Solar Incentive Program Partner

 

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