[RE-wrenches] solar roof lift experience?

[Jeff Clearwater, Village Power Design]

Hi All,

After many years of installing on steep roofs  (most New England 
roofs are 10/12 or 12/12 pitch) with various approaches including 
harnesses, pulleys, lifts, Lulls, staging, etc.,  we finally realized 
that it is so much easier on residential installs to just erect 
scaffolding for all our jobs.

By installing regular construction scaffolding on the South Side we 
accomplish many things:

1)  With rails it meets Osha fall protection requirements
2)  We attach a rope and pulley to the scaffolding to lift modules. 
Super easy and safe.
3)  Our electrician and construction supervisor love it for going up 
and doing final connections, check polarity etc.
4)  Even with the extra 2.5 hour set up and another 2.5 hour 
breakdown time and the $200/month rental we figure we save alot of 
money on each job.  It makes everything on the roof go much smoother 
- it prevents roof crew burnout and it's much safer.   You can do 
rail assembly and other pre-roof assembly on the scaffolding.  Tool 
boxes are brought up for the duration of the job and you save a lot 
of up and down trips.   If you set it up close enough - anything 
dropped lands on the scaffolding. etc. etc. All around it works very 
nicely.

For larger commercial jobs or flat roofs - there's nothing like a 
LULL.  We rent them for around $1200 for 2-3 days.

Hope that helps!

Best,

Jeff C.






>Check out: http://www.tranzsporter.com/lh400.html
>
>I've used one of these for about two years now - I think it cost about
>$1,400 for the electric motor version 28' tall, 200 lb. capacity. Once
>you've done it a few times it takes about 15 minutes to assemble on site.
>
>Kirk Herander
>Vermont Solar Engineering
>802.863.1202
>NABCEP(tm) Certified Solar Installer
>NYSERDA-eligible Installer
>VT Solar Incentive Program Partner
>-----Original Message-----
>From: re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org
>[mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] On Behalf Of Geoff
>Greenfield
>Sent: Tuesday, August 11, 2009 4:07 PM
>To: 'RE Marketing for home scale RE industry'; 'RE-wrenches'
>Subject: [RE-wrenches] solar roof lift experience?
>
>Hey gang-  anyone have any success (or horror) stories with regard to
>panel lifting equipment?  I have considered a home-brew cart on a ladder,
>looked at some products made for comp shingles, and saw some
>fancy-schmancy European stuff at the shows.  Just today I was hit with a
>marketing email from this company:
>
>Check us out at:  <http://www.boeckeramericas.com/> BoeckerUSA.com
>
>Anyone been down this road?
>
>For a brighter energy future,
>
>Geoff Greenfield
>President
>
>Third Sun Solar & Wind Power Ltd.
>340 West State street, Unit 25
>Athens, Ohio 45701
>(740) 597-3111   fax: (740)597-1548
>www.third-sun.com
>
>Clean Energy - Expertly Installed
>
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-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jeff Clearwater
Senior Design Engineer
NABCEP (tm) Certified Solar PV Installer
http://www.nabcep.org/
Village Power Design/NorthEast Solar Design
Turnkey Solar Design & Installation for the Commercial Sector
http://www.villagepower.com
gosolar at villagepower.com

Voice: 413-259-3776
Fax: 413-825-0703
65 Schoolhouse Rd
Amherst, MA 01002
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