<div dir="ltr">All our installations are in the Caribbean. The glass blow out (or suck out which is more likely) doesn't surprise me, that is the design limitation. It doesn't matter how tough the rail is if the modules blow out.<div>Tilt installations are bad for hurricane zones. I keep out flat roof installations to a lower tilt than is recommended for this reason. I also favour parapets around the roof to protect them, so if you have some blocks and masons around, let them add two rows of blocks to the roof line.</div><div>I suspect smaller modules are stronger, so 180W modules would be better than 300W.</div><div>CanadianSolar have a line of 300~W modules with a bar across the back, but it will only help with blow not suck as it is not attached to the backing.</div><div>I've looked at fitting a crossbar into the frame attached to the backing with 5200 or similar, but the question is, how are you going to test, you have killed the warranty, and is it worth it?</div><div>This is a tough place to install solar.</div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Oct 13, 2016 at 6:20 PM, Darren Anderson <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:darren@self.org" target="_blank">darren@self.org</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
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<div>In light of Hurricane Matthew and the loss of some of our PV systems on South Coast of Haiti (despite being designed for 120 - 150mph winds), I’d be interested to hear of any strategies being used for making hurricane-resistant solar arrays. The maximum
wind speed that most commercially available racking systems seem to provide is 130 – 150mph, but in many cases it seems the racking survives okay anyway while the glass is blown right out of the module frames. </div>
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<div>Are there any modules rated for higher than 2400 Pascals of wind loading (which seems to be the norm)? I recall seeing a Mitsubishi module a few years back that had an additional frame member running across the back of the module. Would that provide extra
wind load protection?</div>
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<div>Would using small solar modules with less surface area be a useful strategy? (We typically use standard 60-cell modules.)</div>
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<div>Can some sort of wind break or shield be designed into the frame to take the wind load off the solar modules themselves? (Many of our systems are on tilt-frames on flat concrete roofs so that back of the array is exposed.)</div>
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<div>Any thoughts/advice/experience in this area would be much appreciated. Thanks. </div>
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<br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr">Chris Mason<div><div style="color:rgb(136,136,136)"><span style="font-size:13px">NABCEP Certified Solar PV Installer™</span></div><div style="color:rgb(136,136,136)"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34)">Solar Design Engineer</span></div><div style="color:rgb(136,136,136)"><span style="font-size:13px">Generac Generators Industrial technician</span></div></div><div style="color:rgb(136,136,136)"><span style="font-size:13px"><br></span></div><div><a href="http://www.cometenergysystems.com" target="_blank">www.cometsolar.com</a></div><div>264.235.5670</div><div>869.662.5670</div><div>Skype: netconcepts</div></div></div>
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