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<p>What was the pressure rating for the modules that got sucked off
the racks? Also, is it possible that flying debris caused some of
the random location module failures?</p>
<p>Ray Walters</p>
<p>Remote Solar<br>
</p>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 9/14/17 1:53 PM, Jason Szumlanski
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CAE438R9_WePhqjOrLiDj64hOKytgiuThjQu7kBq+ZxuzJP850g@mail.gmail.com">
<div dir="ltr"><img class="mailtrack-img" alt=""
style="display:flex"
src="https://mailtrack.io/trace/mail/a21f48e3c2fb7f410045d675da25ff2157726cf3.png?u=1613865"
moz-do-not-send="true" width="0" height="0">
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">More early
anecdotal data...</div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br>
</div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">We are finding
NO anchors pulled out of roofs, regardless of roof type or
attachment type. That is clearly not the failure point. We
also see no attachment to L-foot or L-foot to rail issues. And
contrary to my expectation, we see no t-bolt failures. What's
happening? The panels themselves are flexing (bowing)
sufficiently to work their way right out of the mid-clamps.
This applies both to Unirac's older 1-inch space clamps and
newer 1/4 inch bonding mid-clamps.</div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br>
</div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">This attached
pictured system had panels on a north roof pitched very
slightly to the south. We had northeast hurricane winds in
this area, and the way the wind went under these panels was
obviously what caused the panels themselves to fail. This is
an essentially flat roof commercial application. It was bad
luck to have the wind direction from the northeast corner (the
NW edge of the eye wall passed right over this area). But we
are seeing similar results on residential pitched hip and
gable roofs in terms of the failure mode.</div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br>
</div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">What's
interesting is that there is no rhyme or reason to where in
the array we see damage. I have seen absolutely no
catastrophic damage on a residential roof - just one or 2
modules mostly. And the missing module can be on the lower
edge, upper edge, or right in the middle of the array. More
often than not, the t-bolt and mid-clamp assembly is still
sitting right there in the channel of the Unirac Solarmount
rail, but a module is missing. It's quite freaky.</div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br>
</div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">And much like
tornado damage I have seen on TV, houses adjacent to each
other have very different fates. We have a new community (100+
homes slated for solar) with about two dozen homes completed,
and just one home had a panel pop out in the middle of an
array. It was gently deposited onto the adjacent panel with
absolutely no damage and the DC leads still connected to the
microinverter.</div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br>
</div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">One issue we
are facing is that when panels fly off, something has to give
with the DC leads to microinverters. No panel leads have been
broken so far. In most cases, the MC4 connectors simple
un-snap somehow - no loss of crimped connectors. We have a few
cases of leads ripped out of the microinverter case
completely. The microinverter bracket is badly bent on many
microinverters, indicating that there was tremendous force
until something gave up. I am extremely hesitant to reuse
these microinverters because the force on the DC input leads
must have been huge. I think we are going to insist on
microinverter replacement when replacing modules in these
cases.</div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br>
</div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Hopefully I
will have more, but not too much more to come. It looks like
we did very well here (as an industry). There are spotty
issues, but it's far from the catastrophe that kept me up for
multiple nights before and after Irma. Then again, many people
have not returned home yet.</div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br>
</div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">
<div class="gmail_default">Jason Szumlanski</div>
<div class="gmail_default">Florida Solar Design Group</div>
</div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br>
</div>
<div class="gmail_extra"><br>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Sep 13, 2017 at 6:18 PM,
Jason Szumlanski <span dir="ltr"><<a
href="mailto:jason@floridasolardesigngroup.com"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">jason@floridasolardesigngroup.com</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px
0.8ex;border-left:1px solid
rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="ltr"><img
src="cid:part3.67593BB0.3BA2F4B5@solarray.com"
alt="Inline image 1" class="" width="1" height="1">
<div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">I'm
based in Fort Myers and we cover the hardest hit areas
from Irma. We are in the "stuff" right now, so I'll
make this brief until I have more time, which might be
a while. We are seeing quite a bit of minor damage and
some major damage. We're getting calls from all
dealers' customers and a couple of our own clients. We
have several homes with one or two panels dislodged.
There is no rhyme or reason. Some are middle of
arrays, some on edges. Panels are ripped right off
rails, leads ripped from microinverters. Strangely, it
looks like the panel j-box connection and MC4
connectors survived better than the microinverter end
of the DC leads. Amazingly, we have several panels
that were blown onto driveways, other roofs, and pool
cages with NO DAMAGE except frame scrapes. Very weird.
We haven't seen a shattered panel yet, but it's early.</div>
<div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br>
</div>
<div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">I'm
heading to a self-storage facility tomorrow where
there are three 25kw systems on different buildings.
Two buildings are unscathed. One building lost ALL of
the panels apparently. Tornado? Hard to say.</div>
<div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br>
</div>
<div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">So
far (other than the 25kw I have not evaluated) we have
not seen a single fastener pulled out. All of the
failures are panel top and mid clamps at this time.
Anchor and rails remain intact. Possibly installation
errors? Possibly sheared off T-bolts? Hard to tell and
we may never fully know.</div>
<div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br>
</div>
<div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">We
generally require 48 inch spacing between anchors into
trusses for engineered systems. The pullout values are
pretty high. It looks like the attachment points into
the roof are not going to be the failure point in the
systems in Florida, but there is a LOT of work to be
done still. It's going to be a very interesting few
months ahead!</div>
<span class="gmail-HOEnZb"><font color="#888888">
<div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br>
</div>
<div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br>
</div>
</font></span>
<div class="gmail_extra"><span class="gmail-HOEnZb"><font
color="#888888">
<div
style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Jason
Szumlanski</div>
<div
style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Florida
Solar Design Group</div>
<div
style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"></div>
<br>
</font></span>
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div>
<div class="gmail-h5">On Tue, Sep 12, 2017 at 3:09
PM, James Rudolph <span dir="ltr"><<a
href="mailto:jamesrudolph99@gmail.com"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">jamesrudolph99@gmail.com</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
</div>
</div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px
0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid
rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div>
<div class="gmail-h5">
<div dir="ltr">Aloha Everyone,
<div>I was just wondering how all the PV
arrays did during these storms?</div>
<div>Does Florida have higher pull out
values and wind designs for their PV/H20
systems?</div>
<div>Is there any thing the rest of us could
learn from all this?</div>
<div>Photos?</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Mahalo Nui Loa,</div>
<div>
<div>
<div
class="gmail-m_-2891564885788795233m_-527145456834027696gmail_signature">
<div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr">
<div>
<p
style="font-family:"arial
narrow",sans-serif;font-size:small;margin:0in 0in
0pt;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-repeat:initial"><br>
</p>
<p
style="font-family:"arial
narrow",sans-serif;margin:0in 0in
0pt;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-repeat:initial"><b><span
style="color:black;font-family:"Californian FB",serif"><font
size="2">James
B. Rudolph</font></span></b></p>
<p style="margin:0in 0in
0pt;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-repeat:initial"><font
face="Californian
FB, serif"
color="#000000"><b>Hawaii
Unified</b></font></p>
<p
style="font-family:"arial
narrow",sans-serif;margin:0in 0in
0pt;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-repeat:initial"><b><span
style="color:black;font-family:"Californian FB",serif"><font
size="2">Director
of Energy</font></span></b></p>
<p
style="font-family:"arial
narrow",sans-serif;margin:0in 0in
0pt;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-repeat:initial"><b><span
style="color:black;font-family:"Californian FB",serif"><font
size="2">ES
Electrician #
10816</font></span></b></p>
<p
style="font-family:"arial
narrow",sans-serif;margin:0in 0in
0pt;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-repeat:initial"><b><span
style="color:black;font-family:"Californian FB",serif"><font
size="2">NABCEP
Certified PV
Installer #
091209-155</font></span></b></p>
<p
style="font-family:"arial
narrow",sans-serif;margin:0in 0in
0pt;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-repeat:initial"><b><span
style="color:black;font-family:"Californian FB",serif"><font
size="2">80</font></span></b></p>
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<span class="gmail-">
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