<html><body>Jason,<br>Thanks for the preliminary failure analysis of the latest hurricane damage. Do you have any photos which shows the bent mounting plates for the micros? Wouldn't that be an indication of the force applied before something gave up? Good call to get new micros when the leads and their attachments may have been compromised.<br>TIA,<br>Bill Loesch<br>Saint Louis, MO<br><br><br><div class="reply-new-signature"></div><p>-----------------------------------------</p>From: "Jason Szumlanski" <jason@floridasolardesigngroup.com><br>To: "RE-wrenches"<br>Cc: <br>Sent: 14-Sep-2017 20:26:09 +0000<br>Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Hurricane damage to solar arrays<br><br>
<div dir="ltr">
<img class="mailtrack-img" alt="" style="display:flex" src="https://mailtrack.io/trace/mail/a21f48e3c2fb7f410045d675da25ff2157726cf3.png?u=1613865" 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 target="_blank" href="mailto:jason@floridasolardesigngroup.com">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="/index.php/inbox/attachment/filenameOriginal/image.gif/filenamefs/INBOX10377300f6a9b5fd17fd8fa37819fb7a929ac2" alt="Inline image 1" 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"><span style="color: #888888;">
<div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">
<br>
</div>
<div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">
<br>
</div>
</span></span>
<div class="gmail_extra">
<span class="gmail-HOEnZb"><span style="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>
</span></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 target="_blank" href="mailto:jamesrudolph99@gmail.com">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"><span style="font-size: small;">James B. Rudolph</span></span></b></p>
<p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-repeat:initial"><span style="font-family: Californian FB, serif; color: #000000;"><b>Hawaii Unified</b></span></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"><span style="font-size: small;">Director of Energy</span></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"><span style="font-size: small;">ES Electrician # 10816</span></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"><span style="font-size: small;">NABCEP Certified PV Installer # 091209-155</span></span></b></p>
<p style="font-family:"arial narrow",sans-serif;margin:0in 0in 0pt;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-repeat:initial"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; color: #000000; font-size: small;"></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; color: #000000; font-size: small;"></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; color: #000000; font-size: small;"></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; color: #000000; font-size: small;"></span></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"><span style="font-size: small;">80</span></span></b></p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<span class="gmail-"> <br>
</span>
</blockquote>
</div>
<br>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
<br>
</div>
</div>
</jason@floridasolardesigngroup.com></body></html>