Solar shingles

20 years ago

Anyone here have any experience with solar shingles? I was interested in buying some at one point. However, when I contacted a local solar company they said they won't sell those, something about problems with them. Then they tried to sell me solar panels to put out in our yard (wont work for several reasons). At some point I want to convert the shingle portion of my roof into all solar shingles. Any truth to the shingles being prone to problems?

Any info would be great.

Thanks

Featured Answer

RCMJr

20 years ago

I don't have any first-hand knowledge . . . but will point out a few possible issues . . .

They all need to be wired together in some fashion . . . that's a bunch of wires somewhere. And they need to come inside the place somewhere . . meaning holes . . not the thing you want to put very many of on your roof. Also, accessability in the event of maintnance / fixing; will likely be more difficult.

Solar panels get hot. Put them on as a roof; and temps will be even higher than a free standing panel; either on the roof or in the yard. High temps make life difficult and shorter for ANY material.

Any solar panel needs direct sunlight to come near putting out rated power. Rooftops are many times shaded considerably for long periods of the day . . in an effort to keep a place cooler. If you live in a climate with snow; there's another problem to deal with . . .

Panels / cells also put out max output when directly facing the sun . . . both vertically and horizontally. While facing solar south all the time deals reasonably well for the horizontal orientation; most roof angles are NOT ideal for any solar panel. At best; you'll only be at optimum angle two days a year. More likely; you will never be very close to optimum angles, output suffers increasingly as you go farther away from optimum. I've got two arrays in my front yard . . fixed at solar south; and get tilted vertically about 6 times a year to keep them around optimum angle during various times of the year. The sun "moves" vertically in the sky about 46 degrees throughout the year. Your roof doesn't . . . .

I'm not trying to knock the product / concept; but even if the product itself is perfect and lasts a long time; there are these other factors that will greatly impede power / benefit you will get from them . . . .

Bob

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Comments (6)

loves2read
20 years ago
I was very interested in this type of solar energy generating shingle--apparently there is company in California that makes them --builder we are considering using for new home construction said he tried to get the distributorship for TX but company can't even make enough to ship out of state to AZ or NV---hail damage was our major query since that is problem CA does not really have like we do in TX
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cfmuehling
20 years ago
We were very interested in them, but evidently the only ones that are remotely efficient require wiring on each row into the inverter. Or something like that.

We're going BP PV panels.
Christine
dan_mc
19 years ago
The solar shigles on the market are less efficient (watts/sq.ft) than typical panels. The shingles require multiple connections, i.e. wired together in series, and as result there is some concern that one connector failure will create a problem/ sytem failure. There is a lot of product development being done on "building integrated" PV products, it will be the future. There is a PV film that is laminated on metal roofs that you may also want to consider. My experience with one application has shown that it works well.
edwadswo
18 years ago
Hey,

I was just wondering if anyone has installed any of these solar shingles that are being talked about?

If you have, what was the motive behind it and are you pleased now that they have been installed? Also, what kind of service did you get with the installation? Is there anything that could have been done better or differently to make the experience better for future installments?

I am a student at Syracuse University and am doing research about Solar Shingles and would really appreciate any responses!

Thanks,
Eric
pete_jackson
18 years ago
Here is a site to answer all those questions There is no problem with them,but no one wants to install them and the cost is too high. I want them on my house, but no one wants to do the work. http://www.toolbase.org/TechInventory/TechManufacturers.aspx?ContentDetailID=619