UKC

Just wondered if anybody had panels fitted to their roofs and could offer any advice. I have two quotes one significantly more expensive as they propose using an integrated system taking the Yorkshire stone off the roof replacing with trays that panels sit in  The other they are basically drilling through the stone and attaching racking essentially so I guess less pretty  The expensive people are saying they think drilling the holes is a bad idea due to weather obs. Just wondered if anybody had any experience and could impartially advise. I live in a very exposed position in northern england and house does get battered with the weather.. any help or experience appreciated

Matt, 

I run a company in the South installing solar etc, not up your way, but can advise.

Its not allowed to drill through the tiles to fit panels, there are specific brackets that fix the panels on top with out making holes in the tiles.

Some roof integrated kit in ok, but some (GSE) are very poor.

If you fit panels on top the in 25 years time you can remove then, and you back where you started.

Feel free to DM me the details.

The racking is pretty robust.  My house sits in an exposed field in Orkney and my panels have stayed put for maybe 8 or 9 years now (can’t remember what year they were installed).

They have stood up to some severe gales and a lot of generally windy days.

Unless your looking at some architect designed commercial BREEAM or top end showhouse I'd swerve buidling integrated by a country mile. There's no need and costs are v. High, in comparison to standard PV where costs have been falling for years..

A good installer should be able to design and install to accommodate weather

How valuable are your stone roof tiles?

Thank you all for your thoughts. The point about being able to take off the roof and start again really hit home. Appreciate your efforts replying. Matt

The stone tiles: We are thinking about getting an extension and thought reclaiming the slates might offset some of the cost of the roof but my mate reckons i'm better off buying 'new' otherwise loads of faff and extra labour getting them to 'fit'.

Indirect comment - if you have a stone slab roof, are you in a conservation area?  If so, make sure you check the difference that makes to your permitted development rights (the means by which you avoid needing to apply for planning permission.)

I much prefer the look of panels mounted "in-roof" with regular slate or tile roofs - that is in a recessed void where they replace the roofing materials instead of mounted over them on rails; This also seems to have benefits in reducing weirdness of wind effects on the upper outer edges of the array that can put weird forces on individual small slates.  But, you do not have a regular slate roof!

I can't even begin to visualise how a sunken integrated in-roof array would work with a northern stone slab roof, typically there's so much irregularity in the size of the large stone tiles that they'll never mate at the interface to the sunken region of an in-roof system.  If you butcher the slabs to fit a rectangular depression for an in-roof array, it's going to look weird.  Really weird. Where-as when I've seen rail mounted systems over a stone slab roof it looks fine.

I'd suggest speaking with a couple of installers who specialise in doing North East off-grid installations; they're far more likely to have a lot of experience with stone slab roof installs as it's the high altitude barn conversions where a grid hookup is more expensive than an off-grid battery/electric system, and these often have stone slab roofs; for example https://nzeco.co.uk   

I see your point about integrated and yeah tend to agree it could look wierd. It's one of the reasons the cost they've quotes is so high I guess. We are not in a conservation area so don't have that contend with but don't want it to look crap. The wind effects at the edges was one of my concerns but Orkney weather as mentioned above can be pretty brutal so I guess if installed correctly ...... Cheers