Hello. I'm considering finally taking the plunge and installing solar panels on our roof. We are in the southwest where it makes a lot of sense. The Google Project Sunroof site puts our ROI at around only 8-9 years. My hesitancy, however, is that our roof is about 28 years old and also has Spanish Tiles. In our eight years in the house, we have had a few relatively small leaks yet they have been easily found and quickly fixed. Our roofer - whom I trust - has not once suggested a total roof replacement, they've generally commented that the roof is pretty solid. All of this said, what do those of you with panels on an "older" roof like this feel about my prospects with this? Is it crazy to proceed into this with an older roof like this? It obviously would not be taking up the entire roof, but is it a huge headache pain for roofers to work around this (and/or temporarily remove it)? I guess my fear is that we might have a leak and have roofers decline a job to perform a repair.
The roi mention makes me think you mean PV panels not pool heating panels so talking as if that
The pool heating panels are normally fastened different , and fasteners should not go through the plastic into rafter normally only go as deep as the batten, though some pv mounting can work the same ie batten only
Leaks tend to develop at valleys, knocks
ie where you wont be fitting panels normally
Unless you have a low roof angle with either no plastic or perished plastic
Even if you develop what could have been a leak , you would have a low chance of having a leak as the panels would act like a roof over your roof meaning the ammount of water that flows over that portion of roof would be less
but yea can imagine that the labour could be. Higher in the event of leak, and some might be scared to handle panels , either for risk of damage or because they are scared if something ever goes wrong that it would blow back on them, or just scared of the electrical aspect
where the bracket sttaches to the rafter and goes through the plastic is exactly , where the batten does the same , so the chances of a leak is kinda like a normal roof chances for a leak from normal roof construction methods , and reduced again by panel acting as a 2nd roof, and like i said more often than not leaks don't tend to happen on the flat portion of the roof
noramlly water flows away from that point to the mid point between the rafters anyway as the plastic sags
so as long as the guys don't accidently tear the plastic , it should be fine
Imo
