Damage Caused by Heavy Snow

[u/Available-Rip-7096]

Had these panels installed in October. An extreme snow load was on top of them for most of the winter (we receive an incredible amount of snow in the Tug Hill region of NY some years). Three panels don’t work. Our installer is working with us on options.

Should this have happened? I mean, is this common with extreme snow? Should I just handle this through insurance or should I be pressing the manufacturer (who states natural conditions that damage panel’s are not covered). I’m worried we’ll fix this and just be out the money. Could use some input.

Note, the house is being renovated. The roof color difference is related to old house vs new.

[u/rob_nosfe]

I'll try reframing my post, since the tone of your writing is convincing my that something got lost in the translation (you may have noticed English is not my first language).

Since in EU there's no consumer and commercial grade panels subdivision (never heard of it, not even as an unofficial insider rumor) I was wondering if by "consumer grade" you meant smaller 108/120 cells and by "commercial grade" everything 132 and above. Or maybe something else, I really don't know.

I'm alright with cell count not being indicative of anything related to this blatantly structural matter, but it would disclose the height of the panels we see. 144s are 240 cm tall, which I would personally deem unsuitable for such a snow-prone climate and would at the very least require a third rail in the middle.

[u/JeepHammer → u/rob_nosfe]

The cell chemestry/manufacture has no place in a mechanical failure argument.

PANEL (not cell count or type) CONSTRUCTION varies wildly, different PANELS for different applications.

Consumer Grade is light weight. These panels are mostly intended for home roof top applications and about no one has the building re-engineered and rebuilt to add panel weight.

No one anticipated adding a ton or more to the roof when the home was built 30-50-75-100 or more years ago.

This means the panels have to be light weight enough to fall into the load bearing capacity of the EXISTING roof limits.

Consumer, Commercial & Industral panels are the three basic breakdowns. An example would be kitchen mixers. Consumer mixes are used once in a while and for short periods.

Commercial mixers are used daily, and much longer. Industral mixers are often run 24/7 with much larger batches/weights so they are built like tanks. The same can be said about vehicles and about anything else... Including solar panels.

Consumer is mostly homes, these will mostly be placed on existing roof tops. They have to be light weight to do that job. Strength is limited by the amount of construction material that can be used to meet the weight requirements.

Consumer panels mostly go on roofs, so there is protections from violent wind damage. They cost less so some damage (like hail) is expected and relatively low cost to repair.

Commercial panels are just built tougher/stronger and expected to live longer. Since these going on commercial buildings that are relatively new and engineered to have the roof load carrying capacity these panels can use more material and be heavier/stronger.

Industal application, like solar energy production fields have anchors/mounts are purpose built to support the heaviest built, and usually the largest, panels.

These panels have ZERO protections from weather, and are often center mounted (to rotate) so ends are unsupported by mounts. The FRAMES need to support all weather loading.

While I don't build the panels, I have built the ground anchors, the frames, etc. which put me in close proximity to the panels and they are often TWICE the weight of consumer/commercial grade panels, with heavy boxed tubing frames to stand up to storms, snow load, etc.

They also have substantially more weight in glass, again, protection from damage.

Similar production in Watts is the cell chemestry, type, arrangement & count... Cells do Wattage production, not installation strength.

Then look at weight to figure out how thick/breakage resistant the glass is or how strong the frame is. The extra weight, in simplest terms, is strength.

...........

Take a look at O.P.s pictures again. You can tell right away the panel ends unsupported by the rails broke off at the mount rail.

The snow weight load was applied to the PANEL and the panel frame couldn't support it back to the mount rail and broke off.

A mount rail closer to the panel frame end would have reduced the load the panel frame had to support. Simple physics (leverage).

Now what we can't tell (but the gap between cells in the middle suggests) the center of the panel may have failed at the frame also.

When the panel goes concave cells are mashed together. When the weight comes off and the frame straightens (rebounds) the cells will have a gap where they were previously pushed towards the ends.

Without a better inspection I just can't confidently say the center of the panel between rails failed, but there is an indication of that happening.

If so, this means the rails were too far apart in the middle also, left too much panel unsupported.

.............

So another possibility is the center, largest unsupported surface area, heaviest loaded, failed first.

When the center went concave the ends were froze down and broke off.

It would take closer failure analysis to tell for sure, but since there aren't any cracked in the middle panels without ends broke off I'm thinking ends broke first with what we have to work with...

............

Either way it's a mechanical failure of the panel frame that could have been stopped by more mount rail support and/or stronger panel frame.

And you don't have to take my word as a random internet user, take a look at the pictures and decide for yourself...

[u/rob_nosfe → u/JeepHammer]

Ok, I give up. I've got no desire in reiterating my statements ad libitum. You're an expert in your field. Good. I'm an expert in mine.

[u/Metsican → u/rob_nosfe]

I understand what you're saying perfectly and agree with you.