Hello from a Former Lurker

[Krill]

Hi all,

I've spent a while lurking on this forum whilst I was getting my self-installed solar & battery setup working, but I thought I'd finally join in properly!

In terms of my setup, I have 10 x 405w panels sitting on a wooden mounting structure which is attached to my garage. Unfortunately my house roof orientation is just not great, plus diy installation at that height didn't appeal!

The garage roof pitch is north facing, so the wooden frame allows me to mount the panels due south at 5 degree pitch.



As the second picture suggests, shading is a given in the early morning and late afternoon from October and will be until March, so most generation is during the noon period.
This is all coupled to a Solis 3.6kw hybrid with 3 x Pylontech US3000C, also located in the garage.
So far, the setup has worked really well with much lower costs due to the diy install!

I have spent a lot of time on the control and monitoring through modbus, home assistant and lots of data investigation, so I'm hoping to share this with the forum in case others could benefit.

Looking forward to being an active member and learning more!

Stupid question, but doesn't that need planning permission because the panels are more than the maximum distance above the roof? Or does that not apply because it is an outbuilding in the curtlidge of the property?

[Stinsy]

Stupid question, but doesn't that need planning permission because the panels are more than the maximum distance above the roof? Or does that not apply because it is an outbuilding in the curtlidge of the property?

Not a stupid question. Yes it does require PP. The OP is hoping his neighbours don’t dob him in. If they do he can put a new roof on the garage that looks very similar to the “on-roof” solar array…

[Oldgreybeard]

To some extent it depends on the primary function of the panels. For example, I'm part way through erecting a covered walkway down the side of our house, from the back door along to the wheelie bin area. I don't need planning consent, as such a structure falls well within the Permitted Development rules. It so happens that the roofing for this covered walkway is six solar panels, but then almost all of the roof covering on the south side of our house main roof is also solar panels, 25 of them up there in place of slates.

I doubt very much that any local authority planning enforcement officer would have a leg to stand on if they tried to argue that my new covered walkway needed PP, just because I have opted to use solar panels as the roofing. I could very easily show that I could have used sheets of black glass as the roofing, which would look close to identical (anyway, no one can see this walkway from outside our boundary).

The Permitted Development rules are worth a read, as they are fairly generous, as long as you're in a position to use them (mostly anyone outside a conservation area, or living in a home where PD rights have not been removed as a part of a previous extension or similar additional construction).

[MrPablo]

Not a stupid question. Yes it does require PP. The OP is hoping his neighbours don’t dob him in. If they do he can put a new roof on the garage that looks very similar to the “on-roof” solar array…

That's exactly right.
I did look at how much the performance impact would be when keeping to the max height and it was more than I was comfortable with.
The neighbours to the rear have been appeased with a rather brutal haircut to a laurel. That sits south east of their property and caused some morning shade in the corner of their garden.

If the garage had been a 100% detached structure, a pitched roof with panels on top would have been the preferred route.
Unfortunately, whilst the garage is detached from the house, it's attached to the neighbours garage.

Long story short, don't ask, don't tell is my approach!

[Krill]

I love that the solution to most of the permitted development/PP issues is just "Build the structure out of solar panels".

The rules are stupid at times. My wife is worried about solar panels looking ugly and neighbours not liking us "detracting from the neighbourhood" and then I look at what MrPablo has done and I think it looks really smart. We need a couple million more set ups like this.

[Stinsy]

I love that the solution to most of the permitted development/PP issues is just "Build the structure out of solar panels".

The rules are stupid at times. My wife is worried about solar panels looming ugly and neighbours not liking us "detracting from the neighbourhood" and then I look at what MrPablo has done and I think it looks really smart. We a couple million more set ups like this.

We had a conversation on here about how much chicken wire was required to make a ground-mount solar array a “chicken coup”. Certainly we agreed that chickens were not required for it to be a coup.

Members on here have “ladder stores” that are yet to see a ladder…

[Oldgreybeard]

If someone was to come up with an easy to install mounting system that could turn any solar panel into rain proof roofing, then I think it would be even easier to argue the point that the solar panels are just roofing that happens to generate electricity as a bonus. The key is to come up with some way of easily sealing between the panels.

I've had a few idea as to how to do this, but I think the ideal would be something along the lines of the in-roof mounting systems, adapted a bit to make them more versatile and able to be used over a wider range of roof pitches. For the walkway canopy I've found some black PVC strips intended to fill the slots in structural extrusions, so I'm going to see if they seal up the gaps OK (doesn't matter in this case if they are 100% weatherproof).

[Joeboy]

We have an area at the side of the rear of the property. It is out of the wind and has home walls on two sides we bbq there, has a big table too. We have spoken about roofing it with PV to make it a sitootery. It's certainly on the rear burners of my mind but i'd need to run in another set of 4mm cables and split it up.. Looking forward to seeing your walkway cover OGB.

[Oldgreybeard]

An easy to fit, affordable and versatile mounting to allow panels to be used to build shed, garage, walkway covering, garden shelter etc roofing could sell be a real boon for some. Most of the time there would be no need for scaffolding, which is a significant part of a rooftop installation cost. Only non-DIY bit would be hooking up the mains-side electrics, all the rest could become a fairly easy DIY job, without needing to invent ways to fix panels.