Help with GSE in roof design

[SBMS]

I have a 9300mm x 3500mm garage roof (slate) and I’m wanting to install in roof system. The roofers are happy to install whatever I supply and I’m just trying to find out the best system to install. I’ve pretty much settled on GSE as this seems most popular. I’ll be putting panels on both sides of the roof. I want max kw for the roof And am looking at JA Solar panels either 500w panel (1134x1953) or 450w panel (1134x1762). Im on 3 phase. I think the most panels I can fit is the 500w panel in 2 rows of 4 on each elevation (4kW per side). In portrait most I can get on with 500w panel is 7. 
 

I’m struggling to understand how the landscape system works for GSE And what trays I would need for a 2 row landscape layout (and where to find these from as sourcing is quite tricky. I don’t know if GSE actually supports this panel size?

 

[JohnMo]

Simple, you find the GSE tray sizes and then choose a PV panel that fits. Doing it the other way around doesn't really work.

[SBMS]

17 minutes ago, JohnMo said:

Simple, you find the GSE tray sizes and then choose a PV panel that fits. Doing it the other way around doesn't really work.

Thanks John I get that. I was wondering if anyone has sourced a tray that fits this panel

size. From GSE website I think they do a 1990x1090 tray but cannot source it anywhere so wondered if anyone else had found it. As you say alternative is to step down and use a smaller tray just don’t get as much PV then…

[SBMS]

21 minutes ago, JohnMo said:

Simple, you find the GSE tray sizes and then choose a PV panel that fits. Doing it the other way around doesn't really work.

I could do a smaller panel but try 5 in landscape… my roof is 9300mm wide and panels would be 8810 (5x1762). How much clearance is needed each side (slate roof)?

[G and J]

31 minutes ago, SBMS said:

I could do a smaller panel but try 5 in landscape… my roof is 9300mm wide and panels would be 8810 (5x1762). How much clearance is needed each side (slate roof)?

A degree of care re the effective panel width may be vital.  Our panels are spaced on GSE trays so their total width is more than just n times the panel width itself. 
 

We went for 8 panels wide as 9 would have made the verges look too mean. 
 

How wide are your slates?

[SBMS]

7 minutes ago, G and J said:

A degree of care re the effective panel width may be vital.  Our panels are spaced on GSE trays so their total width is more than just n times the panel width itself. 
 

We went for 8 panels wide as 9 would have made the verges look too mean. 
 

How wide are your slates?

I think it’s a 500x250

[G and J]

Are you using one and a half slates?

[SBMS]

12 minutes ago, G and J said:

Are you using one and a half slates?

Yes although going to be tough to do this with only 250mm or so to the verge..

Edited Sunday at 23:09 by SBMS

[G and J]

Hence the question.  
 

What matters to you most - a good looking roof or max solar?

[Nickfromwales]

2 hours ago, SBMS said:

I have a 9300mm x 3500mm garage roof (slate) and I’m wanting to install in roof system. The roofers are happy to install whatever I supply and I’m just trying to find out the best system to install. I’ve pretty much settled on GSE as this seems most popular. I’ll be putting panels on both sides of the roof. I want max kw for the roof And am looking at JA Solar panels either 500w panel (1134x1953) or 450w panel (1134x1762). Im on 3 phase. I think the most panels I can fit is the 500w panel in 2 rows of 4 on each elevation (4kW per side). In portrait most I can get on with 500w panel is 7. 
 

I’m struggling to understand how the landscape system works for GSE And what trays I would need for a 2 row landscape layout (and where to find these from as sourcing is quite tricky. I don’t know if GSE actually supports this panel size?

 

Slow down.....

 

1 hour ago, JohnMo said:

Simple, you find the GSE tray sizes and then choose a PV panel that fits. Doing it the other way around doesn't really work.

This.

 

Easy roof are another.

 

Panel sizes change faster than the tray manufacturers can keep up with, and then they have to go for MCS certification which takes even more time.

 

1 hour ago, SBMS said:

Thanks John I get that. I was wondering if anyone has sourced a tray that fits this panel

size. From GSE website I think they do a 1990x1090 tray but cannot source it anywhere so wondered if anyone else had found it. As you say alternative is to step down and use a smaller tray just don’t get as much PV then…

If you want contact details for a very good installer, ping me a PM. He can tell you what fits into what etc, and then you can go decide.

[SteamyTea]

Interesting the in-roof panels and PV panel size mismatching.

My roof is 4 meters wide, and it would be nice to fit 8 990mm by 1600mm panels in portrait.

When I last looked, there was not an in-roof system that could do this. As the house is terraced, I could slip a bit of a tray under both neighbours tiles, which should give me enough width for bolts and panels.

I do wonder how hard it would be to make my own from GRP, which I can do myself.

When I look at the design of the GSE ones, I do wonder why the have a large hole, in the middle, moulded into them, is it just for roof ventilation and cable access?

[Nickfromwales]

1 hour ago, SteamyTea said:

When I look at the design of the GSE ones, I do wonder why the have a large hole, in the middle, moulded into them, is it just for roof ventilation and cable access?

That, and to reduce the amount of material used in manufacture, to bean-count.

[SteamyTea]

38 minutes ago, Nickfromwales said:

reduce the amount of material used in manufacture, to bean-count.

They are vacuum formed, so apart from the offcuts recycling value, there is extra pattern/tooling work and then extra trimming.

It is a case of an extra quid to not have a hole, 2 quid to have one.

[dpmiller]

Pretty sure they're injection moulded.

[Nickfromwales]

10 minutes ago, dpmiller said:

Pretty sure they're injection moulded.

Ya. Less material = lower production costs.

[Johnnyt]

I have panels in GSE trays on both side of my garage.

Rather than have a row or rows of slates at the bottom of the panels , we used a verge tray and the rain runs off the  lower panels direct into the gutter.

Makes life simpler.

 

Edited 20 hours ago by Johnnyt

[SteamyTea]

8 hours ago, dpmiller said:

Pretty sure they're injection moulded.

The ones I saw were vac formed.

[dpmiller]

1 hour ago, SteamyTea said:

The ones I saw were vac formed.

and they were definitely GSE?

[SteamyTea]

3 minutes ago, dpmiller said:

and they were definitely GSE?

Yes, was a while back, so they may have started to inject them.  One can usually tell by the trimmed edges and any 'swirl' patterns on them.

Would need a very large injection moulding machine.

The formula is F = A x P x SF

Where F is ton

A is area

P is injection Pressure

SF is safety factor

 

A flat sheet would need a huge machine compared to a similar amount of material injected into a a thicker, but smaller area area i.e. a plastic bin shape.

There is also the speed that it can be injected, though multipoint injection alleviates this a bit, but these are niche mouldings, so would be hard to justify the costs of machinery and tooling for a few thousand parts per year, vacuum forming would be much cheaper.

 

So they may well be injection moulded, but I would be surprised.

I was only peripherally involved in the injection moulding side, but my Mathematics Lecturer in the early 1980s was John Dunhill, of the cigarette family, who worked on the Topper Dingy design back in the mid 1970s.  The Topper was, at the time, the largest single moulding every made and was only possible because it was a development project, backed by industrial  (ICI and Rolinex) and some government money, Ian Proctor could never have afforded to develop it and would have stuck to the cheaper GRP mouldings, which I seem to remember were lighter.  Was a long time ago in my personal history, but interesting times.

[jimseng]

This may not be of any use to you but I am about to fit Solfit panels. I think they might be easier to install than GSE, just my opinion. I looked at the GSE system but the whole fire regs issue put me off, but that is improving with GSE now. The Solfit 425w panels as 1772 x 1145 per panel installed landscape. That doesn't include the flashing kit, that is the installed size of the panels.