Number of Heliocol Mounting Pads?

[jblizzle]

Not sure anyone will know, but looking for opinions.

Getting prepared to install ten 4x12.5 Heliocol panels and can not decide how many mounting pads I need to buy.

The manual suggests:

In general, allow two mounting pads on the upper header of each panel, and one for the lower header. (On roofs with a pitch greater than 10/12 you need more pads, and on flat installations you can use less.)

Later it goes on to suggest using 4 mounts per bank on a flat roof (1 in each corner).

Well 10/12 is a 40 degree pitch above which you want 4 pads per panel instead of the normal 3.

I will have 2 banks (4 and 6 panels) and my roof is close to flat at 8 degrees. So based on their manual I need between 30 pads (3 per panel) and 8 pads (4 per bank). At close to $10/pad, these start to add up.

I was thinking of maybe going with 2 pads per panel (1 top and bottom) since my roof is close to flat (although it does not have the little walls around the roof like you see on true flat adobe-type roofs).

And experts out there ... or anyone wanting to throw an opinion at me?

 

[bobby1017]

My roof is 30 deg slope, the panels are only attached at the top, I think 2 each panel, at the bottom you can lift the whole thing off the roof.

 

[jblizzle]

Interesting. That seems a little scary to me ... seems like a good wind could get that flapping.

Posted with Tapatalk 2

 

[bobby1017]

Interesting. That seems a little scary to me ... seems like a good wind could get that flapping.

Posted with Tapatalk 2

Due to the fact they are made of many small tubes the if the wind does blow hard it blows right through them, we did have some south wind gusts that hit 40 + mph this year, no problem.

 

[jblizzle]

The separate tubes of these panels is an advantage in that regard. Thanks for the info. Makes me more comfortable cutting back on the mounts some.

Posted with Tapatalk 2

 

[jongig]

You are to use two short gator clamps per panel at the top and two long gator clamps at the bottom. They are labeled for top and bottom. The top ones don't allow movement but the bottom ones allow for several inches of expansion/contraction. It's a very good system. For windy areas and Florida you use two lags per mount and for less windy areas you use only one. You also must be careful and have one gator locking side to side movement where the water line is connected and then keep the ramainder at least two inches from the header ribs. They do expand/contract side to side also.