Asce 7 Solar Panels

Determining wind and snow loads for solar panels 2 u s.

Asce 7 solar panels.

Asce 7 10 with icc es ac 428 criteria physical constraints of ac 428 wind method. In asce 7 16 there are two sections that cover rooftop solar panels. David banks phd p eng principal. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the mechanical design of photovoltaic systems for wind and snow loads in the united states and provide guidance using the american society of civil engineers asce minimum design loads for buildings and other structures asce 7 05 and asce 7 10 as appropriate.

1510 7 2 1 provides additional information regarding seismic and wind design requirements for roof top solar panels and references new sections added to asce 7. Required 10 inch minimum distance from roof edge or ridge height above roof between 2 inches and 10 inches minimum gap of 0 25 inch between adjacent rows of panels in earlier version of ac 428 minimum gap was 0 75 inch. Recently asce 7 10 was published and has become the basis for the 2012 series of the international codes i codes. Amendment also allows dsa to accept industry standards to ensure compliance of solar panel attachments after recent solar panel attachment failures.

For example asce 7 16 now clearly states that the weight of solar panels and their support are to be considered as dead loads roof live loads need not be applied to areas covered by solar panels under a certain spacing or height and seismic design is based on already established principles in section 13 3 for non structural component design. Section 29 4 4 covers the other roof slopes. See asce 7 16 for important details not included here. Drawing from published case studies and their own extensive experience with solar panels o rourke and isyumov present recommendations that are compatible with snow load procedures in minimum design loads and associated criteria for buildings and other structures including the asce 7 load factors thermal slope and exposure and asce 7 load.

Printed with permission from asce. Model building codes have used asce 7 05 as the basis for several years which largely follows the design principles of allowable stress design. Wind loads on rooftop photovoltaic panel systems installed parallel to roof planes joseph h. Cain p e consultant solar energy industries association seia washington d c.

At the time they advocated the use of the mwfrs methodology of asce 7 05 which uses the solar structure as the main wind force resisting system but can be too conservative for a ballasted system that is often not a contiguous structure. Example of asce 7 16 figure 29 4 7 excerpt for rooftop solar panel design wind loads.