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Small Cabin Forum / General Forum / spring storm took down our solar panels.
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Ontario lakeside
Member
# Posted: 31 May 2018 00:45
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We had some crazy winds earlier this month. lots of damage in the city, trees down and shingles missing. I was hoping for the best when we got to the cabin but my heart sank when I saw our panels on the ground face down! Amazingly the damage was not as bad as I feared and we got to work putting everything in order. As usual I have a video if your following along.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZfqfziDZwE

FishHog
Member
# Posted: 31 May 2018 07:29
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wow, you were lucky. Now you have me worried about mine. Haven't had a chance to get up there yet.

FishHog

creeky
Member
# Posted: 31 May 2018 09:29
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Nice vid. I see you have a new camera person. And hot water. Didn't recognize the brand of the heater.

Those panels are tougher than folks think. Neat to see the point of failure. I found it interesting that the pipe bent but the strap didn't fail. There must have been a lot of force to bend the pipe. You'd think the strap would have popped.

So what flipped the panels? The bolts and rack seemed to have held together. Was it something that tied the panels to the pipe?

Ontario lakeside
Member
# Posted: 1 Jun 2018 01:37
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The pipe bent enough that the straps slid off the ends, then it broke the support that allowed vertical angle adjustment. Still not sure how both ends came off.... Hot water supplied by a ecotemp L5, very civilized!

skootamattaschmidty
Member
# Posted: 1 Jun 2018 07:45
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The wind is a powerful thing! Glad your panels did not break. They are tough. Our place survived that big storm. Lots of branches down but no trees that could cause damage.
I had a 40 watt panel on the roof of my sauna and the snow pushed it off onto the ground and it survived as Well!
I enjoy watching your videos!

creeky
Member
# Posted: 4 Jun 2018 13:23
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Jeez. I've been using 2x for my cross pieces bolted with dock hangers. And I wonder now if the wood doesn't have a bit of flex allowing for a bit of give and take.

My panels have been up quite high in the air for 8 years and I haven't needed to so much as tighten the bolts.

Hmmm. Probably time to check that actually.

Quoting: skootamattaschmidty
I enjoy watching your videos!



LoonWhisperer
Member
# Posted: 5 Jun 2018 16:28
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Great job on the vid! That storm was a nasty bit of business. Blew out our power in Toronto for 2 days and lots of damage on the street from trees coming down. Haven't been to the cabin yet and really hope our solar panels are still on the roof.

beachman
Member
# Posted: 5 Jun 2018 16:39
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Bad floods in New Brunswick last month with very high winds. Many along the Saint John River lost their homes and cottages. I saw some pictures of a couple of connected lakes - really bad. We are on a non-connected lake but waters and wind did lots of damage. We lost our 100' walkway and our front deck. Camps were fine but a very large tree fell and just missed our newer camp. I can't imagine going to a camp and having it gone or just a heap of wet rubble.

Ontario lakeside
Member
# Posted: 5 Jun 2018 22:51
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We were very lucky for sure.

DaveBell
Moderator
# Posted: 6 Jun 2018 12:32
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Maybe something stronger like iron pipe or steel square tube than using EMT conduit. If it happened once it might happen twice.

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