Panel Layout using s-5 clamp

[Jennie1220]

I am planning on putting a solar array on a pitched metal roof and am going to use the s-5 seam clamps. The roof is not very high but very wide so I was going to lay the panels out "landscape" and center them on the seams. Each panel will have 4 clamps on each panel. There will be 4 rows of panels ( 5 on the lower level, then 4, then 3, and finally 2 in the top row). If I do this there is a horizontal 7 inch space in between panels (no vertical gap), but the gaps will stager with the different rows. Is there a reason not to do this? Every time I have installed panels I have used a rack system so I have just put the panels right next to each other. I have never put panels up with gaps, but I believe these seam clamps will work better with 4 on each panel spaced equally. What do you guys think?

thanks

 

[jaggedben]

If I understand correctly, by staggering the gaps all the panels will be in one contiguous array, with some interior spaces. From an electrical point of view, I see no reason not to do that. Just don't run any exposed wires through the open spaces. If you had more than one array, you'd have more work to do to provide conduit jumpers between the arrays, and you'd have to weigh that against whatever advantage you see in separating them.

I'm not sure if what you are thinking is necessary; I've seen some landscaped arrays with S-5 clamps that did not evenly space the panels on the seams. But it's hard to tell without more detail. And this forum is really an electrical forum so we rarely discuss array layouts or racking structures here.