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Solar Shingles

How to Install Solar Shingles

Solar shingles mostly offer great rewards as well as advantages over conventional solar cells; there are unique challenges inherent in the installation of such a roof. Careful planning is required, and attention must be paid to the wiring of your solar shingles. To simplify your installation process, you are provided with a guide book which helps you in installing a photovoltaic solar shingle roof. Shingles are undoubtedly expensive, but once installed, they prove to be an amazing investment for the owner since they increase his property value to a great extent.

Solar shingles offer not only better aesthetics compared to conventional solar panels, but also a less complicated attachment to the home. Unlike solar panels, which require a mounting rack to be installed on top of the roof, solar shingles are stapled directly onto the roof. If you view the cost of ordinary roofing shingles you would have to buy it at a sunk cost. You find that you are only adding the difference in the prices between ordinary and solar shingles to your cost. Moreover this will help you in saving the cost of mounting racks for conventional solar panels.

Installation of solar shingles

Careful planning is required before you proceed with the installation of your solar roof. Factors you must consider while installation include the layout of your roof and the number of tiles you will need to generate the amount of power you need and how the wires will be routed through the house to the power control panel and inverter. Solar cells must be wired in series in order to deliver high voltage to the inverter. In this wiring arrangement, the positive terminal of each element is wired to the negative terminal of the next, in contrast to parallel wiring in which each element is placed on a different branch of the same wire. In a serial wiring arrangement, the voltages of each element keeps on adding.

To install your shingles, staple them onto the roof in an overlapping pattern just like ordinary roofing shingles. When installing conventional shingles, you would have done this step very easily, however in the case of photovoltaic shingles you also have to wire them. A typical arrangement entails the placement of wire holes drilled through the roof at every 3 ½ inch distance along a line of overlapping tiles. It is wise to use a template and draw outlines of each hole using a chalk before proceeding with the actual installation of shingles. Once you have passed wires through the wiring holes, guide each line of wires through a wiring raceway. Be careful to place wiring holes, and raceways.

The services of a licensed electrician are required to perform the wiring of your solar cells to the inverter and power control unit, and from the inverter to the electric utility grid. Keep in mind that solar shingles cannot be cut, as doing so will render the solar cell non-functional. In addition, a minimum roof slope of 3:12 is required to ensure proper drainage. While installing shingles is no small task. Proper installation requires care and planning and is not an endeavor to be rushed into.