Solar panels on conservatory roof

[David J]

Rather than having all the hassle of having solar panels installed on
the roof of the house, does anyone know a company making panels that
simply slide in, as replacements for the existing plastic roof panels
on a conservatory? It's in a very sunny position.

DavidJ

[Skipweasel]

In article <gsdll6pfcofh10d8s...@4ax.com>,
da...@btelecom.invalid says...

Just one point - in our case the rules from the planning authority were
that a conservatory had a transparent or translucent roof. That's going
to be hard if you cover it with solar wossnames.

That may well explain why you don't see adverts everywhere for it.

--
Skipweasel - never knowingly understood.

[cynic]

On Feb 15, 8:01 pm, Skipweasel <skipweaselnos...@googlemail.com>
wrote:
> In article <gsdll6pfcofh10d8s4egt9ah5s9rf02...@4ax.com>,

Even if the local planners allow it the solar panels will not let any
appreciable amount of light through. The conservatory would be pretty
dark inside.

[Andy Champ]

On 15/02/2011 20:25, cynic wrote:
>
> Even if the local planners allow it the solar panels will not let any
> appreciable amount of light through. The conservatory would be pretty
> dark inside.

Last conservatory I had had mostly glass walls. Light no problem.

Planning is.

Andy

[David J]

Possibly, but good light would still come via the windows on 3 sides.

As for local planners, they had no involvement when the conservatory
was built fairly recently.

[Skipweasel]

In article <29633115-1f17-4f61-b5ed-efdac8d78b25
@o39g2000prb.googlegroups.com>, icel...@talktalk.net says...

> Even if the local planners allow it the solar panels will not let any
> appreciable amount of light through. The conservatory would be pretty
> dark inside.
>

And the room beyond even darker. Neighbours have replaced their
conservatoryish roof with felt and it's made the living room like a
cave.

[Skipweasel]

In article <95rll655irpcftg31...@4ax.com>,
da...@btelecom.invalid says...

> As for local planners, they had no involvement when the conservatory
> was built fairly recently.
>

That would probably be because having a largely transparent roof, it's
outside their purview. Cover the roof and it becomes an extension and
they might suddenly develop an interest.

I'm not saying you shouldn't do it - just pointing out a potential
pitfall.

[Nightjar]

But, would it penetrate to the room behind?

> As for local planners, they had no involvement when the conservatory
> was built fairly recently.

Which is why I had a conservatory built, rather than an extenion. A
roofed extension would have required planning permission (and 2m deep
foundations courtesy of a neighbour's Willow). A conservatory needed none.

Colin Bignell

[chris French]

In message <MPG.27c5021ee...@85.214.73.210>, Skipweasel
<skipweas...@googlemail.com> writes

Yes, certainly something to try out first - sheets of black paper taped
to the inside of the roof or something like that).

A rear extension had been built on the back of our old house. 3 bed semi
- the existing room only had windows where the extension went. And the
extension had full height glass at the end , a glass block 'window' on
one wall. It did make the 'inside' room a bit dingy, and meant that you
needed lights on all the time.
--
Chris French

[Gazz]

>>> Even if the local planners allow it the solar panels will not let any
>>> appreciable amount of light through. The conservatory would be pretty
>>> dark inside.

also, if you think it gets hot in the conservatory in summer now, you could
prolly roast a whole side of a pig in it if you had solar panels in place of
the top glass panels,

solar panels get extremely hot, and yes i am talking about PV panels, tho
the hot water ones get as hot too,

i have 3 x 125 watt panels on the roof of my motorhome, first one was stuck
directly to the roof, i.e. the frame attatched to the roof, i could feel
inside where the panel was due to the heat radiating thru the alli outer
skin, 1 inch styrine insulation and ply inner skin,
when i took that panel off to move it and fit it properly (on stand off legs
so air flow can get under it and help cooling... and a cooler panel outputs
more power too) the alli roof under the panel had been baked so much the
paint had bubbled off and it was buckled to hell,

luckily i was moving the panel to add a roof window, so that bit of roof was
chopped out,

[Man at B&Q]

On Feb 15, 9:37 pm, Skipweasel <skipweaselnos...@googlemail.com>
wrote:
> In article <95rll655irpcftg31tq4n479533lcq0...@4ax.com>,

> da...@btelecom.invalid says...
>
> > As for local planners, they had no involvement when the conservatory
> > was built fairly recently.
>
> That would probably be because having a largely transparent roof, it's
> outside their purview. Cover the roof and it becomes an extension

If it's covered by permitted development, planners have no say.
Building Control would be the ones to watch out for.

MBQ

[Skipweasel]

In article <4b26930a-ec86-4ce5-b8eb-f92f6ed54129
@k15g2000prk.googlegroups.com>, manat...@hotmail.com says...

> > > As for local planners, they had no involvement when the conservatory
> > > was built fairly recently.
> >
> > That would probably be because having a largely transparent roof, it's
> > outside their purview. Cover the roof and it becomes an extension
>
> If it's covered by permitted development, planners have no say.
> Building Control would be the ones to watch out for.
>

Yeah - but my point is that it was probably only a permitted development
by virtue of its translucent roof.

[Shalene]

Hi, what can I use to keep my solar panels on a conservatory roof

--
For full context, visit https://www.homeownershub.com/uk-diy/solar-panels-on-conservatory-roof-688285-.htm

[Paul]

On 4/19/2023 9:45 PM, Shalene wrote:
> Hi, what can I use to keep my solar panels on a conservatory roof
>

The design details of your conservatory matter.

https://www.theecoexperts.co.uk/solar-panels/conservatories

Paul

[Vir Campestris]

So does your planning permission. You may be required to keep a roof the
light can get through.

Andy

[David Wade]

If you put solar panels on the roof you may find it ceases to be a
conservatory, which does not require any foundations, and becomes a
house extension which does require proper foundations and has to conform
to building and planning regs in other ways.

I guess the fact conservatories generally have no foundations means even
if you get the panels to stay in place, it may suffer from settlement if
you stick heavy solar panels on the roof....

Dave

[SteveW]

On 25/04/2023 20:36, David Wade wrote:
> On 25/04/2023 16:59, Vir Campestris wrote:
>> On 20/04/2023 11:50, Paul wrote:
>>> On 4/19/2023 9:45 PM, Shalene wrote:
>>>> Hi, what can I use to keep my solar panels on a conservatory roof
>>>>
>>>
>>> The design details of your conservatory matter.
>>>
>>> https://www.theecoexperts.co.uk/solar-panels/conservatories
>>>
>>
>> So does your planning permission. You may be required to keep a roof
>> the light can get through.
>>
>> Andy
>>
> If you put solar panels on the roof you may find it ceases to be a
> conservatory, which does not require any foundations, and becomes a
> house extension which does require proper foundations and has to conform
> to building and planning regs in other ways.

I think that the requirement for 3/4 or more of the roof to be
transparent or translucent was removed some years ago - hence the trend
for replacing roofs with insulating panels.

I think that it was removed specifically to improve energy efficiency.

> I guess the fact conservatories generally have no foundations means even
> if you get the panels to stay in place, it may suffer from settlement if
> you stick heavy solar panels on the roof....

A lot of conservatories have dwarf walls and they do have foundations -
just not as deep as required for a proper extension. My own has concrete
strip foundations, with Engineering brick on top. Above ground, the
outer leaf is brick, while the inner is block, with Rockwool batts for
cavity insulation.