Asce 7 Solar Panels

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.

Asce 7 solar panels.

Wind loads on rooftop photovoltaic panel systems installed parallel to roof planes joseph h. Amendment also allows dsa to accept industry standards to ensure compliance of solar panel attachments after recent solar panel attachment failures. Asce 7 10 with icc es ac 428 criteria physical constraints of ac 428 wind method. See asce 7 16 for important details not included here.

Section 29 4 4 covers the other roof slopes. Asce 7 16 new parallel to roof method 7khvh uhvxowv irup wkh edvlv iru wkh qhz ioxvk prxqw phwkrg. Determining wind and snow loads for solar panels 2 u s. In asce 7 16 there are two sections that cover rooftop solar panels.

Recently asce 7 10 was published and has become the basis for the 2012 series of the international codes i codes. 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. 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. 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.

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. David banks phd p eng principal. Printed with permission from asce. Cain p e consultant solar energy industries association seia washington d c.

The wind loads for solar panels do not have to be applied simultaneously with the component and cladding wind loads for the roof. Model building codes have used asce 7 05 as the basis for several years which largely follows the design principles of allowable stress design.