Loose Solar Panels

An email was sent off to the installers reporting the damaged panels on the 27/12/11. But due to the Christmas and New Year holidays an auto out of office reply email was received saying that they were closed until January 3rd. There was an emergency telephone number if required.

Further problems were to be experienced on the 29/12/11. From this date the weather conditions changed to high winds which seemed to caused all sorts of rattles above my fathers bedroom under the east solar array. An additional email was subsequently sent off on the 30th reporting these new issues and requesting an experienced installer to visit as soon as possible and investigate the noises.

Over the weekend of 31st December and 1st January while visiting my parents I found my father looking very tired and apprehensive. He said that he had not been getting very much sleep due to the the noise on the roof. He also said that on occasions he was now also hearing banging sounds which were very disruptive. Although it was not quite as windy now as it had been on the previous couple of evenings, I had a look up at the east facing panels from the end of the garden. I could see nothing alarming or untoward from this distance. However, I could see some loose cabling under the right hand panel, maybe this was flapping around and causing the noises!

On Tuesday 3rd January, the installation company was back in touch and were arranging for their installations supervisor to visit and check the reported problems. He arrived mid-afternoon today, 4th January and started by investigating the noises coming from the roof on the east side. On inspection of both the east and west arrays, he found that 3 of the east facing solar panels were loose and not clamped tightly which was causing them to lift and bang down in the wind. This was immediately rectified together with the securing of loose wires under the panels with cable ties. One of the solar panels had to be removed completely to allow access to a roof tile that had not been refitted correctly at the time of installation. Finally, the scratched solar panels were found to be only surface marks and cleaned accordingly.