Mounting panels to metal roof - bracket count and orientation question

[jbernal]

I've got this type (see attachment) roof going up and solar needs to go onto that. Due to measurements (8 inches between high ridges) the best layout I can think of is to mount the solar panels "vertically" or "portrait" orientation, but that also means that the brackets to hold them must be on the long ends because the panels are just slightly too wide to line up with the high ridges in pairs. Is this a problem? The panels are 6.9' long x 3.4' wide.

 

[The Dish Doc]

I did this over my shop. I've since moved that system.

 

[MichaelK]

I have exactly the same kind of roofing on my workshop. What I did was to bolt 4' lengths of half-height unistrut onto the roof, utilizing long gasketed roofing screws, with the gasket below the unistrut touching the roof metal, and a second large washer above the unistrut, to lock it all in place. I call them the mounting rails.

I then had separate 1/4" bolts pointing upwards out of these rails that the array frame gets bolted to. The array frame is made out of the same unistruts.

So, the unistrut rails get bolted to the roof, and the unistrut arrays get bolted to the rails. It was very easy to position and bolt down.

 

[Ampster]

I mounted rails to my corregated fiberglass patio cover. I drilled through the ridges of the fiberglass panels above the purlins and added a short piece of wood matching the corregation pattern between the fiberglass and the purlin. I was not concerned about major leaks since this was a patio cover but I chose the high part of the corregation since most of the runoff would be flowing down the lower part of the corregation. I mounted seven panels on a pair of rails and only had four penetrations per rail. I had easy access from below and used carriage bolts through the purlins since they were only 1½ inches thick and the major forces were uplift.