Hello lovely folks!
I live most of the year in my Willerby Winchester down by the beach in the Scottish Borders. It's an idyllic life for me, if not for the rising cost of electricity!
I've decided to go solar, and have purchased three 550w panels with the intention of building a storage battery later. The tricky part for me, however, isn't the electrics... it's the panel fitting.
Some of you may already know the chassis of static caravans are wood, aluminium and compound insulation, but my roof also has waxed acrylic tiles. This makes it good for keeping water out but AWFUL for fitting solar panels onto!!
Now, I COULD drill... but as Willerby said to me directly, it will affect my insurance and unseal the roof. My alternatives are to use a solar panel adhesive (which is apparently very strong but only supposed to be used on flat surfaces as seen on boats and tourers) or something akin to my diagram here. I'd also suggested an armature but it also counts as "modding" my van.
Important to note - this "tension" method drags all the weight to the centre of the roof ridge, which is a lot of pressure (up to 70kg full load) in one place.
Does anyone know what the best plan is here? Have any of you successfully fitted panels to your roof? As the expert down south noted, "it's very possible - we've fitted them before - but a tough decision for you [choosing whether or not to break the van seal and expose the roof]".
Huge thanks in advance.
-Tommy
