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Comment by gerdesj | Hacker News Reader

How?

You put some modern panels on your roof that absorb power from the sun that now no longer gets absorbed by your roof - so your roof is now a little cooler. A wooden roof is now actually less of a fire risk and a tiled roof will now absorb and radiate less heat - bonus!

I live in the UK. We build from sticks n bricks. We've had a bit of a heat wave recently that concentrates the mind somewhat. My office (I'm the MD) has a vast expanse of red brick double skinned which is south facing. My desk environment is around 10C warmer than the external temperature (I have a lot of sensors deployed). I have now decreed that when my desk temp is 30C then we abandon ship and work from home.

I'm going to investigate skimming the red brickwork with a white render. My parent's house is a modern build and that seems to help.

Oh, fire risk? What on earth are you on about? Insurance risk? What are you on about?

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>>>Oh, fire risk? What on earth are you on about? Insurance risk? What are you on about?

Adding a whole bunch of electrical equipment (that's exposed to the elements, wildlife, etc.) absolutely increases the risk of fire. Panels are heavy as well, so you're increasing the load on the roof, could increase risk of collapse (especially in areas that get lots of snow). Plus, if you don't notify your insurance company, it's at best not going to cover replacement cost of panels if something goes wrong and at worst invalidate your whole policy.

In a house with ring mains already. We also have a fair few ideas about the elements.

I trained as a Civ Eng in Plymouth (the British one). I now own an IT company. I have a fair idea about fire risk (I'm our fire officer too) and how some materials behave in general and under loads and incident (eg fire).

In my opinion, roof mounted solar panels have very few risks in the UK. The likeliest risk is wind related. We are seeing increasingly strong gusts - virtually nothing compared to tornados but this is a land that does not have tornadoes (yet).

We need to consider surviving Beaufort force 12 as a minimum standard.

The UK does get the occasional tornado. Mostly in the midlands, and mostly places where they don't get noticed, but they do happen fairly frequently in fact.

https://www.bbc.com/news/education-33136737

The usual way electrical fires happen: Electric wiring work done by incompetents. So much bad wiring, in places that are very inconvenient to inspect.

So ... don't.

Easily said but ... don't

Yes, easily said. There is a solar power installation boom going on. Do the math.

I'm not sure how you can realize that there is a fire risk from improper electrical but then also declare that solar panels do not increase fire risk.

Properly installed? Sure, no or minimal risk.

But insurance companies deal in aggregate, which includes improperly installed panels.

> I have now decreed that when my desk temp is 30C then we abandon ship and work from home.

My understanding is that the legislation actually requires the working environment be cooler than that, so I get the sentiment, and ironically probably many of your employees' homes will be hotter, but I think you've set the bar too high.

My desk is at the warmest place in the building - it's at an upper corner of the building, south facing and at the end of a room. I had to come up with some metric and this is the first year that it got so bad that I had to bailout and I sent everyone else home too, so I've set 30C at my desk as a first threshold. I'll probably lower it.

I am the H&S bod, and shortly I'll be first aid accredited (again). Mind you I've done first aid for sailing and skiing back in the day too, so I know what you are supposed to do when hit by an avalanche ("swim" and pray, or soil yourself and pray - which is more likely) and how to treat or at least mitigate hypothermia.

For some reason we have had loads of practice in working from home recently. I'm an expert in VPNs and all my staff have home phones virtually wired up to our PBX.

About 20-25% of that solar energy not going into your shingles or whatever now goes through an copper cable. Still a lot of energy, and if not wired correctly, that is still a risk.

The other 75% of solar energy heats up the panels themselves I guess and/or is reflected.

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