Comment by ofisboy | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ofisboy | Hacker News Reader

Hey peeps.

Sorry for hijacking the topic. I also live in the Netherlands and my backyard perfecty faces south, which means i get huge sunlight on that side of the house. But because my house has a glass-roofed extension on the ground floor, all solar companies i spoke say they can’t install panels on the roof because they can’t build scaffold on that side.

Here’s an image to explain a bit better. [image](https://imgur.com/a/WE1Qojf) So the red area is the glass-roofed extension on the ground floor. And blue area is the space on the roof that solar panels should be placed. Green is a dormer (which they said they can’t also put panels on top)

I was wondering any dutchies might know a solution/advice a company about this? Also is there any portable panels that i can put on top of the glass extension?

Thanks

Hi, fellow Dutchie here. I've just built something quite similar and I took a bit of a shortcut: I've used the panels as the roofing. This was a bit tricky to do properly but now that it's done it looks gorgeous and works quite well. Drop me an email if you want pictures or if you want to come look at the setup in person. It's 18 panels, 3 'long' and 6 'wide' for a total of a bit over 32 square meters.

It isn't clear from the picture and I guess it's too obvious, but if you have a neighbour, they can climb from their roof. That's how my neighbour got his installation done.

I have seen them do more complicated installations (4 floors scaffolding + crane to lift panels), I don't know why they refuse that one.

I replied about this on another comment but have a look at "We Do Solar" their product is designed for installing on balconies but I guess there is nothing to stop you installing it where ever you like! (You might just need to add a bit of a frame to support them?)

Beware, those tend to be ballasted, for mounting on a light roofing structure you really want something that isn't ballasted.

not in NL but my parents have the same problem - glass roofed extension stops the installation

I dont understand why they can't just access the roof from the other side, climb over the apex and down. They walk all around on the roof once they're up there, does it really matter which side they climb?

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