I have been told that putting solar panels on our rear extension loft flat roof will require A frames to angle them towards the sun and this will raise them above the roof line and I will not get planning permission for this. Is this correct? what solutions are there to this?
If they are not visible from neighbouring properties and not heigher than your ridge tiles on the main roof you will be ok.
Provided you aren’t in a conservation area planning permission shouldn’t be too hard to obtain.
Solar panels can be mounted near horizontal if required but this far north they will then have almost no function outside the summer.
They will be above the ridge tiles and visible- loft roof is at ridge level:-(
Clive Durdle
There’s a company in Oldham I think who provide flexible stick-on solar panels that are mainly used on lorries. These won’t have the same efficiency as perfectly-oriented metal framed panels, but some solar might be better than none…!! https://www.trailar.co.uk/propertysolutions
They look interesting! Other option appears to be small parabolic systems like Boeing Stirling. Any home sized ones that follow the sun out there?
I have PV flat on my flat roof. I still sometimes get 100% output. It’ll certainly reduce the efficiency from the ideal angle (I read 80%). Better than nothing and avoids raising the building height.
This is interesting. Might it be worth just connecting it to the immersion heater and not worrying about inverters etc?
If you have 2 immersion heaters you could give it a go on one of them but beware over voltage. You might need to come up with a combination of panels in parallel and in series to limit the voltage.