# Roof vs pole mount



## Jokarva (Jan 17, 2010)

We have gotten our estimates for 5kW solar panel installation, the one for roof mount (using the front porch roof) is about $4000 less than pole mount, which is understandable. DH is adamant about having nothing on the roof....he does use the porch roof, which wraps around the house, a good bit for gutter cleaning, etc. But the location is perfect, so I'm thinking it might be a better idea, in addition to being cheaper. 

So, I'm curious about those who chose to pole mount their panels...any advantages besides a better location and untouched roof?


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## Gray Wolf (Jan 25, 2013)

Will you have to get on the roof every time it snows or is your roof steep enough to shed snow by itself?

How old is your roof? Added cost to reroof may cancel savings now.

Leaks are worth considering.

Are you good with working on the roof if maintance/replacement is needed?

We have nothing on our roof - wall mounted and ground mounted are best for us.


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## Harry Chickpea (Dec 19, 2008)

DH is right. A roof is NOT a good spot for any equipment. $4,000 is much less than the cost of an average re-roofing job, and unless the roof is heavy gauge metal, it WILL at some point need a re-roof - often much sooner if workmen have been walking around on it. When the re-roofing needs to be done, the panels will need to be dismounted and then remounted - it just isn't worth it. FWIW, about 80% of the roof problems I had in flat roof theatres were because of the roof-mount air-conditioners and their repair needs.


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## Jim-mi (May 15, 2002)

My area you don't even think about roof mount------snow.
As has been said a re roof would be expensive...........
I really question the $4K difference from roof to ground mount . . . . . .That in itself raises --to me-- a red flag about that installer.


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## TnAndy (Sep 15, 2005)

Well, the thing about a POLE is you have to have a pretty good hole dug, and then pour a bunch of this stuff in the hole, because you have quite a sail area going on with the array.....










It basically takes the same amount of racking to mount the panels on as a roof mount, but you to put in the pole, the concrete, and some "sub-rack" for the rack to mount to. All that is custom metal work and if your installer doesn't DO custom metal work, he has to pay to get it done. 5kw is something like 20 panels, so I'd be inclined to think it would be at least 2 poles, doubling all of that. 

So,Yeah, I could see 4grand in a couple of them, depending on the situation (which has not been disclosed). In fact, if it were like mine, I'm not sure 4 grand would GET me to do it AND guarantee it wouldn't fly away in the wind.

As you can see from the photo above, I'd done poles. Reason I did it was my roof is too well shaded on the south face, and I'm NOT cutting out my natural air conditioning to install solar on it. So I went up on the hill behind the house and did all my solar. (which also made pumping the concrete necessary )

Another reason I did poles (did 3 of them with 10 panels per pole ) is I did tracking mounts initially. As panels got cheaper, and maintenance on the trackers got worse, I fell completely out of love with tracking systems, so my NEXT 5kw (20 panels) went on a much more simple system of ground mounted pipe supports ( 1.5" pipe ), and 3/16" x 2" galvanized angle for my racking that the panels mount directly to. THAT system is fairly cheap, and also eliminates expensive commercially made racking.



















Concrete consisted only of a few bags of pre-mix stuff poured around the pipe bases. Installation (another factor to consider in pole mounting....you got to get UP there to mount stuff, and there ain't NOTHING to stand on). I welded the 2" angle straight to the pipe. Much easier than maneuvering a big hunk of pipe in place, then climbing up on NOTHING to mount the racking.

(On my last pole, I actually had to build a temporary wood scafold to work off.....or course, I was recovering from a triple bypass....ahahahaa)













I did a bigger version of my ground mounts for a guy this past summer....he was a 40 panel 10kw system. We had to use more expensive 2" pipe since it went up 3 panels, and it was quite high in the back due to that, plus the ground sloped down and away to the North.....exact opposite of mine. He didn't have the room to spread out sideways like I did. So site conditions DO dictate a lot of the cost of doing stuff. The top horizontal angle on this was nearly 18' in the air. Just hauling panels up to that last row was a job.

He probably had 5-6k in this mount by the time he paid 2 of us to build it. We poured about 6yds of concrete around the pipes. And he did have a mini-ex and Bobcat on site for us to use, otherwise there would have also been equipment costs to add to it.


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## Jokarva (Jan 17, 2010)

Roof redone with 50 yr shingles in 2011, but the plywood is 1992 original. Not steep at all, any snow would have to be raked off. We are good with paying for maintenance , but not diy-ing it...not the big stuff anyway.

He warned the ground mount would be more expensive, we didn't realize it would be quite that much. But they would be on an awkward piece of land that has lots of big rocks, so that may be why.

Appreciate the input!


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## Jokarva (Jan 17, 2010)

The pole mount system would be two poles with 9 panels each, rated to 90mph since we get some big wind here. Adjustable to track the sun seasonally. Also a fair distance from the house, so trenching and wire are adding to the cost.

I'm not thrilled with the idea of attaching anything to the roof, esp since DH is on it so often. But the convenience of the installation was winning me over...guess I'll have to get over it.


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