Solar Panel mounting system and installation
A solar panel mounting system having a support, a railing and a clamp by utilizing all the components made with the metal structural members available in the market without resorting to a special fabrication or extrusion for saving material costs. It also saves labor for installation. The plurality of supports are screw connected to the roof rafters to accommodate the solar panels. The plurality of rails are placed on the supports and screw connected at job site. The plurality of clamps are slid inside the rail tube from the ends of rails to proper locations for tightening the solar panels by plurality of clips.
This invention relates to a mounting system with low cost and easy installation of solar panels on the roof of a building.
DESCRIPTION OF THE RELEVANT ARTA great effort has been taking place in research and development of solar energy systems to generate electricity at a higher efficiency and a lower cost in recent years. The progress has been impressive. There are varieties of mounting systems in the market today. Most of them are made of special fabricated or extruded metals which are relatively expensive and time consuming to install. They resulted in a high percentage of the entire system costs. Technical labor to install the system on the roof under hot sun is difficult to find and expensive. This invention is to utilize the existing metal structural members in construction industry to reduce the material cost and to simplify the installation to save labor cost.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONA general object of this invention is to utilize the existing metal structural components with simple supporting and clamping devices to save the cost of materials. Another object of this invention is to simplify the installation of the system to save the labor costs. According to the present invention a supporting device is prefabricated with pre-drilled screw holes on the base plate for screws with waterproof gasket to fasten the support to the roof rafter. Liquid washer is used at the screw locations to further insure the water-proofing. A circular metal tube as support is weld connected to a base plate at the middle at the bottom, also weld connected to a rail holder with pre-drilled holes on the top. The rail is screw connected to the rail holder through the pre-drilled holes on the rail holder. A threaded rod placed inside the rail extended from the bottom of the rail to above the solar panels is weld attached with a square holding plate right below the top side of rail and another square plate as clip above the solar panels to clamp down the solar panels by a nut on the top. The solar panels are thus well connected to the roof structures.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of the specifications, illustrate preferred embodiments of the invention, and together with the description serve to explain the principles of the invention.
Reference is now made in detail to the present preferred embodiments of the invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals indicate like elements throughout the several views.
With the rapid increase in the use of solar panels on the roof of buildings to generate electricity in recent years, various mounting systems have been created to install the solar panels. The cost of materials is relatively expensive because they are made of specially fabricated or extruded metals. This invention creates new simplified method by the utilization or modification of the existing structural members widely used in today's construction industry. The installation of the system is also simplified to save the labor costs. The support as illustrated in
The circular tube 32 can be cut from a regular metal pipe, such as an 1 inch diameter by 1/8 inch wall thickness aluminum pipe for example. Its height depends on the needs for roof drain and ventilation underneath the solar panels 6. Normally 2 inches to 6 inches is sufficient for applications. The top of the circular tube 32 can be cut flat as shown on
Rail 4 as shown on
Threaded rod 51 as shown on
The present invention includes a method of installing the mounting system. The plurality of shop prefabricated supports 4 are screw connected to the plurality of roof rafters 1. The plurality of supports 3 are placed at staggered locations for each row of solar panels 6 as shown on
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications can be made to the mounting system of the instant invention without departing from the scope of spirit of the invention, and it is intended that the present invention covers modifications and variations of the mounting system provided they come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents.
Claims
1. A mounting system comprising:
- a plurality of supports fastening to the plurality of roof rafters;
- a plurality of rails fasten to the plurality of supports to support solar panels;
- a plurality of clamp threaded rods inserted inside the rail tube and fasten the plurality of solar panels with clips.
2. The mounting system as set forth in claim 1, with a support consists a circular tube weld connected to a base plate at the bottom and a rail holder on the top with pre-drilled screw holes at the base plate for screw connecting to the roof rafters, also pre-drilled screw holes at the rail holder for screw connecting to the rail. All of the materials are cut from existing metal structural members in the market.
3. The mounting system as set forth in claim 1, with the supporting circular tube can be cut sloped to have the solar panels tilt toward the sun.
4. The mounting system as set forth in claim 1, with a rail cut a slot on the top for supporting solar panels and the slot to guide plurality of clamps to proper locations to clamp the solar panels to the rail, the metal rail is available in the market as standard metal structural members.
5. The mounting system as set forth in claim 1, with a clamp consists of a threaded rod, a square holding plate weld connected to the threaded rod and clip on the top of the solar panels to tie down the solar panels. All of the materials are available in the market as metal structural members
6. The mounting system as set forth in claim 1, with the threaded rod sitting on the upper face of the lower side of rail to have the clamp system stay at a proper height for fastening.
7. The mounting system as set forth in claim 1, with a square holding plate welded to the threaded rod at the lower face of the top side of rail to prevent from spinning when tightening the nut above the solar panels.
8. The mounting system as set forth in claim 1, with a square holding plate welded to the threaded rod at the lower face of the top side of rail to hold the solar panels by clips above.
9. The mounting system as set forth in claim 1, with the clip for the end panel is cut from a rectangular metal tube in two identical pieces.
10. A method for installing the mounting system, comprising the steps of
- fastening a plurality of supports to the roof rafters;
- fastening a plurality of rails to the plurality of supports;
- connecting the solar panels to the rails with a plurality of clamps.
11. The method of installing a mounting system, as set forth in claim 6, uses gasket screws with further water-proofing by placing liquid washer at the screw locations to fasten the supports to the roof rafters..
12. The method of installing mounting system, as set forth in claim 6, places rail on supports prior to fasten the supports to roof rafters to ensure a proper alignment of the supports.
13. The method of installing mounting system, as set forth in claim 6, places supports at staggered locations for each row of solar panel to ensure a proper load distribution to the rafters.
14. The method of installing a mounting system, as set forth in claim 6, screw connected to the rail at job site to ensure the evenness of the rail on an inevitable small unevenness of the roof surface.
15. The method of installing a mounting system, as set forth in claim 6, provides the space between solar panels at a distance of threaded rod diameter.
Type: Application
Filed: Feb 8, 2010
Publication Date: Aug 11, 2011
Inventor: Wen Y. Chung (Sarasota, FL)
Application Number: 12/658,510
International Classification: E04D 13/18 (20060101); E04B 1/38 (20060101);