To be fair, and far be it from me to defend insurance companies, but putting hundreds of lbs of extra weight on the roof of am old house that was probably barely on the edge of able to support the snow load may be where the issue lies.
I’ve stood on roofs where it can barely hold me up and feel it deflecting enough to make me nervous, even stepping on the places supported by rafters. A lot of these installers don’t give a fuck what the structure is that they’re using.
Ground mounts take up space but don’t have these issues.
I’m of the opinion that if a roof can’t support a few extra hundred pounds, the entire house is compromised.
Wet snow can add thousands of pounds of weight to a roof, so a solar panel (which can actually deflect a lot of heavy snow), really should be no problem at all.
That said, it’s incredibly disappointing that home insurance companies are causing difficulties for people who want to adopt greener tech.
Funny thing is, CAA (the company mentioned in the article) will insure e-bikes without any issues (a fire risk in any home), but state that the risks of these solar panels would be problematic? I think they’re just picking and choosing what they want to cover, without any evidence supporting their position.
To be fair, and far be it from me to defend insurance companies, but putting hundreds of lbs of extra weight on the roof of am old house that was probably barely on the edge of able to support the snow load may be where the issue lies.
I’ve stood on roofs where it can barely hold me up and feel it deflecting enough to make me nervous, even stepping on the places supported by rafters. A lot of these installers don’t give a fuck what the structure is that they’re using.
Ground mounts take up space but don’t have these issues.
I’m of the opinion that if a roof can’t support a few extra hundred pounds, the entire house is compromised.
Wet snow can add thousands of pounds of weight to a roof, so a solar panel (which can actually deflect a lot of heavy snow), really should be no problem at all.
That said, it’s incredibly disappointing that home insurance companies are causing difficulties for people who want to adopt greener tech.
Funny thing is, CAA (the company mentioned in the article) will insure e-bikes without any issues (a fire risk in any home), but state that the risks of these solar panels would be problematic? I think they’re just picking and choosing what they want to cover, without any evidence supporting their position.