Snow barrier - Tesla panels

[smaster553]

My Tesla maintenance crew was here to clean the panels from install (turned out the scratches were just panels with marked), and when I mentioned them "snow avalanches" this past winter, he showed me this part, and said Tesla can install these if you ask.

Has anyone got them and do they work. How to request an install of these.

He said they go staggered, 2 on each panel first row, then 1x on second row, and then 2x on third row till the last row.

 

[cobra]

I've been wondering about snow and the slide off as well... seems like a trade off, wouldn't these retain snow on the panels rather than letting them self clear, reducing production?

 

[MorrisonHiker]

My Tesla maintenance crew was here to clean the panels from install (turned out the scratches were just panels with marked), and when I mentioned them "snow avalanches" this past winter, he showed me this part, and said Tesla can install these if you ask.

Has anyone got them and do they work. How to request an install of these.

He said they go staggered, 2 on each panel first row, then 1x on second row, and then 2x on third row till the last row.

Be aware that if you have these installed, it could greatly reduce your solar generation due to snow cover. We actually prefer to have the snow slide off as it means we can start generating solar energy much quicker, sometimes within hours and usually within a day of the snow stopping. If we had these installed, it could take several more days or even weeks before our solar production would be back to normal.

We don't have any solar panels installed above any doors or walkways. The snow from the panels on our garages slides off onto the driveway. While we do have to shovel it, we are never just standing or walking there so we don't have to worry about snow sliding off the roof. Snow from the main part of the house slides off and lands on decorative rock surrounding the house, so again, we never have to worry about it hitting anyone or breaking anything.

We actually look forward to the mini-avalanches as it saves us the work of clearing the panels. We've seen our solar production jump from <1 kW to over 5 kW within minutes of the snow sliding off the panels that we can't easily access via our roof rake.

 

[smaster553]

Be aware that if you have these installed, it could greatly reduce your solar generation due to snow cover. We actually prefer to have the snow slide off as it means we can start generating solar energy much quicker, sometimes within hours and usually within a day of the snow stopping. If we had these installed, it could take several more days or even weeks before our solar production would be back to normal.

We don't have any solar panels installed above any doors or walkways. The snow from the panels on our garages slides off onto the driveway. While we do have to shovel it, we are never just standing or walking there so we don't have to worry about snow sliding off the roof. Snow from the main part of the house slides off and lands on decorative rock surrounding the house, so again, we never have to worry about it hitting anyone or breaking anything.

We actually look forward to the mini-avalanches as it saves us the work of clearing the panels. We've seen our solar production jump from <1 kW to over 5 kW within minutes of the snow sliding off the panels that we can't easily access via our roof rake.

Yeah understand that, not worried for my front of the home (which slides off on the driveway) but I am worried on the back of the home, where the snow slides to the lower roof. Last two times when it did, it falls so fast and as a block that it shakes the whole house.

I have to take a decision on breaking my lower roof or lower production for some days.

See picture of the back of the house roof. The first picture is the mound of snow fallen on the lower roof.

 

[MorrisonHiker]

Yeah understand that, not worried for my front of the home (which slides off on the driveway) but I am worried on the back of the home, where the snow slides to the lower roof. Last two times when it did, it falls so fast and as a block that it shakes the whole house.

I have to take a decision on breaking my lower roof or lower production for some days.

See picture of the back of the house roof. The first picture is the mound of snow fallen on the lower roof.

Fortunately when our snow falls off, there are no lower roofs to be concerned about. We had a 2 foot snowfall a couple of weeks back and after removing the snow along the gutter, we had about 500 cubic feet of snow slide off 20 minutes later. We noticed an interesting layer in the snow that I haven't really seen before. Turns out it a layer of dust from Mexico!

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