Hi Kirk, We have gone to the 9 standoffs as they give us about 12 to bottom of modules with the Unirac rails and L feet to the flat top standoffs. We havent, knock on wood, had any squirrel damage to date on our systems with the tall standoffs. I like the extra cooling for the modules and the building below the array this provides, along with enough room to actually crawl under the array to do any maintenance if that becomes necessary. Unirac makes the standoffs up to 12 tall. I wonder if the squirrels like a tight space to crawl into and the more open 12 space helps keep them away.
This wont help on the arrays in question but it might be the ticket moving forward. Using ¼ hardware cloth around the perimeter of the array ought to keep them out although we havent had to resort to this. Sincerely, Chris Worcester NABCEP Certified PV Installer Phone: 530-582-4503 Fax: 530-582-4603 www.solarwindworks.com <http://www.solarwindworks.com/> ch...@solarwindworks.com "Proven Energy Solutions" From: re-wrenches-boun...@lists.re-wrenches.org [mailto:re-wrenches-boun...@lists.re-wrenches.org] On Behalf Of Kirk Herander, VSE Sent: Friday, May 15, 2009 10:20 AM To: 'RE-wrenches' Subject: [RE-wrenches] squirrel problems I just had to rewire an array because of squirrel damage. They chewed the insulation off of the use-2 on almost every panel within 2 inches of the j-box. This was discovered because the inverter GFI kept intermittently tripping, so one of the uninsulated positive leads must have shorted to the grounded array frame, verified by measurements and arcing. At least the GFI did its job ... We found a massive nest underneath the array. And I just got another call from a customer with the same issue, although we dont know yet if damage has happened. Both these arrays are mounted on Unirac Solarmount, parallel to and stood off from the roof about 6 inches. Im thinking of skirting the perimeter of the array with a metal mesh of some sort. Any other ideas? Thanks. Most likely they will come back if I do nothing. Kirk Herander Vermont Solar Engineering 802.863.1202 NABCEP(tm) Certified Solar Installer NYSERDA-eligible Installer VT Solar Incentive Program Partner
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