Most solar systems are installed on a roof of a house or a building. The exception are solar farms or ground-mounted solar installations but these are rare, and usually 100% commercial solar systems. The reason most solar systems are installed on a roof is because of limited space – especially in the urban environment.

Roofs on the other hand represent significant unused space, and are usually not shaded by trees, nearby buildings, etc – they are the highest point of a building with great sun exposure, which makes them perfect to install solar panels on.

In this article we will discuss solar roofing systems, which integrate roofing materials with solar PV panels or solar thermal systems. Although most roof-mounted solar systems are installed on top of existing roof – be it an asphalt shingles roof or any type of flat roof – these solar systems are not integrated into the roofing material, and therefore are not solar roofs.

What is solar roofing? Roof-integrated solar systems explained.

Solar roofing is a final product which integrates a Solar Panel with the roofing material suitable for either sloped or flat roof. The solar panels used in solar roofing are usually thin-film photovoltaic laminates. Most popular Solar PV laminates commercially used today, are the Unisolar thin-film PV panels.

Unisolar thin-film PV laminates were originally designed to fit into and be integrated with standing seam metal roof panels. Unisolar panels are 15.5 inches wide and fit perfectly into a 16″ standing seam panels, and are attached or laminated with special butyl adhesive that is on the back of each Uni-solar PV panel.

As time progressed and solar integrators were having flat roof leak repair issues with solar systems they installed on flat commercial roofs. After they installed solar mounting racks and attached them to the roof deck, the fasteners would start leaking after a while. Roofing manufacturers answered this issue with different versions of flat roofing materials that integrated Unisolar PV panels – one such system is IB Solar Roof. There are many types of both solar metal roofs and solar flat roofs, using solar PV panels from various manufacturers (though as I said, most do use Unisolar PV laminates).

In this article we will discuss different types of solar roofing systems such as Solar Metal Roofing, Solar Flat Roofs, and Solar Shingles that get integrated with regular asphalt shingles roofs.

Solar Metal Roofing

Most common type of solar metal roofing is the standing seam metal roof with integrated Unisolar PV laminates. Unisolar PV laminates were initially designed to fit in the pan of standing seam panels, with the connection terminals concealed by the ridge cap. Because the connectors or terminals of these PV panels are not UV stable they need to be hidden from the sun, while the rest of the panel is of course exposed to the sun to generate solar electricity.

The benefits of standing seam solar metal roofing include fast installation, easy troubleshooting, lifetime leak free roof performance, and in US, you can get the 30% solar tax credit for the metal roof also, as it is a part of the solar system.

Solar Metal Shingles

Another type of solar metal roofing would be the solar metal shingles roofing. The concept is similar to solar standing seam roofing, but since metal shingles are much smaller, the solar PV laminates have to be adjusted to the size of the shingle. Also, all the terminals must be connected during the installation – if you miss just one, the circle will be broken ans the solar system will not work. Imagine finding the broken link when you have hundreds of not thousands of metal shingles to take of to find on broken connection.

Price-wise, I think that standing seam solar metal roofing is much more viable, as there is substantially less installation labor involved and much less potential troubleshooting, if something goes wrong. Imagine hiring a solar integrator and a professional metal roofer at $75-100 per hour – each – to find whats wrong with your solar metal shingles roof. Even if everything is peachy, the amount of time that will be used to install solar metal shingles is much more than that of solar standing seam roof. The total solar system price will be significantly higher just from all that extra labor.

Bottom line, the choice of solar metal roofing system that you decide to use will be more of a personal preference. Both will work great when professionally installed, and will last a very long time.

Solar Flat Roofing

Main reason for flat roofing materials manufacturers to begin developing solar flat roofing systems was to A) eliminate roof leaks associated with flat-roof solar installations, and B) sell more flat roofing materials, which is their main business after all.

Solar Flat Roofing is a great concept, but has some limitations. First, the angle on the solar panels is flat, so these solar panels will not catch as much sun light as tilted or sloped solar panels. Second, solar flat roofs will be much more effective in warm climates vs. colder northern climates such as New England, as in the winter, flat roofs are completely covered with snow and sunlight does not get through to the solar panels.

That said, the benefits of solar flat roofs far outweigh the drawbacks of solar flat roofs in colder climates. The solar PV panels that are integrated into the roofing membrane, eliminates 99% of roof penetrations, considerably reduces the wight of the solar system and the total solar system price. Not only the solar panels prices are lower for roof-integrated solar systems, you also eliminate the entire rack-mounting system (which costs about $1 per watt of your solar system) – and that is not small beans – you will save about 10-15% off your total solar system cost. Also since the roof solar system weighs much less than regular solar panels mounted on racks, you also eliminate substantial wight, and your building construction costs will be much lees, because you can reduce roof load requirements.

Solar Shingles

Solar shingles are very similar to solar metal shingles described above. The main difference is that they are designed to work with 3-tab or architectural asphalt shingles instead of a metal roofing shingles.

Although the solar shingles may seem as a great concept, please consider the following factor which make them not such a viable option when it comes to solar roofing. Solar Shingles are rather expensive… But all solar is expensive. Biggest problem with solar shingles in my opinion (roofer’s point of view that is) is following:

Solar shingles, just like metal solar shingles, take very long time to install, as each shingle must be connected to the rest of the solar system in series. However, unlike solar metal roofing shingles, there is no room to conceal the terminals under the shingle, so all connections must take place inside the attic space. Holes must be pre-drilled for each shingle, and terminals are fed inside the attic where they are connected.

This slows down the installation process significantly and usually you cannot finish this in one day. If it starts to rain, your roof is toast. There are too many penetrations under solar shingles, and it is very easy for water to get in. Of course there are ways to prevent roof from leaking even if it rains and roof is not finished. You can run the last row of shingles and overlap it with roof underlayment, which will prevent roof leak. Still this makes the total job that much more complicated and costly.

One more thing to consider is the fact that asphalt shingles only last about 15 years and will have to be replace down the road, where as a metal roof will last pretty much forever, or at least a lifetime of your house.

Conclusion: Pros and cons of solar roofing

As you can see, there are many options for solar roofs. Most are lifetime and and will work great. Some will last not so long (read asphalt roof shingles). In general the benefit of solar roofing is that you install it once and forget about it – there is no maintenance, no roof repair issues, no hassle.

On the other hand, solar roofing is more expensive as you are not only buying a new solar system, you are also getting a new roof, and in case of a metal roof, it is pretty expensive – certainly more expensive than asphalt shingles roofing. Even with 30% federal tax credit and some local solar rebates, it is a substantial investment up front. However in the long run it will pay for itself, with electricity generation and lack of roof and interior repairs.

Solar Roofing Resources

Solar System Guide – everything you need top know when designing a residential Solar PV system – positioning of your roof toward the sun, shading and angles of your solar panels, choosing the solar panels and inverter, etc.

Metal Roofing Materials – learn about different metal roof types and which metal is better to use – steel, aluminum, copper, zinc, etc., as well as learn more about metal roofing prices.

Massachusetts is our home state and here is where we install majority of our roofs (with Connecticut being in second place). In Massachusetts, roofing market is very different, depending on location, and although there are a lot more sloped roofs, not only in Mass., but in the rest of the country, we still install more Flat roofs than Metal roofs. As for geographic location of your home in Massachusetts, up north, toward the New Hampshire border, roofs are more prone to Ice Dam roof leaks and damages than houses located in the southern MA.

Although Massachusetts is not a very big state, the your location can have a dramatic effect on the amount of snow fall in the winter, and thus your chances of having Ice dams and and related roof leaks. For example on the same day, an average roof in Sharon or Norwood will have 1-2 inches of ice alone the eaves, whereas an average roof in Lowell will have 5+ inches of ice build-up. If you go further north of south away from Boston the amount of annual snow accumulation and ice dams will increase or decrease respectively.

Why do I mention Ice dams and roof leaks in the intorductory part? It’s simple – most commercial roofs are flat, and are not prone to ice dams, though they have their own list of problems that I will discuss bellow. Residential roofs on the other hand are the ones mostly affected by ice dams. These are both sloped roofs and low-slope / flat roof, and we have the best and longest lasting solutions for both - Metal Roofing for sloped roofs and IB Roof for low slope flat roofs, such as shed dormer roofs, and completely flat roofs.

Bellow we will give you a quick overview of most recent and some older roof installations that we’ve completed in Mass. Keep in mind that these are not the complete job profiles. Complete job overviews will be posted separately, as time permits us to write them. In the overviews bellow I will provide basic information about each roof, accompanied by a few pictures and short description of roof installation process and challenges we had to face.

Before we go into job reviews, here are a few additional articles you may find useful, when choosing a roof product for your home and a roofing contractor to install it:

How to prevent Ice Dams – comprehensive guide on which focuses on the root cause of Ice dams which is usually a combination of poor ventilation and and inadequate insulation in the attic space or between roof rafters. This guide will help homeowners minimize heat leaks in the attic, improve ventilation and eliminate the effects of ice dam leaks by installing a Metal Roof or an IB low-slope roofing membrane.

Low-slope roofs – Overview of common problems associated with low slope residential roof such as shed dormers or roof on most cape-style homes located in the norther MA. Common issues with such roofs include rotten roof decking / rafters and Ice-dams. Since this roofs are prone to Ice dam leaks, most of the rot damage is an effect of ice dams and although many roofing contractors will insist that using Ice and Water shield will do the trick, our experience shows that most of the time I&W fails to protect the roof even if entire roof deck is covered in Ice and Water. Therefore we believe that best solution for permanent protection of low-slope roofs and eliminating ice dams is the use of metal roof of IB flat roofing membrane in conjunction with solving ventilation/insulation issues described in the article above.

Roofs we installed in Massachusetts:

Low slope shed dormer roof in Westminster, MA

This roof we installed in early May of 2009. The house is located in heavily wooded are of central Mass, just north of mount Wachusett. Westminster, MA is located along Rt. 2, and not very far from New Hampshire border. These areas get major snow falls in the winter, together with colder temperatures than those in Boston and ice dams are a major problem in Westminster, even for high slope roofs. Low slope roofs such as the one we replaced there, are very likely to have ice dam leaks and other problems such as rotten roof deck, wet insulation, and mold.

The roof has been leaking for some time around the chimney in the center of the roof and was patched many times with tar, but rather unsuccessfully. Also, due to Ice Dams and roof leaks caused by ice formation along the roof eaves, the home owner installed heating cables to stop the Ice dam leaks. These however did not help either and after one more unsuccessful roof repair, home owner decided to get an IB roof installed.

The home owner and their cousin who is a roofer in NH, did the roof tear-off and replaced all rotten plywood decking, to reduce the cost of roof installation, while we installed the roof itself, insulation, chimney flashing, ridge vent and snow guards (snow retention system).

Note – even though before we installed IB roof, home owner’s main concern was to get ice and snow off the roof. After IB roof was installed, our concern was that due to roof’s pitch, which was about 3 in 12″, the snow and Ice would just slide off the roof in a large pile, crushing down onto deck and perch bellow it. Also there was a grill on the deck which was not movable since it was tied to a gas line.

The chimney flashing, which may seem to take not to much time, actually took about 6-7 hours to properly flash. The reason ot turned out to be so lime consuming it that it is located in the center and separates the ridge vent as well as creeping onto another side of the roof. Due to its position, size and the way IB roof is installed it not only took long to work around, but also slowed down the rest of roof installation. Because the the ridge vent buts into the chimney, we had to make sure that not only ridge vent is raised an inch off the roof level to prevent the wind-driven rain from leaking into the house, but also that it is completely tied to the roof, and flashed up the chimney. Once the chimney flashing was installed and counter flashing reglet had to bi installed as well.

All in all it took us 3 days to install this roof, though 3rd day was rather short. What really slowed us down, was the first heat wave of that spring and unrealistic number of bugs / flies / mosquitoes in this wooded / swampy area of central Mass.

Roofing membrane used: 50 mil mechanically attached IB PVC flat roofing system.

Insulation used: 1/2″ fan-fold Styrofoam insulation with clear plastic / metal facing.

Total roof square footage: Approximately 500 sq. ft.

Standing seam metal roof in Wayland, MA.

Right after the roof in Westminster was installed, we started getting ready for a big metal roofing project, which used .032 Aluminum standing seam metal roof in 1 3/4″ snap lock profile with 16″ wide pan and stiffening ribs. This roof took about two weeks to install between tear-off of old asphalt shingles, siding removal, replacement of rotten wood replacement, delays with material shipments and wrong type of flashing being delivered.

Actually one of the delays happened because our supplier ran out of Grey aluminum coil after 80 % of roofing panels were rolled out of their mobile standing seam roll-forming machine, which was based in Manchester, NH. As the supplier received more aluminum coil 3 dais later the send a different truck, from New London, CT. As that truck arrived and rolled off the first test panel, just out of curiosity I decided to compare first batch to the second one. It turned out that the machine on the New London truck was set up to be 1/8″ wider than Manchester truck. This, over the course of 23 panels gave us an extra 3″ of panel which converted to two extra panels – 1 1/2″ wide – on either side of the rear roof section and exactly 23 panels on the front. We had to send the truck back and wait for the Manchester, NH truck to deliver and roll out the same coil. Even the guys working for the supplier were not aware if this mismatch between the two machines.

In the end the Manchester truck delivered the right-width panels and we were able to finish the jobs without any more delays. The homeowner – Glenn – was also very concerned with snow and ice falling off the roof and damaging the gutters bellow, so we installed a commercial-grade double rail snow retention system to eliminate the possibility of snow falls form the roof.

We already posted a full review of this roof installation on our blog, a few months back, so if you want to know more details, read the standing seam metal roof in Wayland, MA job profile.

Rubber roof in Boston, MA.

In August of 2009 we’ve completed a rather small, but very tricky and complicated flat roof installation in Boston, on one of the traditional Boston-style homes/buildings, which you can see all alogn Mass. ave, Comm. ave as well as Blue Hills avenue, on which this house is located. It was originally a EPDM rubber roof, which had over 50 percent of seams separated due to adhesive failure. The two-tower wood design made this roof much more difficult to repair and our client – Jim – chose to eliminate the hassles of frequent roof repairs and decided to have an 80-mil IB roof installed.

Although this should have been a pretty much straight-forward roof replacement, with rubber tear-off performed first and a new IB roof installed, I sensed that it will not be an easy job. Until we opened up the roof I could not say for sure what obstacles we’re going to face, but once we did remove the rubber, we found that entire length of the masonry parapet wall was damaged by water and poor quality of brick mortar. We also found that we would have to rebuild the parapet walls much as 4 layers of brick deep.

Because a chose a careful approach to the rubber removal, by only pulling back the rubber membrane off the parapet wall, and not cutting it, we were able to do entire brick repair work and roof preparation, while having the roof watertight each night with original rubber membrane.

Once all brick repair war was complete and mortar had sufficient time to cure, we installed a 2×8 pressure treated perimeter wood nailer to which IB wall flashing and drip edge would be attached. Only on the last day did we remove the whole rubber roof, installed new insulation and laid dawn the new, mechanically attached IB PVC flat roofing membrane.

We had to come back one more time to install the new gutter and downspouts, IB two-way membrane vents and 9″ IB attic vents over specially cut holes in the roof deck. These attic vents were installed to vent out the moisture that accumulated in the small attic space when the old rubber roof was leaking. Once in place these oversize vents will eventually dry out the attic and prevent any future mold growth.

Now Jim can enjoy his watertight roof and get sun baths sitting in his beach chair on the roof of his home, and not worry about damage to membrane – he chose a very durable, commercial grade 80-mil IB roof. He will also enjoy a cooler home, due to IB cool roofing features.

You can read the complete job profile about this Flat roof in Boston, MA on our Cool Roofing Blog.

Flat roof in Framingham, MA

One of the more recent roofs we’ve installed was in Framingham, MA, where we installed an IB roof on yet another shed dormer roof for Ed Kelly – a high-end remodeling contractor out of Northborough, MA. The builder had his crew remove old asphalt shingles off this roof an replace most of the old decking with new 3/4" plywood. We were there to install just the membrane and flash it 2 feet up the sloped roof.

During my conversation with Ed (builder), he told me me why he chose the seemingly more expensive IB roof over a cheaper rubber EPDM membrane. His main reason was the IB’s hot-air welded seams, and hassle free roof performance. Before, Ed would use a rubber roof on a few of his projects, end all but one of them leaked due to problems with seams, and required expensive rubber roof repair. Ed decided to end his flat roofing nightmares and constant rubber roof leaks, and went with IB roof.

The entire job took us one day to complete. The roof was ready to start, as we arrived to the job site in the morning, and before dark we packed our tools and were ready to leave, as the roof was all done. The roofing crew which did the tear off and deck replacement was putting the new asphalt shingles and aluminum fascia trim back on, as we were driving away.

Roofing material: 50 mil white IB roof, mechanically attached.

Insulation: 1/2″ fan-fold Styrofoam.

Total roof size: Approximately 450 sq. ft.

Flat roof deck in Wellesley, MA

Just before the Framingham flat roof job described above, we did another job for Ed – an 80 mil IB roof that would be a water-proofing membrane for a roof deck over a garage being built as an addition to an already huge home in a very secluded area of Wellesley.

Once again, a complete job profile for this roof deck is already on our blog, so there is no point to rewrite it here – read the Wellesley, MA  flat roof deck installation overview.

Solar flat roof in Medford, MA

This job, was actually sponsored by Cool Flat Roof (us) and IB Roof Systems, as it was a non-profit project, competing in the 2009 Solar Decathlon competition, sponsored by the US DOE. We installed an IB roof on a Boston solar home with some help from the project volunteers and Architecture students from BAC and Tufts.

Once again, we have a complete coverage of the installation of the IB flat roof and the Solar PV panels on this roof - Solar roof installation in Boston, MA.

Low slope shed dormer roof in Hingham, MA

Yet another shed dormer roof and also with major ice dams problems and leaks. This roof was just a year old when we removed the old asphalt shingled, and installed a new 50 mil IB traditions roof with asphalt shingles pattern printed onto IB white roofing membrane. This roof was completely covered with Ice & water shield which failed miserably and forced homeowner to climb up the slippery ladder all winter long, sometimes two times a day, to brake off the ace along the roof edge.

Homeowner – Paul – tried everything, from sodium-filled socks above the skylights to heating cables – nothing seemed to help, as with lack of proper ventilation and inherent limitations of asphalt shingles, his roof was still leaking, as it faced north, and sun never shined over it in the winter.

Paul wanted a permanent solution to stop roof leaks and not a single roofing contractor that Paul contacted could explain to him how they would stop the leaks or promise that their roof will work. Some even offered to  install asphalt shingles with Ice & Water shield – Really? Paul already had shingles with Ice and Water and it was not working.

Initially, Paul contacted us about getting a metal roof installed on his house, but after examining the roof, I suggested ti install IB roof instead, and residential flat roofing solution form IB  - Traditions Classic seemed to be the best option as it combined all the benefits of IB roof with the classic look of architectural asphalt shingles printed onto the membrane. After a little decision making, Paul and his wife chose to go with a seamless one piece IB roof. In this case there would be zero possibility of ice dam leaks.

Now that Paul has a new IB Traditions roof, which is in effect a seamless, one piece blanket over entire roof, he and his wife won’t have to worry about roof leak and breaking ice off the roof any more.

With this, we conclude the first part of our Massachusetts job profiles list. We will update it as we have time to add more pictures and descriptions to each job, and will also add complete job profiles for each roof, when we have a chance.

Getting IB roof or a metal roof installed on your home in Massachusetts:

If your roof is leaking or you have Ice dams,and are tired of fighting with the ice, using heat cables, sodium-filled socks, raking your roof, and risking to fall of a ladder, you need to contact the low-slope roofing experts ( us ), request a free roofing price quote and schedule a roof inspection / estimate. You can also use our online roofing calculator to estimate your roof replacement cost and compare the roof prices of IB PVC membrane to Rubber roofing and Modified bitumen / Tar and gravel roofs.

As I’m writing this, the 2009 Solar Decathlon in Washington, DC is nearing its completion. Twenty teams from around the globe are competing to build the best Solar Home, judged in ten different categories, including: architecture, engineering, net metering, living comfort as well as others. This year, Massachusetts – home to some of the  greatest colleges and universities in the world – is represented by Team Boston - the joined efforts of Tufts, Boston Architecture College and a team of volunteers, all with the common goal to create green and sustainable home designs that could be readily available and affordable for actual home buyers and home builders. You can read my 2009 Solar Decathlon Review with pictures and videos I took there during Columbus Day weekend.

Cool Flat Roofs and IB Roof Systems are proud sponsors of Team Boston’s solar home.  We provided the project with IB flat roofing materials (provided by IB Roof Systems) and a professional installation, as well as last minute roof design changes, and modifications to roof penetration placement and drainage setup.

The Boston solar home construction is all finished, the Solar Decathlon competition is almost over – the houses will be disassembled and and transported to their final placements. Team Boston solar home has already found its buyer in Cape Cod, where it will be available for public tours. Building this home was a bit less glamorous, and here I will tell you about our part – the installation of a flat roof.

Roof Design:

The roof was designed to allow for house to be transported in 3 sections, and to host 3 rows of solar panels, as well as collect all rain water. The house design team had to work really hard to make all three major requirements work together. The roof and the house were separated into 3 different sections, with separating parapet wall inside and around the perimeter. To avoid roof penetrations and as a result – roof leaks, the solar PV and hot-water racking systems had to be placed on top of parapet walls – both interior and exterior.

The roof drains and all roof penetrations had to be placed so they would be away from future solar system racking steel beams. The roof itself was designed so that all water in each section, would run toward the roof drain, with an overflow scuppers as back-up drains.

We utilized the 1/4″ (1/4″ rise to 1′ run) tapered insulation system, which would go from 1″ at the lowest spot to 5″ at the highest point. The roof drains were place at the lowest points of each roof section, while all roof penetrations were moved to the highest points on the roof.

Roofing Material: Because of multiple inside corners and roof penetrations, IB Flat Roofing PVC membrane was chosen and the best roofing system for the job, as it allows for all roof flashing components to be hot-air welded together, which eliminates a possibility of roof leaks due to seam failures. Even if the roof would be damaged during the construction process (there was constant foot traffic on the roof, after we finished installing it – plumbers, electricians and Solar PV installers), it would be easy to repair – as easy as welding a patch over damaged area – a one minute repair.

IB Flat Roof Installation – Day 1

Due to scheduling and timing matters, all construction on Boston Solar Home was performed on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays of each week. We started installing our roof on a Sunday, after 2 days of rain, and as we pulled up to the construction site at Tufts in Medford, MA, it was still drizzling, and the team members were vacuuming and pushing water off the roof. This was a challenge by itself. After pulling the tarps off the roof, there were about 4 inches of rain water trapped between parapet walls of the roof and tightly sealed moisture resistant roof decking. Water was slowly dripping inside the house, but a major part of it was still on the roof. Two holes were drilled through the roof sheeting in the overhang section, where the roof drains would soon be installed. The water quickly drained over the grass, but a third section of the roof had to be manually cleared of water with a wet vac and push-brooms.

Installing Roof Insulation: As we unloaded our tools and materials, the guys from team Boston, were finishing the roof drying process, the drizzle stopped and we were ready to start installing roof insulation – a tapered insulation system that would span between 1.5 and 5 inches. We used different thickness ISO insulation board, starting with 1″ at the bottom, and going up / leveling it off with tapered and straight insulation. All insulation was attached with heavy duty, corrosion resistant screws and plates. At the highest point the R-value of the insulation would be 30-R (6-r value per 1 inch of insulation). Additionally, there are approximately 12 inches of sprayed foam insulation between the rafters, which makes the roof of this solar home, super insulated and eliminates the weakest point in the house, and when it comes to heat loss, as most heat escapes through the roof.

Installing IB Roofing Membrane: Due to weather conditions, we had to start work late, and it was apparent that we would not finish the whole roof in one day – even with the help of about 6 architecture students from BAC, and Tom Paisley – a green builder from Middleboro, MA, who introduced me to people from Team Boston.

We were able to finish one section of the roof completely, including all the parapet wall flashing and inside corner detail, installed a temporary roof drain, as well as welded all the seams. Since the plumbing for the IB U-flow drains was not in place yet, we installed IB membrane drain liner, and fitted it into a temporary PVC pipe. On the second section of the roof, we only had time to lay down the field sheets of membrane and a drain liner, and left the parapet wall flashing and corners for next day.

IB Flat Roof Installation – Day 2

As we arrived to the job site the next morning, the sun was beaming down on us, and the temperature was nearing 95 degrees – there was not even a sign of rain from previous days.  I was so happy that the roofs we install are white and barely gain any heat form the sun – otherwise it would be near impossible to work in these weather conditions. Nevertheless, I went through at least a gallon of water that day.

Architecture students and volunteers were laying down the insulation as I jumped onto the roof, and started planning out the membrane layout, to minimize waste. Since IB Roof comes in 6 feet wide rolls, and the width of the roof sections was about 9-10 feet, there would be 2-3 feet of material I had to cut off. We would cut it in half, and use it for parapet wall flashing.

Once all insulation was in place, we could finish installing the IB Roofing membrane and welding all the seams to make the roof completely watertight. In total we had to flash 12 inside corners (and later, as we were doing the overflow drains, we had to install 6 outside corner flashings), 3 through-roof IB U-flow drains and 4 through roof penetrations: 1 for the bathroom vent and 3 others for Solar PV and Solar Hot Water hook-ups.

All seams were welded with the Swiss made Liester hot-air welding equipment which is a de facto standard in the thermoplastic roofing world. For long seams we used the Liester Triac Drive – an ultra portable semi-automatic welder which can make a life of a roofer much easier. When we need to weld a small section of a seam, the hand welders are perfect. But when it comes to longer seams, doing it by hand become, if not problematic, then very painful - literally. Hand welding can put a lot of stress on your wrists and that is why we invested heavily into automatic welding equipment.

Solar Home Roof installation video: Welding IB roof seams

One major obstacle we still had to solve was the the fact that Solar Home is built to be transportable in 3 sections. The IB roof membrane would have to be cut along the inside parapet walls, to take the house apart, and when the house is put together, it would have to be watertight, and preferably without having a roofer and hot air welding equipment on site. Although the parapet walls would be copped with aluminum parapet caps, it would not be a sufficient way to keep the house watertight and leaks free – maybe just for a short period. But the team could not afford to have roof leaks in the middle of Solar Decathlon competition or after. We had to figure out a way for the roof to be watertight not once, but every time the house is transported and put in place, without additional welding. This we took care of later, once the Solar PV and Hot Water panels rack system was installed.

We finished day two of roof installation as it was getting dark, and most architecture students had already left the job-site. Now we had to wait until the solar panels were ready to be installed.

IB Roof with Solar PV and Solar Hot Water panels – Day 3

Once the IB roof was installed and Boston Solar Home was watertight, we took a little break and concentrated on our everyday roof installation. In this time, the Team Boston was hard at work on the interior of the house as well as getting ready for the final stage of the roof installation – Solar PV and Solar Hot Water installation, which would use a Steel / Aluminum Racking systems bolted to the parapet walls.

By the time we got to the job site on the 3rd day of roof installation, the mounting racks were already in place and some Solar PV panels were also installed. We had to work around them and in some cases actually move the racking system and Solar Panels, so we could get into tight spaces.

We had to install all three IB u-flow drains (which due to their size did not fit between the solar racking system), pipe penetration flashings for exhaust pipe and solar electrical and plumbing hook-ups. We also had to install the over-flow drain scuppers and as I discussed before, we had to figure out a way for the house to be watertight after it was transported to Washington, DC fro the Solar Decathlon and to its future owners, preferably without roofer involvement.

We decided to weld a wide strip of IB membrane over parapet walls – one side would be welded while the other would remain not welded, but flipped over to the other section. This way the cut between house sections would always be watertight and with the addition of parapet caps, the wind driven water would never penetrate the roof. W also had to figure out how the “T” join of 3 house sections would work, and the overlapping joint covers were installed, each welded to its own section of the house.

As we finished installing all roof flashings, the house was all watertight and almost ready for the transportation to the Solar Village in Washington DC, for 2009 Solar Decathlon. There was still a lot of work to be done, like all the heating, interior, and other construction work, but our part was over. I did plan to volunteer some of my time to help team Boston with building this beautiful home, but as the busiest time of the roofing season rolled on, I could harly find time for my full time job. I did not see the Boston Solar Home until I actually went to DC for the Solar Decathlon, during the Columbus Day weekend.

Quick highlights of the Boston Solar Home:

• Size – approximately 800 sq. ft. Competition regulations limit solar home size to 800 sq. ft. and most contenders, except one, built their homes to maximum allotted size.
• Solar PV system size: 6.4 KW DC, with individual mini inverters to maximize electric output, and minimize shading losses.
• Wall insulation: 2 inches (13-r)  of ISO board with aluminum foil (more insulating value than regular ISO board) and 8 inches of in-wall insulation.
• Trombe wall – a liquid-filled solar thermal mass windows, that collect and store solar heat during the day and heat the house at night.
• Solar Hot Water – 5 hot water panels that provide heating and hot water for the house.

Because of size limitations, each team had to use the most efficient solar panels available on the market (not development products). This posed additional obstacles for the designers and builders, and forced the use of rack-mounting system to house solar panels. If the house was not limited to certain size, the use of IB Solar Wise PV system – the building integrated solar PV modules built by Uni-Solar, would greatly reduce the final cost of solar system and simplify the installation. IB SolarWise eliminates the need to use a rack mounting system as it is a thin-film solar system adhered to IB patented membrane – Solar Shield – which distributed the heat gain of solar panels and prevents delamination,  which is often the case when UniSolar panels are installed over rubber roofs of TPO single ply roofing systems.

Getting IB Roof and IB Solar PV systems installed in MA, CT and RI:

If you are interested in having IB PVC roofing membrane or IB SolarWise PV system installed on your home or business, feel free to fill out our online roofing estimate form to get free price quote. You can also use our interactive roofing price calculator to estimate the cost of your roof replacement and compare IB roof prices to those of EPDM Rubber, Modified Bitumen and Tar+Gravel roofs. We recently updated our calculator to account for smaller sized roofs, and to also include options for chimney or skylight flashing, parapet wall flashing and other roof penetrations.

You can check out the roofs that we have installed all over New England by looking at job profiles, which we regularly post for each state:

Flat roofs in Massachusetts

Flat roofs in Connecticut

Job profiles for RI and NH will be posted soon.

The word on the “roofing contractor street” is such that a large PVC roofing manufacturer has problems with their Roof-integrated Solar PV systems. Apparently, the way they designed and installed these solar roofs, the electrical wiring which  connects Solar PV panels to the inverter and essentially the Electric Grid, is overheating and poses serious risks of fire. Since this information is still in rumor stage, and I doubt there will be an official announcement or acknowledgment of these, I for many reasons cannot name the manufacturer, the specifics of the problems or the source. However, there is evidence that it is real. If you are a large roofing contractor in Boston, MA area or in the rest of New England, you are getting the roofing bid lists such as the Blue Book. We do not as large commercial and government roofing jobs are a little out of our league, and we get plenty of work without paying huge sums of money for these bid lists (it costs anywhere from $3000/year to get periodic updates). However, in the last 3 weeks I’ve been contacted twice by two different gentlemen from Suffolk Construction. Basically Suffolk is arguably the largest GC in Boston area with $1.57 Billion in sales in 2008, have over 800 employees and are rated #313 of America’s Largest Private Companies by Forbes.

The picture bellow, shows a Solar roof produced by IB roof systems. This roof does NOT have overheating problems, and is intended to demonstrate what Solar Roofing is.

In any case, the two gentlemen from Suffolk, asked me to bid a new job in the pipeline of roof bidding lists:  A 4,000 squares (400,000 sq. ft.) on the IRS building in Andover, MA, and also they wanted 500 KW solar PV system that would be roof integrated – essentially they were interested in out IB Solar Wise PV system which in some ways is similar to the one above, but without the wiring overheating of course The similarity is in the usage of the UniSolar Thin-Film PV laminates. Other than that, all other components of these Solar Roof systems are proprietary and are very different. So how are the two evens connected? It is my understanding that the Solar roof described above, was originally specified for this IRS roof, but because of the problems, they are looking for the one that works. Because IB SolarWise is about the only Solar Roof systems out there that does not have any problems with it, Suffolk contacted us on two occasions. Aside from the cable overheating and fire hazards, most other flat roofing manufacturers that wanted to use their roofs with UniSolar PV laminates, ran into problems of solar panels delaminating form the roofing membrane. IB Roofs took their time designing the IB SolarWise PV system, and developed a special membrane called IB Solar Shield which is designed to provide excellent adhesion between the PVC material use in IB roofs and the Butyl adhesive on the UniSolar pv laminates. This eliminates the potential of delamination that most (if not all) other roofing manufacturers are facing. The earlier version of IB SolarWise used the solar panels made by Open Energy of California. Later UniSolar panels were chosen as default integrated PV system because it allows for greater flexibility for the contractor, system designers and the customer.

Today’s IB SolarWise PV systems are made in the following way: IB takes 6×19′ Solar Shield membrane and placed 4 UniSolar 136 watt modules using a special process which insures the proper bond between two products. Then the whole IB Solar Wise module gets welded to the already installed IB Flat Roof. IB uses regular UniSolar modules with the connectors facing the outside of the module. Although this requires special housing to protect the connectors from UV rays, it eliminates the possibility of cable overheating as all wares are exposed to the air and are ventilated. This makes IB Solar Wise the best solar-integrated roofing PV system. If you are looking for more information about solar roofing in general or want to know if solar will work for you, we recommend that you read our Solar PV design & installation guide.

Electricity of the 21st century.

Do you know how your electricity is generated? For a long time I kind of knew, but was too lazy to actually ask my father, who is a physicist, what exactly is going on in the power plant. Now it boggles me to live with the fact that in our modern time when an all-inclusive communication and Internet device (iPhone, BlackBerry, etc.) is smaller than a deck of cards, we still use 19th century technology and basic principles to generate our electricity. Once you actually give this idea a thought, it becomes a shocking notion that our best minds were not able to create a better way to create electrical power, than to burn coal and natural gas – two most commonly used sources of energy to create electricity.

Just in case you were wandering, coal or gas is BURNED to heat up water which then becomes hot steam and drives the turbines. This is a basic principle and the actual process is more complicated, but even the “sophisticated” nuclear power plants work in the similar manner.

Note: I did know that electricity can be generated in the old fashion way, but I actually thought that there was some kind of a mechanism to directly convert energy stored in gas / coal / oil directly “into” electricity, instead of emulating the old steam-engine – oops… It is a shame that our 21st century society is still burning fossil fuels to make the turbine spin.

Aside from from the fact that we get our electricity the same way as before WW I, natural gas, oil and especially coal are extremely dirty fuels, emitting dangerous pollutants which affect our the environment in such a horrible  way that just a couple of generations from today, our children may not be able to enjoy the outdoors the same way we can today. I won’t even start about the climate change and global warming. On top of everything mentioned above, humanity is quickly approaching a world-wide energy crisis. Our oil reserves are getting depleted, and if you believe in “Peak Oil” theory, we are about to approach a pick of the curve and it will only become more scarce and prices will keep on rising.

Although coal is very abundant, it is also becoming more expensive to mine and delivery once again involves burning petroleum based fuels, creating more and more pollution. It is obvious to most intelligent people (except those heavily invested in oil, coal, cars, etc.) that we need a clean, renewable source of energy. Despite what may seem like a rhetoric about renewables, I do honestly believe that this is the way we will power our world. However, the renewable energy must be affordable and/or competitive with current sources of energy.

Why Solar?

So what is the answer – what is a modern and clean way to generate electricity? Well, there are a few, and the most popular ones are Wind and Solar. My personal favorite is solar and here is why.

Wind Turbines requires lots of open space and lots of (you guessed it) wind to work effectively. Although wind is a great source of renewable energy, and unlike solar can work at night, it is not “customizable” or adaptable for the urban environment. There is just not enough space or wind in the city.

Solar on the other hand works just as well in city and in the country side. All you need is southern exposure with no or minimal shading. Solar can be installed on a roof a sky-scraper, on the ground or even on a roof of a car. Solar is also a scalable systems, and you can add or remove PV panels and/or inverters at any time. The bottom line is such that solar photo-voltaic power generation is much more practical, and can be implemented where the power is needed. Besides that, both ways of getting “free” electric power from renewable sources are great. Given the notion that solar is more practical and flexible, lets get to the solar PV systems design and implementation.

Getting solar for your home or business.

Despite all the positive aspects of solar, it is expensive – VERY expensive. Additionally, not every site is suitable for a solar system installation. Therefore, if and when you decide to get into solar, the system must be designed and installed to operate at maximum efficiency, to offset its high costs and speed up the pay-off time.

Step 1: Gathering information about a perspective site for the solar project and how much of solar electricity you will need.

As mentioned before, the first step in determining if a solar system shell be installed, a basic site survey must be perfored. Sinse most solar PV systems are installed on roof tops, the basic requirements for a site survey ar as follows:

• The roof plane where the solar system would be installed must have a southern exposure with some variations to the east and west. You can figure this out with a simple compas.
• There should be no shading from trees and surrounding buildings and structures to achieve highest sun light exposure. This gets trick as sun has a different angle to the earth during winter and summer months.  Thus, even in the winter, when sun is at its lowest point, solar panels should have unobstructed exposure to it. Best way to determin where your shading is throughout the year, is to use a special tool called “pathfinder”