Solar Panel Roof Setback

The problem is the new setback guidelines make ideal solar roof space unavailable sometimes as much as half or more of the roof area.

Solar panel roof setback. Any roof with pitch equal or less than 2 in 12 9 46 degrees doesn t require any setbacks pathways. According to cal fire s solar photovoltaic installation guidelines below are illustrations of currently enforced fire setbacks pathways for residential solar system installations. Most jurisdictions base their requirements on the recommendation of their fire marshal. Setback refers to the distance that solar panels need to be from the side and top edges of a roof.

Example of a fire setback code in california. Solar panels can still be installed in what they call the edge zone provided the rails that panels are clamped to have around twice as many attachment points to the roof as the rails in the internal zone. The exact size of the fire setback depends on the size of the building but for an average sized home each roof section that has solar panels requires two clear 36 inch wide pathways running along the edge of the roof. So provided rails are fastened as the installation manual recommends panels can be installed up to the edges of roofs.

Setbacks are for firefighter roof access to the ridge line. In most cases solar arrays are required to have a minimum of 18 inches set back from the ridge of the roof and may also require a three foot pathway along one of the edges. Roof fire setbacks and pathways for residential solar pv systems. The international fire code 605 11 3 2 4 that states panels modules installed shall be located no higher than 3 ft below the ridge to allow for fire department ventilation operations significantly decreases the attractiveness of residential solar pv because it applies to both sides of a peaked roof.

Here s what that looks like. Roof setbacks from ridge for ventilation relaxed from 36 inches to 18 inches for solar systems that take up less than 1 3 of the plan view total roof area.