After recently installing a new roof rack I can now start to upgrade our solar power by installing a new 360 watt solar panel, but first I have the messy task of removing the old solar panel that’s stuck down to our van roof using sikaflex 512.
To start the removal process I had 3 types of fabrics to see which was best to cut through the sikaflex and I raided Mandy’s fabric stash for get some cotton thread, glitter thread and 3 ply string. My thoughts were the cotton thread might be easiest as it’s the thinnest, but it was too weak and kept snapping, then I tried the glitter thread as I thought this might rip through the sikaflex faster but this was also too weak and kept snapping. So I tried the string and this was perfect, though I quickly worked out the fresh string was best, so keep pulling fresh string though rather than using the same bit over and over as this gets too hot, wears out and snaps. A bit of WD-40 on the string also helps lubricate the process and speeds things up.
I found the using something like a plastic scraper or window squeegee to wedge into the areas you have already cut through gave you less friction as it opened up the gap slightly where you were cutting through. So I had 4 corner brackets and 2 side support brackets to cut the sikaflex from and it took me about an hour, once the old panel was free I then used the WD-40 and the plastic squeegee to remove the sikaflex from the van roof and then more WD-40 and a cloth to clean the roof up.
Installing the new panel was easy, well once 3 of us had got it onto the roof rack! I used U bolts to fasten it down to the roof bars and then put some fresh MC4 connectors on the old cable to connect to the new panel on the roof, I checked all cables and tidied everything up – including using zip-ties to keep the cables tidy and free from moving around.
The old panel had not moved in around 18 months and it was bonded to the van roof, whereas the new panel was now fastenened to the roof bars and sat much higher over the van roof, which got me concerned about how it would cope with the wind moving over it at speed, so I setup a little experiment with a bracket fastened to the leading edge of the solar panel and used some ribbon on the upper and lower ends of the bracket, the ribbons went over and under the solar panel. I then setup my cameras on the van roof and went for a drive, afterwards I watched the video and could see the air moved equally under and over the panel, and more importantly the panel didn’t move or even cause any wind noise. Happy days.
The panel I have now is a 360W beast – CLICK HERE to take a look
I will alter the way the panel is fastened down in the future to make it tiltable to allow us to collect far more solar power when it’s not summer time. I have a few ideas on how to do this, but my main concern is to be able to do this without needing ladders to get to the side of the roof to operate the panel tilting system, so I’ll work out how I can do that another time.
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