Rooftop Solar Panels Fire Risk

The oe 34 open energy solarsave roofing tiles were placed on recall on march 25 2014.

Rooftop solar panels fire risk.

As part of the study a survey of australian based solar installers was conducted and it was found that over 60 of these installers indicated that rooftop dc isolators were a primary cause of solar related fires in australia. Over a ten year period japan reported on 127 rooftop solar problems that included fires. And only 1 in every 5 of those fires even caused much damage. Recommendations for the fire and rescue services pdf 696kb 18 pages this file may not be suitable for users of assistive technology.

Germany reported 350 solar power systems that caught fire over a 20 year period. But wait are solar panels are actually the culprit for fire. On a sunny day the solar panels on the roof may generate thousands of watts of power. Though they aren t tracked nationally rooftop solar fires are rare.

Tesla said its customers risk of fire is seven times lower than they face from home wiring and lighting. That s 0 006 of all installed solar power panels. In actual roof fires with roof mounted solar panels fire damage has involved areas of between 1 000 and 183 000 ft 2 93 and 17 000 m 2. Fires involving solar panels may be infrequent but when they do occur they present a number of additional challenges to the occupier building owner and fire fighters.

Hot spots are another fire hazard. One other fire risk with solar panels has nothing to do with the difference between dc and ac power. In the most extreme case the fire spread to the inside and destroyed the entire building see fig. According to the report the highest known cause of solar related fires was determined to be an unspecified electrical component of the solar pv system.

A design flaw in the oe 34 panels left them susceptible to overheating. By itself this is not a risk at all because already a fat cable coming from a utility pole carries up to thousands of watts of electricity. Another potential fire risk associated with pv systems involves the feeding of energy from the array into the grid when the electricity is not required by the building in which it is housed. As the panel overheats it can damage the internal wiring and worst case scenario start on fire.

Fire and solar photovoltaic pv systems.