Commercial Roof

dansk · Jan 14, 2011

Hi - just looking for some advice please - Been asked to quote PV on a commercial building, ive not much experiance of commercial roofs - they told me the roof is made from "big 6" sheets, the wavey fibre glass product - its not asbestos as this is a new roof and the client confirmed this also.

1) - What fixing should i use to fix rails to this type of roof?
2) - Were do you take the PV string cables through the roof?

Markc · Jan 14, 2011

What ever fixing it should be secured into the beams under the sheets and not fixed to the sheet itself. The flat roof anchor bolt for example. Consider contacting your supplier to ascertain if they have a system for this type of roof.

The PV cable entry you could use a flashing kit but on this type of roof I don't like them. The commercial one we have coming up we are proposing to use the smallest cable tray available and fix it to the existing roof sheet bolts as the heads have a good 30mm of thread showing to fix to. The tray will then lay flat along the roof to the panels. We will then take conduit down the side of the building and in to the mains position tp protect the DC cable from damage.

I sure you know but another thing to consider in your quotation is the VAT will be at the full 20% and not 5%. Commercial client can claim it all back anyway. The income from FIT's and export will be taxable but the client can claim the installation costs against tax or transfer ownership of it into a LTD business and claim it back as dividends. (This is what a accountant has told us on our forth coming one!)

dansk · Jan 16, 2011

Hi - Thats great thank you.

I did know about the VAT, but had forgotten about it - cheers.

I will look into in some more detail, but its only an estimate at this stage and will take a further look if i get a chance to do the site survey.

Regards

SolarCity · Jan 17, 2011

Markc said:
I sure you know but another thing to consider in your quotation is the VAT will be at the full 20% and not 5%. Commercial client can claim it all back anyway. The income from FIT's and export will be taxable but the client can claim the installation costs against tax or transfer ownership of it into a LTD business and claim it back as dividends. (This is what a accountant has told us on our forth coming one!)

I didn't know this.... interesting information.