Wind speeds: during Maria, we had speeds of up to 140mph here. The wood balcony roof you can see in the shot that goes all around the building withstood it with no damage. We build stuff strong here. As you can see, the panels sit in a sort of well formed by the balcony roof and barely project above the roof line. It would have to be a north wind to get under the panels, and the mountain range you see in the distance protects us a bit from northern winds. South or West winds would tend to push the panel towards the roof, rather than lift them, I think. I could be very wrong here...I"m no weather expert by no means!
I don't think the installers paid any attention to wind speeds. They made sure the panels faced south, were tilted appropriately, and wired nicely. The rack is 1/8" or 3/16" alum angle, screwed together and bolted to our 5" thick concrete roof with concrete anchors embedded in epoxy. I don't think they'll come loose. Here's a shot from during construction.
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So if a big storm were coming the panels would have to come down and I'll figure that out. If it's a lesser storm, some protection from flying coconuts and such would be good. I'm thinking sheets of 2" styrofoam, heavily duct-taped to the panels.
Any other ideas to protect?
Thanks again for your time and thoughts.
Jeff