®
12
PHASE I
—
Site Preparations & Planning
Planning a roof layout for necessary penetrations, mounting, and plumbing will make installation easier and pro-
mote a cleaner looking system. While SunSaver
®
systems install quickly, there are some special considerations to
keep in mind. The following sections of
Phase I
will help prepare you for a simple and successful install.
SunSaver
®
collectors should only be installed in portrait
orientation so that water will flow directly up the roof.
Banks are to have a
maximum of 15 collectors
plumbed together in a row.
All panel banks must be
plumbed in parallel flow path.
Since the expansion or contraction of a bank is de-
pendent on temperature, the preferred method of in-
stallation is to measure out the placement of the collec-
tors on a roof and position the penetrations by measur-
ing them and using a chalk line and tape measure to
locate all penetrations.
When using the pre-measured method, the spacing
should be set at 51-
1/2”
. The last mounting points in
the bank should be placed with an extra 2-
4” of clear-
ance for excessive bank movement.
A secondary means of placing mid-bank penetrations
would be to install the mounting hardware by centering
everything at operation temperatures. See
System De-
tail Installation
in
Phase II
for specifics about cen-
tering penetrations at temperature.
In addition, collectors may need to be spaced out to
allow for mid-bank obstacles or changes in roof shape.
In most cases, the banks will need to have additional
spacing added so that the bank can be plumbed
around the obstacle. Gaps can be filled by connecting
PVC runs to Pipe Adapters and Couplers as depicted in
Figure 10.
Collector Layout
Spacing Collectors and
Penetrations
Collectors will also grow or shrink along the length of
the collector. Be sure to mount collectors so that
there is at least 2” of clearance from the bottom
headers to any obstacles below the bank.
It is not acceptable to install two stacked banks
so that the upper header of the lower bank and
the lower header of the upper bank are touching
and tied together. Instead, mount each bank indi-
vidually with adequate clearance.
Many roofs have vents and other obstacles protrud-
ing from the surface. It is common for collectors to be
installed with spaces in the bank. Roof obstacles pose
an additional factor to consider during planning the
roof layout. Collector movement is a normal occur-
rence with pressure and temperature fluctuations in
the system. If not properly placed, collectors can col-
lide into penetrations or roof obstacles and cause
damage to the collectors. To limit unnecessary dam-
age and likely voiding of FAFCO
®
’s collector warranty,
banks must be installed so that proper clearance is
allowed on either side of an obstacle. See
Table 3
in
Appendix C
for more specifics about proper obstacle
clearance upon installation. A best practice rule of
thumb to use for proper obstacle clearance is 2” but
less clearance may be acceptable depending in the
size of the bank installed as indicated in
Table 3.
In
most cases, banks will need to be adapted to PVC by
using couplers and pipe adapters to plumb to PVC
Pipe (
Figure 10
). This method allows for any gap size
seen in common practice.
