Solar Panel Fire Setbacks

These are called fire setbacks and they re there to give firefighters better access to the roof in an emergency.

Solar panel fire setbacks.

The intention of the setbacks is to provide firefighters with access to the peak of the roof in order to provide positive ventilation in the event of a house fire. A few years ago many solar installers were caught off guard when code updates introduced fire setbacks and pathways for roof mounted pv installation. Any roof with pitch equal or less than 2 in 12 9 46 degrees doesn t require any setbacks pathways. Roof setbacks from ridge for ventilation relaxed from 36 inches to 18 inches for solar systems that take up less than 1 3 of the plan view total roof area.

Setbacks for solar pv systems are required by the ibc international building code and adopted by some state and local permitting authorities. Sherfey california building officials calbo emilio camacho elli harland california energy. That is 1 713 fewer kwh than promised or 205 less value of power per year 1 713 x 12 kwh 205. If the layout is split due to fire setbacks and clearance needed around vents the actual annual production of the system as it can be installed with 17 panels on the south and 5 on the west is 11 494 kwh.

Greg andersen office of the state fire marshal george apple csd solar mark baldassari leo patnode enphase energy alan fields sungevity bill brooks brooks engineering larry brugger international code council steve burger city of folsom kelly m. For homes with sprinkler systems if the system takes up less than 2 3 of the plan view total roof area the setback for ridge ventilation is also relaxed to 18 inches. According to cal fire s solar photovoltaic installation guidelines below are illustrations of currently enforced fire setbacks pathways for residential solar system installations. The rationale that i have discussed with other code gurus is for the purpose of allowing fire fighters to walk around the panels rather than on top of the panels.

Fire setback codes many state and local jurisdictions have building codes that require solar panel installations to leave an unobstructed pathway around the edge of the rooftop.