alano
Senior Member
I did it. Took about an hour.
Here's the story: One of my Renology panels has been flakey for a long time. I thought it was connections and made and remade changes. Finally I stumbled on to the fact that the panel essentially stops working when it gets too hot. It will work early in the morning but quit as the temperature rises. I was able to replicate this was a panel fault by covering my other panel, checking for 0.0 amps on the controller then spraying water on the offender and finding 1.6 amps surging into the batteries. Over the next 15 minutes or so the current tailed off to under 0.5 amps and I stopped watching.
Haven't called Renology yet but figure they want the panel back for warranty replacement (though I cut the MC4 connectors off so not sure what they'll say). Even if no replacement, I wanted it off the roof.
Started last evening with an X-Acto chisel blade to cut into the Sikaflex I used to glue the panel down. Had a vague idea of getting a start and then using fish line to "floss" through the glue line. Scraped a little paint on the roof as expected but figured it was the price to be paid. Blade just wasn't very long and glue line pretty wide after all so stopped after working about a foot along the perimeter.
Woke up in the middle of the night slapping my forehead with the solution. Wood shims! No paint scrapes, pretty long and I have a bunch of them sitting on a shelf. This morning I used a handful of shims and a rubber mallet to hammer, shove and wiggle the shims between the panel and the roof. Took about an hour. Best part is I didn't get any splinters though gloves would have been a good idea. Now I have to get the rest of the stuff off the roof but I figure a plastic scraper might work pretty well.
Just a word to folks who are planning to glue panels to their roof: You really don't need a lot of glue. A thin bead around the outside to keep the elements from creeping in is plenty to hold that sucker on the roof and if you have to remove the panel at some time it will be way easier than having glue lines through the middle.
Here's the story: One of my Renology panels has been flakey for a long time. I thought it was connections and made and remade changes. Finally I stumbled on to the fact that the panel essentially stops working when it gets too hot. It will work early in the morning but quit as the temperature rises. I was able to replicate this was a panel fault by covering my other panel, checking for 0.0 amps on the controller then spraying water on the offender and finding 1.6 amps surging into the batteries. Over the next 15 minutes or so the current tailed off to under 0.5 amps and I stopped watching.
Haven't called Renology yet but figure they want the panel back for warranty replacement (though I cut the MC4 connectors off so not sure what they'll say). Even if no replacement, I wanted it off the roof.
Started last evening with an X-Acto chisel blade to cut into the Sikaflex I used to glue the panel down. Had a vague idea of getting a start and then using fish line to "floss" through the glue line. Scraped a little paint on the roof as expected but figured it was the price to be paid. Blade just wasn't very long and glue line pretty wide after all so stopped after working about a foot along the perimeter.
Woke up in the middle of the night slapping my forehead with the solution. Wood shims! No paint scrapes, pretty long and I have a bunch of them sitting on a shelf. This morning I used a handful of shims and a rubber mallet to hammer, shove and wiggle the shims between the panel and the roof. Took about an hour. Best part is I didn't get any splinters though gloves would have been a good idea. Now I have to get the rest of the stuff off the roof but I figure a plastic scraper might work pretty well.
Just a word to folks who are planning to glue panels to their roof: You really don't need a lot of glue. A thin bead around the outside to keep the elements from creeping in is plenty to hold that sucker on the roof and if you have to remove the panel at some time it will be way easier than having glue lines through the middle.
