Solar Panel Work At The Bamboo Lagoon

As you might know from previous posts, we have solar panels on our deck roof that heat the pool during the summer time. Last year when I first got here, we tried to turn them on, but one of the pipe junctions broke and water came shooting out of it. So I turned off the pump for the solar panel, and didn't use the panels for the season.

I met up with a technician from the solar panel company and purchased replacement parts for the pipe junctions, but never got around to fixing it before it became too cold to use the pool.

Deck roof and panels with pinestraw (before)

Deck roof and panels without pinestraw (after)

In the meantime, the two Ponderosas that we have in the backyard left a ton of needles on the back deck roof and solar panels. The back deck roof is corregated metal and figuring out a way to get on the roof, while not damaging it or the solar panels, prevented me from attacking this project until now.

I finally was able to have a nice day, where the needles weren't super wet, and got on a ladder to look at the structure up close to figure out my best options. Once I could see where the studs were, I was able to get up on the metal roof from a different spot, and while using a soft deck broom, was able to sweep most of the needles off the roof and solar panels.

Ponderosa before pruning

Ponderosa after pruning out lower branches

While up there, I pruned the Ponderosa hanging over the roof so that there is some clearance and maybe a little bit more light hitting the solar panels. I spray painted all the cuts to keep the tree from getting infected.

Lastly while I was up there, I put the new gasket and pipe junction in where the old one broke. I wasn't able to test the system just yet since we are still freezing at night, but I am hopefull that it will hold. I inspected the other lower junctions and they all looked okay. I have to get on the roof in a different spot to check the upper ones, but I will do that on another day but before we turn the system on for the season.

Broken junction

Fixed junction

The amount of pruned limbs and pine straw filled the yard bin up to capacity. Overall, it was a very productive afternoon.