Solar Pergola

boofredlay

Nice work.

Krisidious

finally a place to put solar panels that looks right. looks great...

Hieru

Nice work and a really interesting idea!

Coincidentally I was thinking of something similar for a car port that I'm working on.

watkins

Dear Adam,

You might want to consider putting in some channels to collect and duct rainwater. It all depends on the specification for the pergola. Rainwater could be ducted to a water butt for collection and reuse for watering plants.

http://www.google.co.uk/images?q=water%20butt&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi&biw=1272&bih=853

Regards,
Bob

EarthMover

Thanks Bob, great idea. I thought something similar by using a drip free decking system and running some lower joists to attach it to. Something like this - http://www.underdeck.com/arcdesignseries.html One problem would be that it would prevent the light from passing through the panels. Also the benefit of an open air setup would be a reduction of heat on the panels to help prevent mid summer production drop. You may be able to catch the water horizontally by guttering the rafters only though. Something to consider and I like the idea of the rain barrel.