Living in South Texas, going solar should be a no brainer, right? With 70-degree weather in the winter, we pretty much have sunshine all year round. However, living in South Texas, you’ve probably experienced extreme weather. If you live in an area that experiences extreme weather such as hurricanes, hail, thunderstorms, heavy winds and more, you’re probably wondering how this can affect your solar panels.
There are a couple factors that help you keep peace of mind.
Firstly, simply knowing how durable your solar panels are will give you peace of mind in whether your system is protected or not. Hurricanes can be very damaging as we have seen in 2017 with Hurricane Harvey. Resident’s are still recovering two years later after the storm. It is important to take the time to learn about how your solar panels can be affected by these severe conditions.
Secondly, remembering the panels are attached to your roof with thick bolts. Therefore making it a fixture on the home. Because of this it is covered in the home owners insurance policy in case of anything bad happening to the panels.That includes weather. We always recommend customers speak to their homeowner insurance agent about adding it to the policy. Typically it will cost between $30-50 a year (or $2.50 to $4.16 per month. But if the cost is anything over $5 extra a month (which you should be saving more than that on your power bill anyway) then we would say consider gathering quotes from different insurance companies. For most companies it will be a very low, nominal fee called a Green Endorsement.
How much can your panels withstand?
Solar panels are manufactured to a very high quality. They undergo rigorous testing. You can find several YouTube videos of the panels being tested in the facilities with hail hitting the panels at much higher speeds than we would ever find in nature, and the panels look as if nothing ever touched them. Very impressive. Not every panel is manufactured the same though. So make sure the company installing your panels only uses the highest quality, tier 1 panel. At Zenith Solar we are continually changing and upgrading to make sure our customers are getting the best they can. We currently use a Hanwha Q cell 325. These are a great tier 1 panel with 25 year manufacturer warranty, high output and great marks for degradation. But we can go into specifics in a different article.
The biggest damage a hurricane can cause is with wind. Strong enough winds could cause objects to hit the panels at extreme speeds. With most South Texas residents living in areas exposed to this type of weather, manufacturers design their panels with strong winds and high impact in mind. Solar systems are required to pass a series of tests and are built to withstand winds up to 140 mph and 1-inch sized hail. To put that into perspective, a Category 5 hurricane has winds as high as 156 mph. So in the case of another Category 5 hurricane, your panels would be covered under your insurance policy like normal. Anything other than that should be able to be relatively unaffected. As always though, we want to service our customers proudly and make sure the panels are working every time the sun comes up.
Put your mind at ease. If you are considering going solar and you want more information on your home, please feel free to contact us at www.getzenithsolar.com or call our office at 361.353.0900.
