- So what we've done here in Darwin, in conjunction with my engineer, is that we've done the wind loading tests to verify what LG have on their documentation, because here in Darwin we have the toughest building regulations in the world.
- In simulating what's happening to the panel when it's on the roof, what we're going to do is we're going to introduce compressed air. It is pumping air into a bladder under here, pushing the glass up. We will watch as the deflection increases with the pressure increase.
- We've had the NeON? 2. We took it up as high as 15,000 kilopascals, so that would be a wind speed of over a thousand kilometers an hour, I believe roughly I think. And if you had a wind speed like that, you'd be in a hole in the ground, because there'd be nothing left up here, be gone. Cyclone Tracy I think from memory was something like 250 kilometers an hour. When we do the test, we'll take it to, the panel to there, to what Tracy was, and then just show you how much flexion there is in the panel.
- It's down to six. Do you want to keep on going Nick?
- [Nicholas] If you'd like.
- [Simon] Yep.
- Cyclone Tracy's design wind pressures, based on their recorded wind speeds, came to about five, 5.8 kPa, and this is tested at six.
- The pressures that would be involved in Cyclone Tracy, this panel would've withstood those pressures. So we could turn around and safely say that this panel would've probably stayed on the roof, had the roof stayed on the house.
- Yeah, we've done a couple of tests on another brand panel, and they had the earth hole right in the center at the top and the bottom. We put it under pressure. It just went bumpo, right where that screw line was, and it failed, failed big time. Didn't even reach anywhere near what they're saying is on their documentation. The LG is right at the top, right at the top of all of 'em. We do a section 40, that's the equipment that goes on the roof. Then there's the building permit. Once it's then installed, it's then an inspection happens, and tick the boxes then their certificate of occupancy is submitted. So they're the processes that happen, and if they're a good quality system, good quality panel, you're not going to have a problem, and LG tick all those boxes, yeah.
Is it important for Darwin homeowners to pick a solar panel with a high wind load rating?
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