Design

Guidelines
SolarSpeed
Roof height for roof zone and ballast calculation

• The roof height is the total height of the building wall. This means from the top of the parapet
until the ground level.
• The parapet could have some variations depending if its measurement is taken at the ridge or
gutter of the roof. Always use the smallest value for the parapet!

Parapet

Roof height (h)

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Roof zone calculation NEN7250

• The online SolarSpeed Calculator will calculate these roof zones automatically and
clearly display where they are located.
• The spreadsheet NEN7250 roof edge zone calculations can be used for the
calculation of the inner and outer roof area in case you’re using other tools (CAD) for
your design.
• It’s possible to position PV modules in both the inner and outer roof area but we
strongly advise to avoid installing PV modules in the outer roof zone. If panels are
installed in this zone, the required ballast will be higher.
• The height of the building (as shown on the previous page) and the smallest side of
the roof should be filled in as the inputs. The output (a) will be the offset from the
edge to determine the inner and outer roof zone area.

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Roof zone calculation NEN7250

a a

d1

Inner roof zone

Outer roof zone

 Roof zones for irregular roof shapes

a
• Roofs that have an irregular roof shape
(e.g. L or U-shape), will get a rectangular a
bounding box surrounding the roof
surface. The smallest side of the rectangle
will be considered as d1.

a d1
a
a

Inner roof zone

a
Outer roof zone
a
Minimum bounding box
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Basic Mode roof

• When Basic Mode is chosen, no roof

needs to be drawn. The entire area will
be considered as “outer roof zone”.
• NOTE: basic mode calculations might
result in more ballast because no length
and width dimensions are considered for
the roof surface.

Outer roof zone

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Maximum field size south frames

Horizontal (module direction)

• Max. length south frames

• 26m = module direction (horizontal or aluminium
dimension)
• 30m = base rail direction (vertical or steel dimension)
• Example:
• PV module length = 1650mm

Vertical (base rail direction)

• Clamp space = 20mm
• Frame row pitch = 1600mm
• Maximum quantity horizontal = 26000 / (1650+20) = 15
• Maximum quantity vertical = 30000 / 1600 = 18
Comment: Always round down the result!

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Maximum field size east-west frames

Horizontal (base rail direction)

• Max. length east-west frames
• 30m = base rail direction (horizontal or steel
dimension)
• 26m = module direction (vertical or aluminium
dimension)
• Example:
• PV module length = 1650mm

Vertical (module direction)

• Clamp space = 20mm
• Frame row pitch = 2300mm
• Maximum quantity horizontal = 30000 / 2300 = 13
• Maximum quantity vertical = 26000 / (1650+20) = 15
Comment: Always round down the result!

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Minimum dilatation in module direction for south frames

• For south frames, the module direction is horizontal

Dilatation >=300mm

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Minimum dilatation in module direction for east-west
frames

• For east-west frames, the module direction is vertical

Dilatation >=300mm
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Minimum dilatation in base rail direction for south frames

• After maximum 30m the rails are interrupted by not fixing the mounting screws. Therefore no extra
space for dilatation is needed and the row pitch will continue.
• Making a wider gap is also possible, but this may result in higher ballast (see sheltered zones)
• It is strongly advised to indicate the dilatation by showing which modules belong to a field or to draw
a dashed line to show where the dilatation separated the fields.

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Minimum dilatation in base rail direction for east-west
frames

• After maximum 30m the rails are interrupted by not fixing the mounting screws. Therefore no extra
space for dilatation is needed and the row pitch will continue.
• Making a wider gap is also possible, but this may result in higher ballast (see sheltered zones)
• It is strongly advised to indicate the dilatation by showing which modules belong to a field or to draw a
dashed line to show where the dilatation separated the fields.

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Sheltered zones for south frames

Sheltered dilatation <= 2 m

Depending on the layout of an installation, some PV modules
can experience ‘wind sheltering’ from surrounding modules.
• Horizontal spacing between module fields:
• When dilatation is not bigger than 2 m.
(distance is measured between the panels)
• Vertical spacing between module fields:

Sheltered dilatation <= 2 m

• When dilatation is not bigger than 2 m.
(distance is measured between the panels)

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Sheltered zones for East-West frames

Depending on the layout of an installation, some PV

modules can experience ‘wind sheltering’ from
surrounding modules.
• Vertical spacing between module fields:
• When dilatation is not bigger than 1 m.

Sheltered dilatation <=1000mm

(Distance is measured between the panels)

NOTE: horizontally there is no extra wind sheltering due to

the aerodynamic shape of an east-west system in general

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