2 x 20 x 47mm Tube Navitron Panels on a Grade II Listed Building

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Here is a picture of the finished panels.  They are 2 x 20 x 47mm Navitron units.

The panels are mounted so that they are just below the ridge tiles.  The reason for this being that the roof is made up of four sections with a valley in the middle. I needed the panels to be as high up as possible to avoid shadows.  As the panels sit inside the inner area of the roof, it means they can’t be seen from the ground. It is because of this I was able to get listed building consent to do the installation.  These panels sit on top of a Grade II listed building.

The dog leg pipe run on the RHS is down to the fact that the panels sit over an internal attic room, I therefore had to run the pipe on the surface of the roof and bring it in below the LH panel.

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Having read in the forum, that some birds and rodents are partial to chomping on Armaflex, I decided to protect the external pipe run by using 68mm drain pipe.  This fitted quite nicely over the 15mm boar, 19mm thick Armaflex.

I had to slap down the perfectionists in me and stop myself from purchasing all new pipe in black.  I had some old gray stuff that had been lying around for years, as no one other than myself would see the panels, I thought it best to recycle the pipe and put up with the colour mismatch.

I cut the elbows in half to fit over the corners, which they did quite nicely, I then used silicone to reseal, and PVC tape to finish off.

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I did as many others have done, and drill through the concrete roof tiles.  

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Then the first seal was with silicone between the tile and the pipe.  I then made a flashing over cover by punching out a hole with a piece of off cut copper tubing, then threaded it over the pipe prior to fitting the compression joint to make the 2nd seal.  The final seal is a O-ring that I rescued from a Hepworth fitting that was thrown away, The photo shows the tile with the flashing primer prior to peeling off the flashband plastic and seating it down.  The final photo shows the bleed point, note that this is homemade high temperature bleed point, fabricated from a ¾ BSP to 15mm compression fitting, and a ¾ inch radiator bleed point, there is no rubber or plastic here, as I wanted it to be safe should the panels stagnate.

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Again I used drain pipe to encase the insulation, and finally I made a end cap to finish off the job.  The end cap also has Armaflex inside to keep things snug as a bug in a rug!

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The two panels were connected back to back with a 22mm straight coupler, as I use Armaflex glue it was easy to insulate the pipe, the final cover of drain pipe was fitted by cutting a slot down one side, it was then possible to prise the pipe open and let it spring back in place over the pipe, again finishing off with silicone and PVC tape.

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I used a little plastic box which I brought from Maplins, drilled a hole each side just the right size for the rising sensor cable, and the probe itself. The box was made water tight with the trusty silicone sealer.  The junction box was then secreted underneath a tile between the roof felt and the tile.  I have since found out that Navitron supply little connector boxes with lightning arrestors built in, I would have used one of these if I had known.

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Getting the mounting straps in place was a bit of a challenge, as I wanted to get the panels close to the ridge, and due to the way the roof was built, the only way to get the straps fitted was to grasp the bull by the horns and take the ridge tiles off.  It looks a little scarier than it actually was, the ridge tiles came off quite easily, and as I had a good platform to work from in the valley, it was just a case of being brave and getting on with it.

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I started from one side and worked across, just in case it started to rain. With the ridge tiles off, I was able to screw directly into the top roof truss, that combined with the re-seated ridge tiles means that the top straps are very VERY secure. The manifould is only on at this time to get the spacing bang on.

The second photo shows the straps and the ridge tiles all pointed up again,

Phew!

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The bottom straps were put in place by lifting the relevant tiles, and then fixing the straps to the battens.  Where possible the straps were screws into the joist behind the batten, but I was not able to do this to all of them, however those Stonewold Tiles are quite heavy and interlock, I don’t think the panels stand any chance of lifting.

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I pre-tensioned the bottom straps by using a bit of nylon cord threading it up and through the side supports, pulled down hard, while tightening up the stainless steel nuts.

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Pull!

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I know from reading other threads in the forum that people often shy away from using adhesive when fitting insulation over pipes.  I find that it is easier to use than tape, and makes for a neater job.  Here is an example of where 19mm wall Armaflex meets with 13mm thickness.  I used the 19mm in the roof space and outside, the 13mm inside.  See how the glue makes a neat joint.  Where possible I pushed the insulation over the pipes prior to soldering them together, that way I had hardly any lengths with cuts down their sides.

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These last two photos show where the pipes go up and out of the roof space. 

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I need to stitch some photos together for the cylinder work, as I haven’t got a wide angle lens for my camera, and the cylinder is in a very small room!  I will add these at some point