Updates On Solar Installation Task Group, Industry Thermal Heat Study, & More

By Rick Olson, TRI President & Technical Director

Solar Installation Task Group
The TRI Alliance continues to assist in being a forum for stakeholders focused on the discussions regarding proper installations of Solar equipment when mounted on steep slope applications. During October, the stakeholders’ group held two meetings where Unirac and Ironridge brought information on standards, testing, and thoughts on how to approach a collaborative technical bulletin for installations with our concrete and clay tiles. Our goal is to expand our group to include contractors who perform such installations as we gather greater detail on challenges and best practices.

Industry Thermal Heat Study
The first set of modular testing stations is being installed in Rialto California this week, allowing our thermal task group the ability to refine construction and test our thermal sensors for readability into the master data logger program. We will be expanding our sites to Arizona and Florida to have 3 of the 10 climate locations live by the end of December. When completed, there will be 10 code-defined climate sites that house 30 units to capture the heat and energy performance of our roofing tiles to the standard asphalt shingles. Over the next three years, we are hopeful of gathering valuable field data that can help in the energy efficiency modeling moving forward.

IAPMO Code Approval Received
The TRI Alliance has received our September 2023 IAPMO valuation Code compliance report for our new July 2023 Installation Guide for Regular Climates. As the main manual for our industry, this will be the first official update since the 2015 version. In our new manual, we have included greater details and updated code requirements, which include the ASCE-7-22 requirements for wind resistance.

Technical Bulletins
Our TRIA Technical Committee will now pivot to the review of our current TRI Alliance Technical Bulletins and will be reviewing each of them for potential 2024 revisions and updates. If there are topics or revisions you would like to see addressed, please email [email protected] with your comments.

For more information on the activities of the TRI Alliance, please visit us at www.tileroofing.org