Recent Hailstorm in Melbourne, How did Solar panels on roofs of MH.s/Vans fare?

Pea sized up to 25 mm your panels should have no damage.
Golf ball sized through to the cricket ball sized and larger that punched through the tiled roofs, they might have protected the roof of your motor home sacrificially.

What a great question Peter. I've often wondered just how robust the panels are designed to be and never gave the recent hail storms a thought. Having seen the ease with which some of those hailstones cleaved their way through laminated windscreens, I'd reckon they might have sustained some serious damage. I feel for anyone who's expensive investment (and their vehicles) suffered damage.

If I could expand on the question, did anyone have protective measures on their panels like clear perspex sheeting? (I don't mean a steel shed roof either)

Hi Peter,
We're in the process of costing solar panel power generation for the house and the government paid assessor (Green Loan) recommended that we insure our panels and our solar hot water service panels. Meaning to include them in the cost to replace.. He mentioned that they will not withstand hail stone much bigger that of golf ball size and only for a short time.
I asked him are they the same as the panels that are used for portable power, eg for campers/vans etc. and he said the good ones were.

I guess, it would pay to insure them. A lot of people probably wouldn't even give it a thought.

I was hit by the hail storm and you can see in the photos the damage to my van and my Unisolar 64Watt panels.
http://picasaweb.google.com.au/JohnLynB/2010_03_06Storm#

I also have 6 panels on the roof of the house no damage.

This is probaly due to the direction of the storm reducing the angle.

Cheers,
John

Sorry to see that to your pride and joy, it must be near a right off.

Good luck

Yes! insurance does cover this, but there is a long waiting list for repairs, approx 2 months.

We currently have a camper trailer ( Tru Blu Eagle) being built for our 2010 travels, so we are lucky it will not affect our travel plans.

The solar panels are dented, but still operating Ok, being Amorphous
they have no glass to break

When I did a TAFE course in renewable energy, we went out to have a look at some installations at a company that installed solar power systems & the same question was asked. The reply was that in a correctly set up system with the panels facing north & at the correct elevation they had never seen damage because in the Sydney area hail storms never come from the north, so any hailstones only hit the panels at an angle & glance off. Of course this doesn't apply to panels mounted on a flat roof.