Raising the standards in solar and roofing

By Emma Peterson. 

Learn how standards are developed and how S-5! is making sure nothing slips through the cracks. 

Standards are a complex, yet crucial part of the construction industry. In this episode of Roofing Road Trips®, Mark Gies and Dustin Haddock of S-5! visited Heidi J. Ellsworth to talk about the development of solar and roofing codes, standards and regulations. Dustin opened the conversation with some context about the development of standards, saying, “Underwriters Laboratory (UL) standards and UL listings exist for human safety and basically they say, ‘We've looked at this product so thoroughly that we're pretty sure it's not going to kill you.’” 

These standards are key to the success of the industry overall, but when it comes to solar S-5! noticed a gap in the regulations. The one thing that seemed to get close to this topic was UL 1703, which is based on the bonding and grounding of electrical products. So, Dustin sent S-5! solar products to UL and a few other regulatory agencies, Inertech and NRTO, to raise awareness of the gap.  

UL’s response was that 1703 could cover some of the electrical and mechanical areas on the product, but not the racking components. But they were working on a new subject, which is now known as UL 2703, that would cover the missed area. So, S-5! jumped in to help get 2703 from a subject to a standard. Dustin explained, “It's a subject until it's been approved by the STP and goes through the ANSI process, which is where a bunch of professionals all go over this subject until everybody agrees.” Mark agreed with the value of this process, adding, “It’s a very important thing and is called consensus driven. That’s what separates a standard from just people doing something on a one-off basis.” 

Today, UL 2703 is widely established and S-5! was one of the first to be listed as approved by the new standard. But, even with this standard covering some of the gaps that S-5! highlighted in UL 1703, there’s still more to do. Mark explained, “When you create a standard, you must create scope, so it doesn’t become unmanageable.” The scope of 2703 is the racking, nothing beyond that which touches the roof, which leaves a gap in the standards surrounding waterproofing among other things. And so, S-5 isn’t calling it complete yet, they’re pushing for more definition in tests and standards surrounding the interface of a solar mounting system and the roof.  

Read the full transcript or Listen to the whole episode to learn more about S-5!’s work and the push towards more thorough standards for solar mounting systems.