900 tanks of (electrons)

Solar panels are a whole lot stronger than most windows.

You really are an idiot. Solar penetration is miniscule. Watch for insurance rates to skyrocket if it penetrates further and insurance companies have a major loss.

You can't even read what you read. Reading anything I write is *way* beyond your skill set.

Windshields? That just pure bullshit!

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ing cars, but I think it needs to be larger to do any real damage.

that suffers, not the windows.

d as you talk, no one would even have homes much less solar panels.

ically will cover a significant PV solar installation, a percentage of the total insurance on the house, $22,000 at the moment.

Why can't you just have a conversation rather than turning it into a gutter fight?

Insurance companies aren't idiots either. The agent I spoke to knew right off the top of his head the panels were covered whether or not they were on the house. Clearly they get enough of this to know the answer which means the adjusters know enough to cover their potential losses. They don't nee d to have a Katrina to know how to protect themselves. They are all about mitigating risk and have lots of data.

Heck, you are the one saying there are such storms "all the time". There's enough solar installed that it is starting to impact the daily demand/supp ly graphs, so clearly if such storms were any real issue all the responsibl e parties would know the numbers.

damage being rare. Yes, it likely happens somewhere in the world all the t ime. It's a big world. But any one location has significant hail damage v ery rarely.

have a rational conversation.

nything. You just want to rant and make up what you want to believe.

I will agree that discussing a topic with you is beyond my skill set. I pr efer to discuss things with people who don't deny reality.

Just the facts, ma'am.

Illiterate idiot. There's nowhere near enough solar to matter. What do you thing the market penetration is, 0.01%?

Because you're illiterate. Whether it's by choice or you're simply a moron, you just can't read what's written.

Winfield Hill wrote in news:qtbbp101i52 @drn.newsguy.com:

Polymer panel rebounds. Windshields do not. Rooftop panels are made to withstand some serious weather. If they do not, they need to end up blacklisted on Consumer Reports.

Car makers want you to replace things, remember?

Those windshields are a lot thinner than they were 35 years ago.

Hold it right there. There are masses of cars out there, getting destroyed by hailstorms, right now, right? If this is such a huge problem, why aren't insurance companies denying car insurance?

Actually, insurance companies protect the few people who do experience a severe loss, by charging everyone else a modest actuarial amount, plus a profit. That's exactly what's going on right now with solar panels. The more panels they insure, the more $$ they will take in. Everything will be fine. But as for myself, I prefer to self-insure my roof. Why should I contribute more to their profits?

You aren't going to get any traction. Trying to have a discussion with him is rather pointless as anyone can see in this discussion. Between him and DLU it is practically a continuous stream of profanities with the occasion al interjection of "You really are an idiot."

He is literally incapable of understanding that something that would be as simple to price into a policy and would cost as much as a solar array to re place would certainly be an extra cost item if it has much of a risk at all of being damaged. The market penetration is of no consequence. They simp ly need to know it is there and that there is some potential of costing the money, like having valuable art in your home. There the risk of theft is significant, so you pay extra for anything over some base amount. Same wit h guns, etcs.

No extra charge for 10's of thousands of dollars of potential payout means the risk is very, very low. Market penetration means nothing.

I said nothing of the kind. You're getting as bad as RickC. Yes, there are a *lot* of cars being destroyed by hail. No one said anything about "denying" anything. The insurance rates do reflect this risk, though. *THAT* was my point, if you'd care to read.

This is beneath you, Win. I'd expect better. I guess all fanbois get excited when anyone picks at their fetish.

And if (and that's a *bit* if) the penetration of solar get to a significant level, it will raise the issue above the noise and you _will_ pay a surcharge for solar panels, just as people do for jewelry or anything else of particular or unusual value.

Fair enough. FWIW, Sydney hail can be fairly extreme. Last year there was a massive storm that caused insurance write-off of almost half the cars that were outdoors in an entire suburb. Deny insurance to just that suburb? Of course not; the next big hailstorm will hit elsewhere.

But yes, "masses of cars out there, getting destroyed by hailstorms" is a very accurate description of what happened.

Clifford Heath.

In many parts of the world, hail is unknown (or mild, mainly damaging leaves). Car-bashing hailstones aren't likely. Maybe it changes the expected lifetime of a panel from 25 years to 24.6?

In one location. Not even the entire city. So, no, not a very accurate de scription. This is the sort of anecdotal evidence that gives false impress ions.

I was caught in a hail storm once that damaged homes as well as cars. But it was a small section of the county and only one out of 95 counties in VA. So it happening to such a degree as to cause the sort of damage being des cribed here was a once in a lifetime experience... and I wasn't even in it. The area affected was so localized that my car, being driven home from wo rk, was not damaged, while the aluminum siding on my house was... on the tw o windward sides only. So even that damage doesn't indicate enough force t o harm cars or solar panels. The cars that were damaged were in a much sma ller area.

Since then I've paid careful attention to the reports of hail in the greate r region and I have yet to see this sort of storm repeated anywhere in the area.

So, no, hail storms don't constantly cause massive amounts of damage to muc h of anything including solar panels.

Add that to the fact that it appears the insurance companies don't consider it to be a significant risk so they are automatically covered and you have virtually no risk to the homeowner at no additional cost which is what the real point is about.