Depending on the type of building and location, existing indoor tennis clubs may well be sitting on a significant cost-saving solution: using the expanse of a standing seam metal roof to hold a solar array that can help reduce energy costs.
That was the case at the New Shrewsbury Racquet Club in Tinton Falls, N.J., where the owner Rich Miezel decided to install a standing seam roof and solar array replacing an aging fastened through metal roof that had been leaking on the pre-engineered metal building. New Shrewsbury’s owners were guided by Moorestown, N.J.-based Pro-Tech Energy Solutions, which designed the installation and Englert Inc., Perth Amboy, N.J., the roofing consultant on the project. Englert recommended installation of a retrofit system over the old roof to avoid business interruption and the need to remove and replace the old roof at high cost.
Blanket insulation was also inserted into the retrofit’s grid system to reduce energy costs and to mute the sound of rainfall that had plagued the old racquet club roof. The designers also chose a lightweight mini-clamp over a heavier photovoltaic panel clamp to secure the PV system to the new metal roof to reduce weight loads on the structure. Threaded holes in the clamp enabled the easy attachment of the solar panel rails to the clamps-all with zero roof penetrations.
The New Shrewsbury Racquet Club features a 281.06 kW photovoltaic solar array atop a 61,000-square-foot UltraCool standing seam metal roof on this existing racquet club. The solar array system is the only one of its kind in New Jersey and may be the largest ever installed on an indoor tennis facility using state-of-the-art solar panels and a LEED-compliant metal roofing system. The project took only one month from start to completion.
The combination of the 1,200-solar panel array, an Englert Series 2500 standing seam metal roof and the insulation were originally expected to save the owner
$49,000 in annual energy costs. A report this summer showed the system saving about $6,000 a month. Pro-Tech also installed an eXpertPower Green monitoring system to track real time and historical information on total energy usage of the building.
Facility owner Rich Miezel says he is pleased with the solar roofing system’s performance and acknowledged there has been a substantial annual savings over previous energy costs.
Said a Pro-Tech Energy Solutions spokesperson: “This was a very exciting opportunity for the racquet club to benefit from clean, renewable energy, while leveraging a turnkey partnership with Pro-Tech. This partnership ensured a seamless design and construction process as well as access to Pro-Tech’s knowledge about state and federal programs designed to assist individuals and businesses in making facilities more energy efficient.”
Communication on every detail ahead of time was important. Details like panel width, seam height and type of seam were only some of the considerations during the planning process. It was important the panel seams accommodated the clamps employed by the solar installer. Clamp spacing is affected directly by the panel width and it’s important the solar installer to know what panel width will make for the most efficient solar layout. For example, the solar installer wanted to use as few clamps as possible because it was economical and labor efficient. In a large-scale commercial project like New Shrewsbury, the costs would have added up fast if hundreds of extra clamps were used and installed.
—
Tony Newman is national sales director at Englert Inc., Perth Amboy, N.J., and was the primary roofing consultant to Pro-Tech Energy Solutions on the project. For more information, visit www.englertinc.com.