DEMO — fictional range. Local brief only, NOT SENT. No personal data is collected or transmitted.
BUYING
What a quotation needs in order to be a quotation.
Most mounting enquiries stall because the buyer has a roof and no load case. This is the list worth completing before the first message.
- The site
- Location, because wind and snow come from it
- The building height
- Because wind pressure is adjusted for height
- The roof
- Type, pitch, zones and what the structure is made of
- The modules
- Size, frame section and the clamp zone the maker allows
- The array size
- And whether it covers edge zones
- The atmosphere
- Distance from the coast decides the fixing grade
- The standard
- Which code the calculation must satisfy, and who signs it
- The quantity and the split
- Because rails are cut to length and fixings are counted
Why the location comes before the components.
Because the load comes from there. The same rail and clamp are adequate in one region and not in another, and the difference is a number on a map rather than a property of the part.
The most useful sentence in an enquiry.
"The array is on an exposed roof 12 metres up, one kilometre from the coast, and the calculation has to be signed." It tells the supplier what the design has to satisfy, and it is the sentence most enquiries leave out.
Why written beats verbal.
The expensive conversations in a project are the ones about what was agreed. A brief that exists only in a meeting leaves every disputed detail open.