Roof Mounting/Maintaining and Remote Access to Inverter

There are a couple of technical issues for which I have information, that have come to my attention from readers.  One is roof condition considerations and the other has to do with gaining computer access to the data that the inverter develops.

In our particular case, we have just installed a new roof on our house, coincidentally.  So the idea of putting a solar system on top of the roof was not a worry.....it would be another 15 to 25 years before we would need to hire someone to disconnect the panels before re-roofing again.  Maybe we'd be going nuclear by then anyway. 

But our son (http://encsolar.blogspot.com/) is putting his solar system on a newly constructed building.  He had different options.
The brackets that will hold his panels are being installed before his shingles and will apparently give him a better and even more water proof installation.  Therefore, if I was thinking of a new roof at nearly the same time as the solar system, I would probably have the roofer and solar installers coordinate their work.

Another two characteristics of the mounting system that my son is using  are that his mounting system allows the panels to have more space between the roof and the under side of the panel.  Therefore, there will be more cooling due to air flow.  Cooler panels increase efficiency.  (No, Jim, you can't make the panels cooler by keeping them in the shade).   On the other side of this coin, the extra space makes the panels more vulnerable to damage from extremely high winds.  Like hurricaine force.

In my personal opinion, if I installed solar over a roof that was at half life, I think I would at least have that portion of roof re-roofed.
The life of the panels is expected to be longer than the life of most any roofing material.  I'm expecting more than 25 years for mine.

Secondly, some inverters have a computer interface that make data gathering and possibly even remote access a reality.  So far, I've learned that there is an additional cost to use the software made for this purpose.  I've heard that some solar users have been able to negotiate this additional cost down to zero.  I'm going to try but it was not part of my original negotiation so I have lost most of my bargaining power.  I would like the ability to gather data.