Panel Angles

[Thomas]

I was just reading some about optimum angles and I wondered if mine were set up good enough.
My mobile home is oriented about 80'E 280' W end to end. I have my panels parallel to the structure for about 10'E of South. 30'27'29'//91'8'25'= My co-ordinates. The panels themselves are at about 40/60 winter-time angle- more looking out than up. Today was the first day of sun after about a week of rain and I was getting 105%(252w, 20Amps@12.25v)approx. at apogee. Would it be worth it to tune the array better?

[waynefromnscanada]

So do you live in the snow belt?
Yeah, I know you gave co-ordinates, but I'm not awake enough to investigate.
If you are in the snow belt, vertical mounting gives often best overall output, as no snow collects on them, and you get reflected light off the snow covered ground, as well as from the sun. Then tip them up for Summer.

[niel]

wayne,
wow, you must be half asleep as if you look to the upper right of his post it says baton rouge la and that's in the south so no snow belt there. hurricane belt maybe.

thomas,
it may be possible to tweak it, but from your results, if it ain't broke why fix it?

[waynefromnscanada]

wayne, wow, you must be half asleep as if you look to the upper right of his post it says baton rouge la and that's in the south so no snow belt there.

Hahaha Yes Niel, ya got me good. lol I've been participating in a sleep deprivation study for one (me, by me, and against my will) Nite all

[Thomas]

Just wondering if going out there and adjusting it just that little bit more would be worth the pain. I gather no, not really.

Any one know about what happened to voltage regulation/management at the panel point. When solar was new it was all the competition. Like speaker Bose bridges etc...Like the smaller Brunton or ICP Global folding cells have on a larger scale. I really think I know that is missing today and could really help out some chargers and inverters. What would happen if Right out of the gates all of ones panels were simply regulated to a common voltage around say 15v, the standard diversion load divert point. One thing is the amps would increase nessisarily...just thinking. I ran across Tigo and solar majic. they seem like expensive and rather sophisticated prep cooks.

[niel]

one can always tweak the angle, but it changes constantly throughout the year. many will go with their latitude +15 degrees on average. for the winter you want to make it steeper and in the summer you want to make it flatter. to get it dead on for solar noon is not what you want as the sun spends more time lower in the sky. this isn't too much of a problem in the summer as the sun makes a wider swing across the sky so it will stay in the neighborhood just below the solar noon angle. the farther north one is the less that is true. the winter angle is much steeper and has more time lower in the sky. it is hard to say what may be best for you and it is also weather dependent.

one point here, if i read you right, is that you aren't aimed due south and the sun is lower in the sky when it is aimed off of due south. lower in the sky equates to a slightly higher tilt angle for the pv. 0 degrees is flat or horizontal just for clarity.

i think the angles you have are ok, but it's more a question of when is best to change from one to the other for you due to seasonal adjustments.

[Windsun]

You don't really lose much at small angles. The difference a function of the sine of the angle. At 90 degrees you get 100%, at 80 degrees you get about 98%. You don't start getting a drastic falloff until around 60 degrees, which would be around a 15% loss. Actual power produced will fall off somewhat faster, as cell reflectance etc start entering into it, but basically anything less than 10-15 degrees is not worth worrying about much.

[Thomas]

I do notice a signifigant decrease in output in the beginning of late afternoon, the panels are situated about 15' off of E-W axis. I did get some Trig in college, one semester, Can I determine my location to a sig. fig. of 15'..oh yeah I can go to Office Depot and get a protractor.....

[Thomas]

Niel, I remember reading somewhere about the Absolute Supremacy of morning sun....if you can neglect the rest...I currently have 5W allocated to it! The article(in a magazine, not a blog) was about battery charging for overnight daily grid-tie use. How long do batteries last is such a function, if one can get it rolling...

[Thomas]

Administrator, I found some trig tables, I no longer have my text. I have forgotten how to use the buttons on my calculator, this may be a new application. 90 Deg. being square up w/ the sun directly, not relative to horizon/earth. That is the only way I think 1.00% sine is full power, this table shows .86 % @ 60 Deg. to correlate the finding to your statement, or validate it, depends.(on the protractor!)