Positioning With Solar Panels

Therefore the best angle for your solar panels is the one that allows the panels to get the most direct perpendicular light.

Positioning with solar panels.

For this calculator latitude is positive to the north and longitude is positive to the west of the prime meridian. Determining the best angle can be a tedious task. However there is a difference between magnetic south and true south that must be considered. The direction solar panels should face is true south a k a.

It is at this location that your panels will receive the maximum sunlight throughout the day. Solar south or geographic south. True north is not the same as magnetic north. Solar panels should always face true south if you are in the northern hemisphere or true north if you are in the southern hemisphere.

This is the simplest and fastest way to position a solar panel for the best output. Solar panels produce electricity when sunlight hits their surface and they produce the most energy when that sunlight is exactly perpendicular to the panel face. If you are using a compass to orient your panels you need to correct for the difference which varies from place to place. Since residential solar s infancy just two decades ago conventional wisdom has dictated that the panels face true south since that orientation is thought to provide them with the maximum possible sun exposure throughout the day.

The traditional advice is to position solar panels to be south facing. The most optimum direction to face your solar panels is somewhere between south and west. Usually this is the best direction because solar panels will receive direct light throughout the day. However every place is different as you have to take seasons and the average position of the sun into account when installing one.

Select a location from the city pulldown menu or select enter lat long from the pulldown menu and manually enter the latitude longitude and time zone information in the appropriate text boxes. True south can also be calculated at noon when shadows from vertical objects run north south. The angle at which the solar panel is elevated plays a vital role in maximizing the production of energy. Build a simple solar pointer and at solar noon you can point your panel t.

This is because for those of us living in the northern hemisphere the sun is always along the southern part of the sky as we complete our yearly orbit around it.