Putting A Solar Panel Directly Towards The Sun

A solar panel will harness the most power when the sun s rays hit its surface perpendicularly.

Putting a solar panel directly towards the sun.

This is because the sun is always in the southern half of the sky in the northern hemisphere. Otherwise put your solar power money into panels on your roof or better using a power company that is 100 renewables. Technology exists to track the sun along both a horizontal and vertical path but these kinds of tracking require ground mounted tables of panels which means concrete footings 11 foot tall poles and lots of extra structure to hold and maneuver the panels. Portable solar panels are already tilt mount by design.

If you have the budget and space tilt mounts can increase your solar power capacity by as much as 25 as long as you adjust them properly. Solar panels give the highest energy output when they are directly facing the sun. Most residential rooftops tend to be sloped close enough to this optimal mounting angle that they don t need any additional tilt adjustments. In the meantime this solar panel is there for really only one reason to.

The sun moves across the sky and will be low or high depending on the time of the day and the season. A tilt mount will allow you to adjust rigid solar panels to face the sun directly during sunrise sundown and when the winter sun is low in the sky. While the angle of your solar panels is important a more important factor in your energy production is going to be the direction your panels face. For home solar just putting panels on the roof makes much more sense both.

For the best results solar panels should be oriented towards the south. As a general rule of thumb keep in mind that the panels need to be more vertical during winter to face the lower sun directly and more tilted towards the ground during summer to face the higher sun. Ensuring that solar panels face the correct direction and have an appropriate tilt will help ensure that they produce maximum energy as they are exposed to the highest. The placement and orientation of solar panels is just as important as which type of solar panel is used in a given situation.

For that reason the ideal angle is never fixed. Calculating the ideal angle for your solar panels is not that difficult.