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.
Solar panel fixing direction.
The rule is that if you live in the southern hemisphere you should point your panels true north and if you live in the northern hemisphere you should point.
As a rule of thumb solar panels should be more vertical during winter to gain most of the low winter sun and more tilted during summer to maximize the output.
True south can also be calculated at noon when shadows from vertical objects run north south.
For the best results solar panels should be oriented towards the south.
To correct the compass reading your solar installer will calculate the magnetic declination of your site.
However it has been proven that west facing solar panels can produce more power.
Calculating the optimal solar panel angle.
Solar south or geographic south.
If ground or wall mounted panels don t work for you solar panels can also be mounted on a building near your house like your garage or a storage shed.
If you are looking to achieve cost savings by installing your own solar power system it is highly recommended that you put some time aside and carefully analyze and determine the the right location for your solar.
Now all of this is very important for utilities and legislators who are in charge of offering incentives for solar power or other measures that could reduce electricity demand at the height of the day.
South facing panels produced a 54 percent peak reduction overall while west facing solar pv panels produced a 65 percent peak reduction.
Pick the right location and solar panel direction.
Other technological advancements for solar panel direction.
Ground mounted solar panels can even be placed on trackers which adjust the position of the panels throughout the year in order to maximize the amount of sunlight reaching them.
Here are some of the more promising developments.
The placement and orientation of solar panels is just as important as which type of solar panel is used in a given situation.
Researchers are working on ways for solar panels to achieve maximum energy output without difficult and or costly manual adjustments.
Watch this interesting video on how robots pivot solar panels to face the sun.
This is because the sun is always in the southern half of the sky in the northern hemisphere.
Locating the best direction to point your solar panels can be accomplished very quickly.
Here two simple methods for calculating approximate solar panel angle according to your latitude.
The direction solar panels should face is true south a k a.
A solar panel will harness the most power when the sun s rays hit its surface perpendicularly.
