[chbot] On the angle of solar panels and shading thereof

[Robin Gilks]

Greetings all

I've just got the results of an interesting experiment on my big solar array.

This is in 3 rows on the top of the shed as shown here
        http://gilks.ath.cx/gallery/index.php/Solar/IMG_1967
where the angle of the panels is pictured in the 'winter' position of 56
degrees. The spring/autumn angle is 44 degrees and the summer is almost
flat at 15 degrees.

I noticed last week that either side of mid-day, I was getting a lot of
shading from the front and middle rows onto the rows behind so I adjusted
those 2 rows to their spring/autumn position and that reduced the shading
from 30% at 11:00am to less than 20%. What I thought was a worth while
change!! However, the week previous to the change I was getting 18kwhr per
day but now it was down to 16kwhr - more of a reduction than I expected.

Up on the roof again at the weekend with spanners in hand and put the
panels back up to their winter position and now back at over 17kwhr per
day. The change can be seen in the weekly record at
       http://gilks.ath.cx/solar/
where 2/6 and 3/6 are noticeably better than the 3 days previous.

The conclusion - angle is more important than shading.


-- 
Robin Gilks
Internet: robin at gilks.org    http://www.gilks.org
Tel:      (+64) (3) 347 4370