Rules Of Thumb For Designing Solar Panel Power System

Historical design rules varied greatly by latitude.

Rules of thumb for designing solar panel power system.

This would mean a 25 tilt in miami a 35 tilt in raleigh north carolina and a 45 tilt in seattle. In summer you can leave them up high and the longer daylight hours will make up for not optimizing tilt. 2 know how much available roof space sq ft you have. The optimum performance of a photovoltaic panel is obtained when it s correctly aligned to the sun when the sun is directly overhead.

This usually equates as a fixed mounting to an alignment of around latitude or 15 degrees. This orientation optimizes for the sun angles throughout the year pointing the modules as close as possible to the sun s average position in the sky. This is fine if you are going for a top down system and will only load to the available capacity. Often when designing a power system people are tempted to start at the generation source i e.

A small pv system could reduce your electricity needs enough to move you to a different tier lowering your rates and saving you a large amount of money. Here in seattle that would mean the panels face due south and they are mounted at an angle of inclination of 47 5. Historically modules were tilted at or near the latitude of the project s location. To determine how many solar panels you can actually use it is important that you know how much roof space you have.