Positioning With Solar Panels

If your roof does not face the right direction then surface mounted panels or pole mounted panels may be your best bet.

Positioning with solar panels.

The traditional advice is to position solar panels to be south facing. It is at this location that your panels will receive the maximum sunlight throughout the day. Solar south or geographic south. 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. Therefore the best angle for your solar panels is the one that allows the panels to get the most direct perpendicular light. True north is not the same as magnetic north. 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.

Solar panels should always face true south if you are in the northern hemisphere or true north if you are in the southern hemisphere. However there is a difference between magnetic south and true south that must be considered. The most optimum direction to face your solar panels is somewhere between south and west. The angle at which the solar panel is elevated plays a vital role in maximizing the production of energy.

For this calculator latitude is positive to the north and longitude is positive to the west of the prime meridian. In the northern hemisphere the general rule for solar panel placement is solar panels should face true south and in the southern true north. Determining the best angle can be a tedious task. Usually this is the best direction because solar panels will receive direct light throughout the day.

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. True south can also be calculated at noon when shadows from vertical objects run north south. The direction solar panels should face is true south a k a. To correct the compass reading your solar installer will calculate the magnetic declination of your site.

Build a simple solar pointer and at solar noon you can point your panel t.