If you're off grid and at latitude 35N or higher... The one thing you
should care about is cumulative kWh production in December and January.
Try putting the panels at an 85 or 90 degree tilt (yes, really) facing
due south. You will produce a lot less in June/July but your winter
production will be maximized. This also has the effect of ameliorating
snow and ice buildup thanks to gravity.
The US DoE NREL and other sources have a lot of research on latitude vs.
angle tilt of solar panels. Ignore everything intended for gridtie
applications and stuff like "tilt the solar panels at the same angle as
your latitude". There are some online calculators like pvwatts that
will show you your December and January production for a 45 degree tilt
vs. an 85 degree tilt.
On 9/19/15 11:05 PM, Steve D wrote:
Maybe it's Saturday night exhaustion talking, but piping the exhaust
from a standby generator toward the back of solar panels a bad idea?
I'd expect it to not put heat on the panels in the summer except it's
weekly exercise cycle but that shouldn't be too bad? LP too so
shouldn't be any soot. Or would this just create one little hole of
open panel and a pile of ice? Bad in general for the panels?
If I did this again, I'd put the damn thing directly under the
panels... these Onan's get stinking hot. My little "cool running",
comparatively speaking, portable yamaha's will melt a two foot radius
of snow around them if they run for a good length of time, all this
heat going to waste! The Onan would probably clear the whole rack if
it was sitting right below it.
Grumble grumble... snow... something, something, curse words...
Cheers,
Steve D
