You’ve constructed or purchased solar panels and now you’re ready to hook them up to the grid or your energy storage system. You could just put them in a convenient place, but if you don’t give the placement of your solar panels much thought you could be throwing away free electricity.
Where and how you place your solar panels matters. There is a science to this, which I’ll cover in more depth in a future post, but you actually don’t have to get that technical. It’s easy to choose a place for your solar panels that will get the most out of them.
You probably realize this, but the most important thing in considering a place for your solar system is to make sure that that place is one that gets as much sun as possible.
The spot you choose for your solar system may be bright and sunny when you first choose it, but you need to make sure that it gets as little shade as possible throughout the day. Shade can have a large negative impact on solar systems, and that means more money out of your pocket to the electric company. Ideally there should be no shade on your solar panels during any part of the day when the sun is up.
If you’re in the Northern Hemisphere, you’ll want to have your solar panels facing due south. Using a compass to find North and then setting up your panels facing directly opposite that is a good way to accurately do this. Of course if you’re in Southern Hemisphere you should just do the opposite.
You also do not want your panels to be mounted flat if possible, but rather at an angle. The best possible angle for your panels to be mounted at is actually the latitude of where you’re installing your panels. Neat, right?
For example, if you’re located at 34 degrees latitude and the ground where you’re at is perfectly level, then you want the angle that the back of your solar panel makes between itself and the ground to be 34 degrees.
To make sure that you are mounting your panels at the proper angle for your latitude, all you need is a cheap line level and an old protractor. The line level will get you an accurate horizontal, and you can then use the protractor and your eye to get really close to the angle your panels need to be mounted at.
Setting your panels up so that they face due south and are at the right angle will expose your panels to the most sunlight possible throughout the year, the effects of clouds aside. If you’d like to know how to optimize for a certain time of year, I’ll be covering that in a future post.
Another thing to consider in your panel placement is a safe location. By that I mean you want to choose a place where the panels can’t be easily damaged, either by accident or on purpose.
A lot of people put solar panels on their roofs because it is out of harm’s way and the panels get tons of light exposure with little to no shade issues. Perhaps one of the greatest benefits of roof mounting your panels is that it makes use of space that you wouldn’t otherwise be using.
The drawbacks to roof mounting your panels is that it is more difficult to install and therefore more expensive. It can somewhat limit the angle and facing of the panels, and also makes it a little more difficult to service the panels if necessary.
Another mounting option is to use the ground. This makes set-up and service a breeze and is definitely cheaper to do. The drawbacks here are that you are more likely to have shade issues. And of course this only really works if you’ve got the free space to mount your panels on.
All of the above tips are important, because they maximize the amount of sunlight that gets to your panels. If you follow them you’ll end up getting more out of your solar panels and saving more on your electricity bill.
