Calculating Angle Of Incidence Solar Panel

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Calculating angle of incidence solar panel.

If you cannot change the angle of your panel throughout the year angle your panel according to the time of year that you need to get the best performance out of your system. It turns out that you can do better than this about 4 better. For the best results solar panels should be oriented towards the south. Solar declination in degrees with positive to the north.

The calculator shows the degrees from vertical. Books and articles on solar energy often give the advice that the tilt should be equal to your latitude plus 15 degrees in winter or minus 15 degrees in summer. While the angle of your solar panels is important a more important factor in your energy production is going to be the direction your panels face. Let s start with two key terms.

Figure 2 13 definition of the solar angle of incidence on a tilted surface. The vertical tilt of your panels. Welcome to another entry in our ongoing solar 101 series. Orientation of the panels.

This is because the sun is always in the southern half of the sky in the northern hemisphere. Both vectors are normalized and thus the solar angle of incidence on a tilted surface is obtained by calculating the scalar multiplication of these two vectors. The summer optimum tilt angle on the other hand will be 34 15 19. The calculator will then show the optimum angle for the solar panel.

Results are given in the following units. Angle of incidence the angle of incidence θ of the sun on a surface tilted at an angle from the horizontal β and with any surface azimuth angle a zs figure 3 2 can be calculated from when a zs is measured clockwise from north. There are two methods for calculating the tilt angle for solar panels. Once the calculations are complete you may use your browser s print function to obtain a hardcopy of the results.

For instance if your latitude is 34 the optimum tilt angle for your solar panels during winter will be 34 15 49. Hit the calculate solar position button. The next question is at what angle from horizontal should the panels be tilted. The optimum tilt angle is calculated by adding 15 degrees to your latitude during winter and subtracting 15 degrees from your latitude during summer.

Azimuth in degrees clockwise from north. Both of these angles require latitude degrees. Whatever your latitude is you can subtract 15 from it to calculate the angle for summer.