Solar Panel Angle Latitude

Note that for latitudes greater than 72 north or less than 72 south accuracy may be lower due in part to the effects of atmospheric refraction.

Solar panel angle latitude.

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. For the best results solar panels should be oriented towards the south. If you are able to adjust the angle of your solar panels a few times per year here is the adjustment schedule we recommend. Whatever your latitude is you can subtract 15 from it to calculate the angle for 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. For instance if your latitude. For los angeles a solar panel tilt of 19 degrees works the best. Tilt the panels to your latitude plus 15.

Tilt the panels to your latitude minus 15. Since solar panels are more productive when the sun s rays are perpendicular to their surfaces the certainly best orientation is the one directly true south azimuth angle 180. Latitude and longitude can be in deg min sec or decimal degrees entered in the deg field. On the contrary in the countries of the southern hemisphere such as south africa and australia the best orientation is true north.

There are two methods for calculating the tilt angle for solar panels. The sun s noon angle will vary 23 5 degrees throughout the year being at an angle of 90 latitude at the equinox mar 21 and sept 21 and 23 5 higher than this at the summer solstice jun 21 and 23 5 lower at winter solstice dec 21. The summer optimum tilt angle on the other hand will be 34 15 19. Both of these angles require latitude degrees.

This variation is a sinusoidal with the average value being the same as the latitude degrees. Find the best angle for optimizing solar collection during winter when solar energy is most scarce by multiplying your latitude by 0 89 and then adding 24 degrees. Cosine of solar zenith angle is unitless. The next question is at what angle from horizontal should the panels be tilted.

For instance in the san francisco bay area the best solar panel tilt angle is between 22 23 degrees. This is because the sun is always in the southern half of the sky in the northern hemisphere. It is simplest to mount your solar panels at a fixed tilt and just leave them there. It turns out that you can do better than this about 4 better.

The optimum tilt angle is calculated by adding 15 degrees to your latitude during winter and subtracting 15 degrees from your latitude during summer. These angles will give you the best overall output over the course of the year if you re going for a fixed installation. Similarly you can calculate the angle for winter by adding 15.