Okay, so this came up in conversation with a colleague of mine who's converting a van right now. I got really lost in the math, so I'm hoping you guys can put it to bed for me...
The debate:
My friend has two obvious spaces for solar panels on the van. They *JUST* fit two 200W panels. On either side of them are standard Dometic Mini Heki skylights, about 1cm from the edge of the flexible panel.
As the sun moves across the sky, no doubt these skylights will cast a shadow on the panels (especially if the skylights are open since they essentially become almost-vertical translucent sheets about 40cm x 40cm).
The question then, is whether it's worth fitting 200W panels, or whether they'd actually get more energy from 160W panels (or perhaps even less) which put about 8cm between each of the skylights and panels due to how harshly the panels respond to partial shading?
I welcome any thoughts/musings/accusations of wild over-thinking/calls for a roof rack in order to just fit 2000W and have done with it etc .
The debate:
My friend has two obvious spaces for solar panels on the van. They *JUST* fit two 200W panels. On either side of them are standard Dometic Mini Heki skylights, about 1cm from the edge of the flexible panel.
As the sun moves across the sky, no doubt these skylights will cast a shadow on the panels (especially if the skylights are open since they essentially become almost-vertical translucent sheets about 40cm x 40cm).
The question then, is whether it's worth fitting 200W panels, or whether they'd actually get more energy from 160W panels (or perhaps even less) which put about 8cm between each of the skylights and panels due to how harshly the panels respond to partial shading?
I welcome any thoughts/musings/accusations of wild over-thinking/calls for a roof rack in order to just fit 2000W and have done with it etc .
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