Rooftop solar system east/west hing & Actuator

[Guest]

I currently have an off gird / backup solar system that consists of 3 solar panels on the roof of my shed. It works great. On a perfectly sunny day I can pull down 7 - 8 KWH in the summer. 3.5 - 5 kwh in the winter I had an idea to use some sort of Hinge on the high side of the roof, then a linear actuator to raise the bottom of the panel so it'll be facing East in the AM and West in the PM. Is this a crazy idea or something someone has done?
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[bcroe]

It has been done, the question is if it is practical for you? Some commercial arrays have long rows of panels
on a horizontal N-S shaft which scan over the day. These are rather inefficient at my 42 deg Latitude, at mid
day, because the shaft would perform best when tilted up an impractical 42 degrees. Perfect at the equator,
but require a big increase in the number of panels here. They have the ability to avoid or dump snow.

On your scale some of us prefer to put one panel facing east and one panel west, tied in parallel to produce
a relatively flat output all day. Something like a 60 degree tilt up isn't bad here. Since the panels don't peak
at the same time, the extra energy comes without increasing the size of the power management system.
Besides eliminating moving parts, the much diminished output under the dispersed light of clouds is much
increased. good luck, Bruce Roe

[J.P.M.]

Anything is possible. I've not seen such a design in a residential application, but my experience is far from extensive.

Safety, cost effectiveness and practicality are different considerations than is something possible. The dearth of such schemes may be some indication of the hassle involved once those things are considered.

To do it safely, one consideration of several/many is how to check/modify the design to handle the likely increased wind loading on the assembly as well as the loadings on the anchorage as well as the roof. You may also need to consider running the idea past the AHJ as well as your insurance company and maybe your POCO. Such a design or such a design modification is usually outside the ability of most DIYers.

[Guest]

bcroe & J.P.M,

I currently have one panel east one west in parallel, and you're right they do give a nice constant power. I was thinking about the tracking just to boost their performance, but after reading your reply's I agree that it might be outside my ability. Plus looking at the associated cost, I could probably buy two more panel's, and have two panels on each side, which will produce more power in the long run

Thanks for your reply's.

[SunEagle]

bcroe & J.P.M,

I currently have one panel east one west in parallel, and you're right they do give a nice constant power. I was thinking about the tracking just to boost their performance, but after reading your reply's I agree that it might be outside my ability. Plus looking at the associated cost, I could probably buy two more panel's, and have two panels on each side, which will produce more power in the long run

Thanks for your reply's.

Since the price of panels have come down so much the cost to install and maintain a tracker no longer makes sense. If you have the roof space, just install more panels.

[J.P.M.]

bcroe & J.P.M,

I currently have one panel east one west in parallel, and you're right they do give a nice constant power. I was thinking about the tracking just to boost their performance, but after reading your reply's I agree that it might be outside my ability. Plus looking at the associated cost, I could probably buy two more panel's, and have two panels on each side, which will produce more power in the long run

Thanks for your reply's.

For anything I wrote that you found useful, you're welcome.

As far as location, the more surface you have in the optimum orientation, the better. The more surface you have in less than optimal orientations, regardless of the reason(s) for that location, the less cost effective will those panels be. Spreading the output over a longer portion of a day by using different (and less than optimum) orientations when it is not necessary is less efficient and less cost effective than putting as much of the array in the best orientation as possible.

There may be reasons such as output limitations by a POCO that might justify such multiple orientation schemes, but the associated economic penalty in doing so will be there regardless of the reasons for the multiple orientations. All things being equal, the most cost effective way to produce PV power is one that has one orientation, or a layout that makes the most use of the optimum orientation.