First post. Have enjoyed the reading so far here.
I've got new construction with a standing seam metal roof that I want to put solar on. It was designed to support a solar array 45' deep x 42' wide. My latitude is 40.4259 in Indiana. The key problem here is that the roof here has a 5 degree slope to the north and I do have to worry about snow in the winter.
I could post all the details of electric bills and system size, etc. But is my best option to simply install more panels on a fixed/flat roof mount and simply deal with less production? I know I would have to worry about dirt/etc and it would be more difficult to deal with if a panel in the middle goes out. Or am I better of slightly tilting (5 degrees using 10 degree tilt legs) the panels in the opposite direction (toward the south) and deal with shading from neighboring rows and snowbanking in the winter? I've looked at the row spacing calculators and they don't take into account the fact that each row farther north is lower than the previous because of the roof level. It seems like shadowing is a major issue with this as the tilt legs get taller.
PVwatts isn't really that bad for a 5 degree roof aimed north so I'm guessing I'm best off with a flat roof mount and more panels? I know it would be massively better with a 25 degree southern facing array but that's not realistic for this application.
Thanks in advance!
I've got new construction with a standing seam metal roof that I want to put solar on. It was designed to support a solar array 45' deep x 42' wide. My latitude is 40.4259 in Indiana. The key problem here is that the roof here has a 5 degree slope to the north and I do have to worry about snow in the winter.
I could post all the details of electric bills and system size, etc. But is my best option to simply install more panels on a fixed/flat roof mount and simply deal with less production? I know I would have to worry about dirt/etc and it would be more difficult to deal with if a panel in the middle goes out. Or am I better of slightly tilting (5 degrees using 10 degree tilt legs) the panels in the opposite direction (toward the south) and deal with shading from neighboring rows and snowbanking in the winter? I've looked at the row spacing calculators and they don't take into account the fact that each row farther north is lower than the previous because of the roof level. It seems like shadowing is a major issue with this as the tilt legs get taller.
PVwatts isn't really that bad for a 5 degree roof aimed north so I'm guessing I'm best off with a flat roof mount and more panels? I know it would be massively better with a 25 degree southern facing array but that's not realistic for this application.
Thanks in advance!
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