M-4 Plugs, or Chop'm Off
I've got 2 panels mounted, even made'm tiltable. And I got a 10ga twin lead down the fridge vent. Now I'm lookin at the M-4 plugs layin all over. What makes me want to chop'm off, and mount a couple ...
Forum Discussion
RJ, proper tilt changes by 8 degrees a month so you might want to have some holes for different tilts depending on how fussy you feel like being once you are set up there. I am supposing you will park so the tilted up panels face South.
If you are staying for three months you could just pick the optimum angle for the middle month and not lose much.
You pick your tilt angle for high noon at that latitude and then lower it by some so it gets more light in the shoulder hours. However when daylight time is short as in winter, there are no shoulder hours, so just leave it at noon angle based on your Lat and Dec. Macslab website has the optimum angles for that for various locations
The angle changes by 8 degrees a month as the sun's Declination changes through + 23.5 to - 23.5 every six months. So Dec is zero twice at 21 Mar and 21 Sep when tilt = Lat.
If you are parked from 21 Dec to 21 March you could pick your angle for 21 February when Declination is say - 13 degrees (WAG) and your Lat is 33N (or whatever it is at Q)
So at high noon tilt would be 33 plus 13 = 46 and you might as well leave it there with hardly any shoulder hours that time of year.
That is for the fixed tilt panels facing South. It is the opposite for your twirling panel's tilt, which you need to be at the proper noon angle but go higher earlier and later in the day when the sun is lower.
If you are staying for three months you could just pick the optimum angle for the middle month and not lose much.
You pick your tilt angle for high noon at that latitude and then lower it by some so it gets more light in the shoulder hours. However when daylight time is short as in winter, there are no shoulder hours, so just leave it at noon angle based on your Lat and Dec. Macslab website has the optimum angles for that for various locations
The angle changes by 8 degrees a month as the sun's Declination changes through + 23.5 to - 23.5 every six months. So Dec is zero twice at 21 Mar and 21 Sep when tilt = Lat.
If you are parked from 21 Dec to 21 March you could pick your angle for 21 February when Declination is say - 13 degrees (WAG) and your Lat is 33N (or whatever it is at Q)
So at high noon tilt would be 33 plus 13 = 46 and you might as well leave it there with hardly any shoulder hours that time of year.
That is for the fixed tilt panels facing South. It is the opposite for your twirling panel's tilt, which you need to be at the proper noon angle but go higher earlier and later in the day when the sun is lower.
