Recommended height for solar panels
I am laying out a roof plan, looking at shading. I made a good scale drawing and now need to assume a mounting height in order to finalize the shaded no go areas. I suppose there are different opinion...
Forum Discussion
I always pay attention to others planning solar panels installs on their trailer roof. I will be getting into this probably sooner than I want to haha...
I am at a lost of what you are referring to on your mounting height. I assume you are talking about the height above the roof. I know the smallest shadows walking across your solar panel can really play heck with your outputs. I was playing with a couple of portable units on the ground and a small two-inch aluminum pole shadow was walking my panels and giving me fits.
In my planning I will have two 120WATT Panels mounted long wise on end of my off-road POPUP trailer roof with the fantastic fan door opening in the middle of these two units. My third location will be on the other end of my trailer roof between the air conditioner and the end of the roof. This panel will mount across the roof.
I am planning on at least a mounted height above the existing roof of about 1-1/2 to 3 inches.
The two front solar panels will need to be on a quick disconnect hinge arrangement so that these two units can be used in a portable arrangement on the ground if necessary to stay in the high sun.
I suppose my roof mounted air conditioner may offer some unwanted shade to the one panel mounted mounted close to it...
I too want to get started on my drawings for this. I use LibreOffice 3.4 for my drawings since I can't afford my Autocad LT subscription since retiring... I also have the Adobe Acrobat Pro ver 9.0 where I can capture many drawings from other other places and modify them for my use... Made up a pretty good library of RV items to use.
Roy Ken
I am at a lost of what you are referring to on your mounting height. I assume you are talking about the height above the roof. I know the smallest shadows walking across your solar panel can really play heck with your outputs. I was playing with a couple of portable units on the ground and a small two-inch aluminum pole shadow was walking my panels and giving me fits.
In my planning I will have two 120WATT Panels mounted long wise on end of my off-road POPUP trailer roof with the fantastic fan door opening in the middle of these two units. My third location will be on the other end of my trailer roof between the air conditioner and the end of the roof. This panel will mount across the roof.
I am planning on at least a mounted height above the existing roof of about 1-1/2 to 3 inches.
The two front solar panels will need to be on a quick disconnect hinge arrangement so that these two units can be used in a portable arrangement on the ground if necessary to stay in the high sun.
I suppose my roof mounted air conditioner may offer some unwanted shade to the one panel mounted mounted close to it...
I too want to get started on my drawings for this. I use LibreOffice 3.4 for my drawings since I can't afford my Autocad LT subscription since retiring... I also have the Adobe Acrobat Pro ver 9.0 where I can capture many drawings from other other places and modify them for my use... Made up a pretty good library of RV items to use.
Roy Ken
