RV NET solar install?

Almot wrote:

I know for those of you Off-grid, how do you orient the rig for the best energy harvest? I know some tilt & some dont.

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In summer and in Southern latitudes tilt doesn't matter much.

Almot you know you shouldn't have said that since you don't know what matters or not in anybody else's situation. What you meant to say was that when the sun is higher in the sky tilting vs flat has less effect than when the sun is lower in the sky.

The sun is higher in the sky daily mid-day, and also seasonally over the year. My twirler contraption that I follow the sun with during the day has two settings for tilt, where it is tilted lower mid-day than earlier and later. This keeps it more aimed at the sun all day.

Besides that, just the optimum tilt for a panel facing only South will change over the seasons due to the sun's declination. Proper tilt changes by about 8 degrees a month back and forth every six months. How much that changes you amp hour haul depends on your latitude for how high the sun gets.

There are all kinds of tables on the net showing how much tilting does for you in various locations over the year so you can figure out what is worth doing or not depending on your daily AH usage, panel wattage, and how often you change locations.

IMO it is worth doing a bit of work on that whole thing which could save you buying extra panels or save your situation when not having enough roof space for more panels when you need more daily AH haul from solar.

Just one example where I measured the difference you can get, in mid- May at 49.3N, with a 130w panel (8.2 amps aimed) I got 56AH/day with it flat, 70AH/day tilted up facing South, and 90AH/day tilted up and aimed around during the day (sort of tracking except moved only three times a day to aim SE,S,and SW.)