I also think that the fan idea would waste more power than it will collect.
If you will be in one location for more than say 10 days, it might be worthwhile to tilt the panels to the south, and that will put them more up in the air, and any heat would be conducted away as the air behind the panels are heated by the 140F panels, and that will thin the air, lighten it, and move it upward on it's own.
Personally right now, I would rather save damage to my roof by not tilting them, and be satisfied with the output they are putting out. I barely need all the power they produce now anyway. IF you have hookups to run the A/C, then you will not need a lot of 12 volt power. Just shut off your converter/charger, and enjoy all the free solar power to run your lights, pump, ect. for free. If you do not have 120 volt power, good luck with the Texas heat. I lived in Mesa AZ one summer, and could not have done it without my A/C keeping my bedroom a 'cool' 80F at night.
It is much cheaper to install a extra panel than to risk damage from climbing on the roof to tilt them, and a lot easier too! And you will shade more of your roof too! Benefits all around!
SunElec.comI used mounts that keep the panels about 1" off the roof, so they actually keep the roofing membrane cooler under the panels, than the exposed roof temperature.
Here are some pictures of my solar mounts, when it rains they are under the panels, so the rain is not directly over the screw holes. Also it makes it more difficult to remove without the proper antitheft Torx screwdriver adapter.
Golden_HVAC wrote:
rickthescot wrote:
Sounds like a great idea. I guess asking for pictures again is not going to persuade you though. We are visual creatures and I don't think 1000 words will accomplish what one image will. You can do it, just one pic.
More pictures that I took a few days ago to post pictures of my solar panels, and their mounts. Some pictures are really close up pictures of the solar panel mounts, and give a clear picture of howrough the surface is.
Golden_HVAC wrote:
Hi,
This is my front pair of panels. 120 watt mounted on a curved roof, 102" wide.
This is the mount it is held on with three rivets into the frame, and then the bottom half is 6" long aluminum, (Home Depot 2" angle aluminum) with nutsert in the upper piece, bolt you can not see from the outside edge pointing inward.
This picture shows the bigfoot panel mount sold by RvSolarElectric for $35 a set back in 1994. I wonder what they cost today?
This picture shows the panels tilted while I was working on the roof.
Fred.
If you google Nutsert insert tool, you will see several videos of people installing nutserts, and they are easy to install, difficult to remove, easy to use to install, tilt or remove the panels.
