diy solar

diy solar

Panel mount for maximum strength (your opinion pls)

burgerking

New Member
Joined
Apr 6, 2022
Messages
368
Location
Subic, Philippines
1658466695454.png
RED Line = Railing
Black Rectangle = Solar Panel
Assume panel dimension 1m x 2m

What is the best way to orient panels for optimal mounting strength?
a) horizontally (top)
b) vertically (bottom)
I am biased towards the vertical orientation. It would use less railings thus cost less. Likewise the wires are aligned.
But I could not give any concrete math to support strength analysis.

How much distance should the railings be spaced to provide optimal mounting strength?
As shown in the bottom panel: I opine that d should be 1/2 to 2/3 y.
Again, I could not give the math to it.

I appreciate your inputs.
 
Many panel manufacturers provide installation guides for their panels. They show various valid mounting options and in many cases point out which gives you the better loading characteristics. The best installation manual I've seen (and I've only seen 3 or 4) is from LG.

Your vertical (bottom diagram) layout is very common and the panel frames typically have 4 holes for that exact mounting using bolts. The horizontal approach would require panel clamps.

The following is an example installation manual from LG (Warning: this is a 7+MB PDF file download link):


Read the Mechanical Installation chapter then go to the Appendix for the really good part. The appendix shows all the different ways to mount a panel and what the resulting loading specs would be. The higher the value the stronger that mounting arrangement is. Of course these values are specific to the relevant LG solar panels (and LG is shutting down their solar panel business). But the general info should roughly apply to just about any solar panel.

Your own specific panel's spec sheet should show values for front and rear surface load.
 
Back
Top