Solar Panel Angle R & D Data

[Northernchateau]

I live in upstate NY on the Tug Hill Plateau. On an average we get over 225" of snow a year.
I have had 2 stand alone solar powered webcams running on snowmobile trails for the last 4 years The 175W panel is at 45 degs which is ideal for December here but snow and ice sticking to them is the problem. And yes I have even applied Rainx for solar panels but still an issue.
So I have now put a solar power system together and at my home and decided to test panel angles to see what the gain or loss in performance is and if a steeper angle will help the snow/ice issue.
The system is:
6 Canadian Solar 340W panels set up 3s2p feeding a Growatt 24V SPF 3000TL LVM
6 Axitec Solar 290w panels set up 3s2p feeding a Growatt 24V SPF 3000TL LVM
Both Growatts share 16 310ah Lifepo4 batteries in a 8s2p configuration each 8s pack running an Overkill BMS
The graphs and data before today were with the panels at 70 degs off horizontal and today's data is with the panels at 33 degs.
A sample size of one is never a good idea so I am going to leave things alone for a week and will post an update.

 

[Darren67-72]

I'm in Michigan, and I've chosen 30° for the same reason. Not sure if it was the best angle here either. The difference in loss due to angle seems to be fairly minimal at the start, but as you become farther from the ideal angle, it becomes exponential.

 

[Northernchateau]

I'm in Michigan, and I've chosen 30° for the same reason. Not sure if it was the best angle here either. The difference in loss due to angle seems to be fairly minimal at the start, but as you become farther from the ideal angle, it becomes exponential.

The weather here thus far has not been good for collecting data. If the sun shines this weekend like they say I will know more by monday.

 

[45North]

There are websites that give year round expected yield for most cities. You could get an approximation by choosing Albany, say.

 

[45North]

Yes, I see you're in a snowbelt in the lee of Lake Ontario. Kinda like buffalo and Lake Erie.
Wouldn't your panels be better placed horizontal so they don't catch the wind? Especially if you're setting them steep so the snow falls off.
I don't have a solution for snow and ice; I just tried to remove it after every snowfall. I'm in Ontario, just north of you.

 

[Northernchateau]

Yes, I see you're in a snowbelt in the lee of Lake Ontario. Kinda like buffalo and Lake Erie.
Wouldn't your panels be better placed horizontal so they don't catch the wind? Especially if you're setting them steep so the snow falls off.
I don't have a solution for snow and ice; I just tried to remove it after every snowfall. I'm in Ontario, just north of you.

We get lake Effect snow here and if the panels were horizontal cleaning the off would be a huge task.
The wind here is not bad as there are tall pines around me so the panels don't get pounded. Bad part is they cut off the sun before 9am.

 

[Llaves]

The difference in loss due to angle seems to be fairly minimal at the start, but as you become farther from the ideal angle, it becomes exponential.

The drop is proportional to the cosine of the angle.

 

[Darren67-72]

Ok