Will it help to point my panels a little East?

[Jamie.sanders]

Hello all, I'm in Arkansas USA, and due to my neighbors trees I loose the sun this time of year around 3pm. I get great sun
up until 3pm starting at 9:30am, but at 9:30 the sun is more in the east and not hitting the panels at a good angle.
So my question is given my circumstances wound it be beneficial to point my panels south east(ish)?

 

[MurphyGuy]

Probably a few degrees... there's no rule saying they must be pointed directly south..

 

[Symbioquine]

It might. You can use a solar irradiance calculator to get a sense how much potential power you'd lose by pointing panels to the East. Then you'd be balancing those losses against the increased effective length of your solar day.

Check out this thread that has some good discussion; https://diysolarforum.com/threads/quick-shading-question.21345/

 

[iamrich]

Are you back feeding the grid?

 

[Jamie.sanders]

Are you back feeding the grid?

no, not grid tied at all.

 

[Jamie.sanders]

It might. You can use a solar irradiance calculator to get a sense how much potential power you'd lose by pointing panels to the East. Then you'd be balancing those losses against the increased effective length of your solar day.

Check out this thread that has some good discussion; https://diysolarforum.com/threads/quick-shading-question.21345/

thanks, I ran the calculator for due south and south south east, 22 degrees from south and got the exact same numbers.

 

[Symbioquine]

thanks, I ran the calculator for due south and south south east, 22 degrees from south and got the exact same numbers.

I suspect that you didn't click at the bottom to select a panel angle. The default of having them on a flat surface (pointed directly up) means that the direction isn't relevant.

 

[iamrich]

no, not grid tied at all.

It might still make sense as you should get more power sooner in the day.

If you were back feeding the grid the answer is simpler. You want whatever angle/direction is going to give you the most outright power production, so probably summer. But off the grid you want most "usable" power. Another option might be to just add more panels, some facing south east, and some south west, or maybe split the panels you have to do that.

 

[Jamie.sanders]

so doing some research, the earth rotates 15 degrees an hour, with south being 180 degrees, does pointing my panels at 165 degrees
sound correct? this would give me an hour more morning sun at a better angle since I can only harvest sunlight from 9:30 to 3:00.

 

[TomC4306]

Yes, that does sound correct. I do similar.

 

[Roswell Bob]

If you have the capability to store plenty of power to get you through the day and the chargers can process that power then.... Face the panels to absorb the maximum amount of power through the whole day. If 9:30am to 3pm is when you capture then you probably want to face them in the middle of that - around midday sun.

 

[sunshine_eggo]

My panels are oriented at 165° due to local weather patterns. On a completely unscientific basis, mornings tend to be very clear, and afternoons tend to be partly cloudy. My peak solar is about 11:30am

 

[Ampster]

That is fine for your micro climate. In my situation, in California, the best rates are in the afternoons so I added some more panels to pick up that higher revenue production. My main system faces 155 so the additional west facing panels balance production somewhat.

 

[Roswell Bob]

My panels are oriented at 165° due to local weather patterns. On a completely unscientific basis, mornings tend to be very clear, and afternoons tend to be partly cloudy. My peak solar is about 11:30am

Sounds like you are good then

 

[MichaelK]

Just put your panels on rotating mounts and then you can answer your question yourself, with your own empirical testing.

 

[svetz]

You can put shade trees into SAM and play around with the tilt and angle to optimize. It'll factor in the changing elevation of the sun in regard to the trees through the seasons as well as weather. Definitely watch the tutorial videos... super powerful, but once set up you can play with tilt and azimuth and get a power break down by day/week/month/year (off-grid you probably want to optimize for when you seasonally use the most power since you're off-grid). Might want to research tree type too, useful to know if they're going to grow another 20' in 5 years.

You can also run the power numbers with single and double-axis tracking, which will help you decide if trackers are worth the $ or bother of DIYing it.

Edited: Removed info regarding net-metering since you're not grid-tied.