Solar Panel Angle To Sun

There are two methods for calculating the tilt angle for solar panels.

Solar panel angle to sun.

The tilt angle or elevation angle describes the vertical angle of your solar panels. It turns out that you can do better than this about 4 better. Books and articles on solar energy often give the advice that the tilt should be equal to your latitude plus 15 degrees in winter or minus 15 degrees in summer. Cosine of solar zenith angle.

On the contrary in the countries of the southern hemisphere such as south africa and australia the best orientation is true north. Similarly you can calculate the angle for winter by adding 15. For los angeles a solar panel tilt of 19 degrees works the best. The solar panel angle of your solar system is different depending on which part of the world you are.

These angles will give you the best overall output over the course of the year if you re going for a fixed installation. Whatever your latitude is you can subtract 15 from it to calculate the angle for summer. If you do plan to optimize solar collection in every season use the following calculations. The optimum angle varies throughout the year depending on the seasons and your location and this calculator shows the difference in sun height on a month by month basis.

For that reason the ideal angle is never fixed. Azimuth is measured in degrees clockwise from north. Elevation is measured in degrees up from the horizon. Solar panels should face directly into the sun to optimize their output.

The sun moves across the sky and will be low or high depending on the time of the day and the season. Azimuth angle is their horizontal facing in relation to the equator. For instance in the san francisco bay area the best solar panel tilt angle is between 22 23 degrees. For spring and fall multiply your latitude by 0 98 and subtract 2 3 degrees.

Since solar panels are more productive when the sun s rays are perpendicular to their surfaces the certainly best orientation is the one directly true south azimuth angle 180. In order to collect energy more efficiently solar panels should be angled to face as close to the sun as possible. Photovoltaics produce power when the angle at which the sun s rays hit the panel surface the angle of incidence is small or when light strikes the panel as close to perpendicular as possible.