July 27, 20241 yr Hi all, my house is not ideally oriented for solar harvesting. It has a large 26° roof slope oriented 60° to Northwest (300°) and a small slope Northeast (30°). I installed 4 arrays (3s) on the large Northwest slope and one array on the Northeast slope. So I harvest some in late morning from the Northeast slope (few in winter) and the main part starting about 13h from the Northwest slope. The 26° tilt is too slow for winter sun, it should be 45°. But that would require important support structure and expose the panels to the winds. So I decided to install an array vertically on my windowless Northeast face. The result is amazing. I get almost full power from them from about 09h in the morning until 13h. It is electrically in parallel connected with the Northeast roof mounted. During these winter months the sun remains low therefor shines at a good angle on the vertical panels but less favorable on the roof panels. On the other hand being low the solar radiation is weakened by having a longer pass trough the atmosphere. As the season goes on the sun gets higher, thus the radiation angle becomes less favorable but on the other hand the radiation becomes more intensive. I am amazed. "Decoration" of my Northeast face. Looks almost like windows. The small door on the left bottom is the access to the shack where the inverters and batteries are installed. If someone is interested in the DIY mounting structure just let me know, I'll be happy to share.
August 6, 20241 yr Author I have now seen various videos on Youtube praising the advantages of vertical solar panels. First of all they also collect reflected radiation from the surrounding. In stand alone installation bi-facial panels are beneficial. On wall mounts bi-facials make no sense. In latitudes more than 30° south or north the radiation angle is most of the time more favorable than on a 26° roof, in particular during winter. Other advantages are that they get much less spoiled from dirt of the air and from birds - important issue in regions with regular snow fall. There is also much less risk of getting damaged by hail. And last but not least - vertical surfaces are optimal for air self cooling. The heated air on the surface raises up and draws cooler air from below. As we know, cell temperature has a negative effect on the efficiency of the panels. Edited August 6, 20241 yr by Beat
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