Is it worth it to tilt solar panels in winter? Video

[Al F]

Here is a video showing the benefits, or lack of, tilting your solar panels in the winter.

 

To give credit to where I found the reference to this video, I found it in thisweekly newsletter from RVtravel.com

[Jack Mayer]

There is no question there is a benefit from a harvest point of view in tilting in the winter.

 

However, for MOST people I'd rather see them add extra panels and keep them flat. People have no business on the roof during wind, or for some people - ever. While it is possible to mount panels in such a manner that the wind will not adversely affect them, it is difficuult to be confident of that. Thus many people - in windstorms - either lose panels, damage panels, or go up there to lower them. That is simply a bad idea for most people.

 

There are circumstances - like long term boondocking in the desert for the winter - where tilting them may be worth the risk and aggravation. It is an individual call.....but for most people, just add panels....

[Kevin H]

Love the cat photo-bombing all the shots. That does bring up a question: Would a 10ish pound animal walking on the panels damage them?

[Al F]

There is no question there is a benefit from a harvest point of view in tilting in the winter.

 

However, for MOST people I'd rather see them add extra panels and keep them flat. People have no business on the roof during wind, or for some people - ever. While it is possible to mount panels in such a manner that the wind will not adversely affect them, it is difficuult to be confident of that. Thus many people - in windstorms - either lose panels, damage panels, or go up there to lower them. That is simply a bad idea for most people.

 

There are circumstances - like long term boondocking in the desert for the winter - where tilting them may be worth the risk and aggravation. It is an individual call.....but for most people, just add panels....

Agreed. Just look at the work/effort it took to put the panels up or to take them back down. Yes, there are ways to make the job easier to do, but you still need to get on the roof, possibly in high wind or just as the rain and lightening hit in a sudden thunderstorm.

[oldjohnt]

Its pretty simple physics and yall know it indeed increases efficiency if the panels are properly aligned to the sun WELL DUH. Its also simple that if you only have x square feet of rooftop area and that's NOT enough to meet your needs, then tilting (IF done safely and mechanically sound and secure) is an OPTION. As is the use of portable set out panels NOT permanently mounted which are easily tilted or relocated as long as you're there to move them now and then

 

THE QUESTION IS, HOWEVER, HOW MUCH EFFORT AND SAFETY AND DESIGN AND COST IS REQUIRED TO ACHIEVE THE TILTING?????????????

 

If you want to spend the time and money and design a mechanically sound and safe (absent having to climb up on the roof, which I consider risky and NOT for some) method to achieve proper tilt, THATS YOUR CHOICE SO GO FOR IT regardless what others choose or suggest.

 

If you don't want to go that extra effort and cost and allow your panels to remain flat (much easier to mount and secure) then you simply need to have enough panel capacity to meet your energy needs SIMPLE AS THAT GANG

 

Much of the answer depends on your energy needs,,,,,,,,,,,,how much roof real estate you have without encountering potential shading problems,,,,,,,,,,your budget,,,,,,,,,,,,your ability. The choice will NOT be the same for everyone.

 

I have considered and studied a method to achieve tilting at least call it East or West, which will work fairly well and safe (NO roof climbing) and easy, and all that's required is to park your rig one way or just the opposite, but for now all my energy needs are satisfied with my flat top fixed arrangement.

 

As so often, there's no right or wrong answer here, what Billy Bob prefers may be just the opposite of Bubba, its a matter of choice and energy requirements and rooftop real estate and budget and safety TO EACH THEIR OWN I SAY. But a flat mount (if it meets your energy needs) is so cheap and simple and easy and best of all SAFE

 

John T Old rusty retired EE and NOT any solar expert so do your homework and make a wise choice.

[skp51443]

I did design mine to tilt, even pre-drilled the mounting brackets for each season and location. I was very happy with that when I tried it out and saw a nice power gain in the winter.

 

Then came the day I had them fully up in mid-winter and we got high wind warnings, after getting them back flat in the gusty winds on a damp rubber roof I never tilted them again except to clean under them and check the connections.

 

Either add more panels and keep them flat or check your medical insurance package very carefully as you may need it!

[Yarome]

There are a lot easier tilting methods, and there is no denying the benefits of tilting, but I have to agree with the majority.. in most cases it just isn't worth the potential hazards/damage.

 

It does kind of depend on where you are though. I do tilt mine on occasion, but not while wintering in the Southwest where weather can really sneak up on you. Typically I only tilt in the North in more wooded areas in order to take better advantage of the short "windows" of full sun that may be obscured during the better part of the day.

 

Either flat to pick up more winter sun or tilted to catch shorter windows of sun in the north though... the same strategy applies, IMO... more panels is more gooder.

[hemsteadc]

I tilt 6 -135w panels often, but never during wind. The harvest is substantially higher. They stay up just fine in high winds. Haven't ripped one off yet.

 

I don't have enough roof space to add more.

[fmracerbob]

One thing to consider is where the panel is attached to the roof. When tilted the panel acts as a lever arm on the end still attached to the roof. Winds can cause that end to "flex" the roof at the mounting. Most areas of the roof are not designed for that kind of constant flexing and like constantly bending a paper clip will eventually break the clip so too the roof can develop cracks.

 

For fiberglass it starts with micro cracks that are hard to see but can leak water. Given enough time serious cracks can develop. Try tilting a panel and then push up and down at the raised end, just as wind gusts will, and look at the anchored end to see if it flexes. Roofs tend to be strongest near the edges and weakest in the middle.

[hemsteadc]

Most areas of the roof are not designed for that kind of constant flexing and like constantly bending a paper clip will eventually break the clip so too the roof can develop cracks.

 

Yes, and I check my mounts after every windstorm. I'm not in all that many high winds with panels up.

[Randyretired]

When we started with solar panels typically cost $5 a watt or more. We often tilted the panels and the gain in the winter was substantial. Now with costs around $1 a watt we just added more panels. Still there is only a limited roof area so occasionally we might tilt the panels. We use an inexpensive mount that allows yhe panels to tilt front, back or either side.

[Dale P]

So, in another words, you were not asking, as you wrote in the subject line of the topic. You were saying Tilting solar panels advantage.

 

Next time try to state clearly what you mean.

I have always know the advantage of tilting.

With 960 Watts, the highest I achieve was 750 @ 54 Amps DC. And that was tilted, but not directly at the sun.

[2gypsies]

We're not big energy hogs and had only 300w of solar but we could go all winter without tilting. Ours were able to be tilted and we did it a few times but found it unnecessary.

[Yarome]

So, in another words, you were not asking, as you wrote in the subject line of the topic. You were saying Tilting solar panels advantage.

 

Seems pretty clear.. and appropriate to me. Just how much do you gain by tilting in Winter is a constantly reoccurring question. Along with that it begs the additional question of "is it really worth it?".

 

For me anyway.. the way Al posed the question made me think about both sides of the coin rather than just confirming "Yes. Tilting panels will produce more energy in Winter."

 

[Al F]

Well, the reason for starting this topic was to show one factual example of what tilting the solar panels would do or not do for supplying more power. We all need to make our own decision on the advantages of tilting or not tilting, based on our needs. Several people made very good statements about why the tilt or don't tilt and gave anyone reading this topic lots of good info to help make the decision whether or not to tilt.

 

So often when the discussion of solar panels comes up I see entries of "oh, no don't tilt, dangerous, damage, etc" other say "oh yeah, I tilt and never had a problem. Lots of good info & opinions given in the posting here to help people make their on decision.

[StarDreamers.us]

Question? Sometime around 2007 or 08 a fellow offered a power tilt system for panels at Quartzite. Never heard from him again. Does anyone have any information to share? He had a really neat design for his system, it would power up go up and track the sun. Then it would park the panels back on the roof at night. All this with a low profile. With the limited space on the RV roofs it might be time to try again. Thanks for sharing!

 

Safe Travels!

[Al F]

Question? Sometime around 2007 or 08 a fellow offered a power tilt system for panels at Quartzite. Never heard from him again. Does anyone have any information to share? He had a really neat design for his system, it would power up go up and track the sun. Then it would park the panels back on the roof at night. All this with a low profile. With the limited space on the RV roofs it might be time to try again. Thanks for sharing!

 

Safe Travels!

Lots of mechanical parts to give problems would be my concern. I'm sure the sun tracking panels found in ground based installations are pretty beefy. On the other hand the pictures of the new solar farms I have seen don't have sun tracking. They are just tilted.

 

Just tilting motors and parts really need to be well made and designed to withstand frequent use or they just get to be a real pain.

[oldjohnt]

I see a HUGE difference between TILTING and TRACKING. Tracking is more expensive, complicated and cumbersome then relatively simple Tilting, and it gets to the point where you have to look at cost versus benefits. Again, if you don't have sufficient real estate Tilting is at least an "OPTION" (I'm not saying good or bad, do as you please!!!) and Tracking sure, is an OPTION but it gets more mechanically complicated and is likely not something I would pursue RV mounted, BUT TO EACH THEIR OWN. Fortunately my energy needs are minimal and flat mounted panels suit me just fine, but as your energy needs grow these OPTIONS are at least "out there", however good or bad.

 

John T NOT any solar expert

[skp51443]

Tilting isn't a lot of help in the summer unless you are way north, tracking is not that useful in the winter as the sun makes a smaller arc. Doing both is really great for power production and not too hard to accomplish with a fixed base solar system but getting all that working on an RV base is a lot more of a challenge.

 

Making a single direction tilting mount is really fairly easy, use a linear actuator to raise the panels and just put pivots on one edge. You'd probably want to put in some bounce suppression to keep the panels from getting stressed by wind or road bumps when down. Lots of actuators here:

 

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_hi_4?rh=n%3A16310091%2Cn%3A16310181%2Cn%3A16411201%2Cn%3A350654011%2Ck%3Aactuator+speed+linear&ie=UTF8&qid=1458244975

 

 

Adding tracking gets interesting, the RV systems I've seen all use a turntable base to rotate the entire system, I've never seen one of the thermal fluid systems in RV use. A motor and chain drive setup would probably be the most cost effective for rotation since you will probably want more movement than a linear actuator would give you.

 

I had great fun looking into all of this but when it came time to decide I added more panels and passed on the project. If we had spent a lot more time boondocking in the winter I might have gone with a tilt only system, summers we had enough power that trying to track just wasn't going to be worth the effort.

 

-----

 

On roofing construction and wind resistance, that is something that really needs looked into, our RV an Automate which is no longer made, had an excellent roof from an insulation and walking on it standpoint but was far less than solar panel friendly. It was basically a sandwich of 1/8" luan plywood and several layers of blue foam. Nothing solid to tie to at all in the roof, I'd have had to go clear to the sidewall / roof joint to find something that would hold a screw. Expanding or toggles would have given a bit of support but behind glued to foam 1/8" luan that wasn't going to be much. I was able to peel a test section of roofing apart with my bare hands, glue and a dusting of foam stuck to the luan so the weak link was the foam.

 

Check your situation before you make any plans, it gets expensive if you find an issue after your stuff is purchased.

[Smitty77_7]

For sure many options to harvest the sun, and also for sure their are many differences in space available for SP's too:)!

 

For smaller roof footprints, tilting maybe a requirement to obtain the power desired.

 

For larger roof footprints, especially today with lower costs of SP's, just adding one or two more panels will take care of you well.

 

The choice of SP makes a difference too. A 48V higher efficiency model panel, will yield more power output - and yeah, for a price too.

 

By the time you were to pay for a auto tilting swivel base system, you could add more panels - IF you have the roof top space.

 

And another option for those wanting a combo of both worlds, and the ability to compensate for those days in the shades of trees, a good quality portable panel added into the mix - maybe enough to mean never having to tilt your roof tops:)!

 

Thanks of the video, have seen it, and yep, tilting does produce ultimate power.

 

One size, does not fit all. Best,

Smitty