Winter sun and direction of solar panels

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shorts

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Jul 19, 2015
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Indiana
How do you calculate the best direction to park your rig for boondocking and then the best angle to tilt your panels on the roof to make the most of the reduced hours of sunlight in the winter? And if you have panels on both sides, do you tilt them both in the same direction? Wouldn?t one side shade the other later in the day?

We have 12 160 watt panels- all tillable and though we boondock quite often, we usually move frequently so have not bothered to research tilting the panels. We will be heading west in a couple of weeks and will eventually land in Arizona with plans for extended boondocking in Q and the KOFA areas this winter. So obviously want to get the most out of our solar system.

TIA - Vicki
 
I would think that with that many watts of panels, unless you have extra ordinary needs, you would never need to tilt them. When I dont tilt my panels, but want max output, I face the motorhome north.  When I do tilt the panels I face the motorhome about 30 degrees north of straight east to get the panels charging earlier in the morning.

There are calculators on the internet that will tell you optimum tilt angle for your location and time of year.
 
Wow! 1920 watts! I'm with PJ... I can't imagine you'd actually need to tilt them. I'm curious, what is the AH capacity of your battery bank? There are a lot of online solar angle calculators available. Here's one...  https://unboundsolar.com/blog/solar-panel-azimuth-angle

Our six panels are staggered (somewhat) on our roof, so we can tilt them without one shading another. If we're facing west in the winter months, however, one of the panels gets a corner shaded by a roof AC unit until about 8:30 am. That's not really an issue, because there isn't much charging until about 9:00 am anyway.

Kev
 
The good news is during the winter the sun doesn't travel as great an arc across the sky as the summer, so maintaining a fixed angle can give you a higher net power average than other seasons.  The downside is that during the winter the available power is nominally half as much as summer, so you only you get what you get even if you were actively tracking for maximum output.

A place like out in the dirt in Quartzsite you can probably park in the most ideal orientation, set your angle and that's as good as it gets.  Other places like parks and campgrounds you don't often have that latitude so again, you get what you get.  My perspective with RV's is they're there to serve me and not the other way around, so unless you actually enjoy managing the minutia of a solar energy system, run your stuff and if that means some genset time then so be it.  Sitting in a cold dark camper because there's a cloudy day isn't on my list of acceptable situations.  But everyone's different I guess.

There are insolation tables online that will tell you the optimum angle  for fixed panels based on latitude and day of the year.  Here's a good discussion of it:

https://www.solarpaneltilt.com/

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM
 
    There are many internet sites that give directions. Some seem to be a bit easier to use than others! This is just one of those, that has lots of info.....while being pretty practical. 

  12-160’s......I am impressed. We couldn’t get that many on our roof. Though, with our winter camping in cool (as in many zero F and colder nights)....12 would be welcome. We end up running our little generator 2 to 3 hours almost daily, especially if we are energy wasteful! memtb

https://unboundsolar.com/blog/solar-panel-azimuth-angle
 
Simple answer ... if your panels tilt side to side, park the RV facing east-west so when you raise the panels they are pointing due south.  Then either halfway between sunrise and solar noon or halfway between solar noon and sunset, make your panels perpendicular to the sun by raising them until they cast the longest shadow.  But don't raise them high enough to shadow another panel.
 
Hi Vickie. No advice on your solar (ours are flat), but it will be nice to see you this winter, assuming we make it to Q and Kofa as planned ourselves.
 
Thanks everyone for the replies and the links to the calculators. I thought there were some out there. We have 10 lithium 100 ah batteries to charge along with a residential fridge, cpap and other gadgets that like electricity. We do have generators for backup. Everything in the fifth wheel except for our fireplace and the air conditioners are run through the inverter/batteries/solar system.

I think we will be fine, but Mark is concerned that the days will be too short to fully charge the batteries without running
the generator.

Pam, it will be great seeing you and Kevin again. Have you started heading south or west yet?

Vicki
 
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