Solar Panel Angle Latitude

Whatever your latitude is you can subtract 15 from it to calculate the angle for summer.

Solar panel angle latitude.

For instance if your latitude. This is because the sun is always in the southern half of the sky in the northern hemisphere. To optimize overall production year round tilt your panels at your latitude. Similarly you can calculate the angle for winter by adding 15.

Both of these angles require latitude 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. It turns out that you can do better than this about 4 better. While the angle of your solar panels is important a more important factor in your energy production is going to be the direction your panels face.

For the best results solar panels should be oriented towards the south. 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. These angles will give you the best overall output over the course of the year if you re going for a fixed installation. To lean toward more production in the summer tilt your panels at your latitude minus 10 15.

It is simplest to mount your solar panels at a fixed tilt and just leave them there. The next question is at what angle from horizontal should the panels be tilted. To lean toward more production in the winter tilt your panels at your latitude plus 10 15. The summer optimum tilt angle on the other hand will be 34 15 19.

The sun s noon angle will vary 23 5 degrees throughout the year being at an angle of 90 latitude at the equinox mar 21 and sept 21 and 23 5 higher than this at the summer solstice jun 21 and 23 5 lower at winter solstice dec 21. This variation is a sinusoidal with the average value being the same as the latitude degrees. For los angeles a solar panel tilt of 19 degrees works the best. There are two methods for calculating the tilt angle for solar panels.

For instance if your latitude is 34 the optimum tilt angle for your solar panels during winter will be 34 15 49. On the contrary in the countries of the southern hemisphere such as south africa and australia the best orientation is true north.