Calculating Angle Of Incidence Solar Panel

As a general rule of thumb energy output can be optimized by adding 15 degrees to a site s latitude in the winter and subtracting 15 degrees to a site s latitude in the summer.

Calculating angle of incidence solar panel.

In this way at noon the panels will be perfectly perpendicular to the sun s rays. The result for chicago is 90 42 23 25. Results are given in the following units. S cosas cosys sinas cosys sinys t n cosat sinyt sinat sinyt cosyt t.

Select the town or city nearest where you live. Tilt the panels to your latitude minus 15. Tilt the panels to your latitude. There are two methods for calculating the tilt angle for solar panels.

Solar panels work well in the winter but you will typically see a dip in total energy production during particularly bad winters due to snow covering your panels and reducing their power output. A comparison of data in two us cities has been completed to exhibit the importance of a solar pv array s tilt angle. Select your country from the list. If you have selected america or canada select your state or province.

Both vectors are normalized and thus the solar angle of incidence on a tilted surface is obtained by calculating the scalar multiplication of these two vectors. Once the calculations are complete you may use your browser s print function to obtain a hardcopy of the results. If your local time is on daylight saving time select on from dst mode. Both of these angles require latitude degrees.

Tilt the panels to your latitude plus 15. Input negative degree for west longtitude and south latitude. To get maximum energy efficiency during the winter solstice the solar panels in chicago must face south and be tilted 65 90 25. The calculator will then show the optimum angle for the solar panel.

Hit the calculate solar position button. Similarly you can calculate the angle for winter by adding 15. Calculates a table of changes in the solar elevation and azimuth angles for a day and draws the chart. Azimuth in degrees clockwise from north.

The vectors s and n become. Solar declination in degrees with positive to the north. North 0 east 90 south 180 west 270 degree. Whatever your latitude is you can subtract 15 from it to calculate the angle for summer.

Equation of time in minutes of time. One way to counteract winter production dips is to install your panels at a lower angle than your latitude.