5 Crucial Solar Panel Mounting Factors That Will Make Your Solar Mounting Project A Success
Find out 5 must-know tips that will
make
your
solar panel mounting project
a success. Knowing how to mount solar panels covers a
number
of
aspects, ranging from
the legal to the technical.
Solar Panel Mounting Covers A Range Of Aspects
You're investing in improving your home by making it more energy efficient, and have gotten to the point where you want to generate some power.
So, you've picked up your photo-voltaic solar panels, and now you're trying to make your solar panel mounting project a success.
The next step is figuring out how to mount your solar panels.
Knowing how to mount solar panels covers a number of aspects, ranging from the legal to the technical.
We'll cover them each in turn.
Solar Panel Mounting Consideration #1. The Legalities
Legally, you should check to see if your neighborhood or home owner's association has any kind of restrictions on where and how solar panels can be mounted.
- Some home owner's association have regulations that date back to the Carter administration that require home owner association approval, others are a bit more forgiving, or can be bought off with a permit.
You should also look into the legal aspects of selling excess power back to your utility company via a solar grid tie system.
- If your utility company buys back power, it probably does so at a wholesale rate that's 1/4 of what you pay for it.
- Even so, knowing the ins and outs of selling electricity back is important before figuring out how to mount solar panels.
Solar Panel Mounting Consideration #2. The Site Survey
On the technical side of figuring out how to mount solar panels, the first step is a site survey.
If you're in the United States, the sun tracks across the southern horizon, so you should look to see that sight lines to the south aren't obscured.
- Are there trees in the way, is there anything that will put your solar panels in the shade during the peak times of the day?
There Are A Number Of Techniques You Can Use To Assess Your Site To Ensure That Your Solar Panel Mounting Project Will Give You Assess To Enough Sunlight
There are a number of techniques you can use to assess the amount of solar power you'll generate during a given span of daylight.
- The general rule of thumb is that the farther away from the equator you are, the steeper the angle your solar panels will need to be mounted.
- At 25 degrees latitude or less, you can angle the panels at about that.
For most of the continental United States, you'll want to mount the solar panels at about 5 degrees steeper than your latitude, getting up to about 10 degrees steeper than your latitude near the northernmost states.
For Canada north of the US border, Alaska and Great Britain, the panels will need to be angled around 70 degrees to 90 degrees because the Sun is lower on the horizon.
Also, Be Mindful That Most Solar Panel Mounting Guidelines Assume That You Will Mount Your Solar Panel At Ground Level.
Most of the guidelines on how to mount solar panels work from the assumption that your solar panels will be at ground level.
This is by far and away the most common installation method, simply because it's the easiest one to set up.
However, learning how to set up solar panels on your roof can help avoid the sight-line issues and give you a better performance.
Solar Panel Mounting Consideration #3. Pole Mounted Solar Panels
A compromise method is to mount your solar panels on a pole.
- You can either mount your panel on the side of the pole, or at the top of one. Pole mounted solar panels are among the easiest to make active tracking.
An active tracking solar panel system will power a small motor to keep the solar panels pointed towards the sun at the most effective angle.)\
Solar Panel Mounting Consideration #4. Elevated Solar Panels.
When you choose to elevate your solar panel, you will have two primary solar panel mounting issues to consider.The First Concern With Mounting Elevated Solar Panels Is Getting The Solar Panels Up There.
- Solar panel installations are surprisingly heavy when everything's put up.
- Make sure your roof can handle that extra weight with a good building assessment as part of learning how to mount solar panels on them.
The Second Concern With Mounting Elevated Solar Panels Is Wind-Proofing.
- While it's a heavy sail, a solar panel array is pretty good at catching the wind.
- Make sure that your solar panel system doesn't flex in the breeze.
- This can work loose the vital electrical connections needed to get power out of it, or it can damage the panels themselves, or knock them off their mounting.
Solar Panel Mounting Consideration #5. Solar Panel Wiring
Regardless of how you mount your solar panels, solar panel wiring will require that you run wiring from the panels to the battery bank.
- This should run through PVC pipe conduits, and you should take care to make the connections for all of this (and the encasement for the solar panels themselves) are water tight.
- Having to pay for water damage in your attic is a harsh lesson on taking care in mounting your solar panels in the first place.
Here's to finding a way to bring more solar power into your family!
P.S. Here's a few more tips to help your solar power projects go smoothly...
