Anybody fitted tilting solar panels?

[AlanandMayya]

Yup, today was a real washout, wasn't it? Same for my optimally-tilted, South facing array on the garage roof. Going to have to buy a few kWh from Octopus tonight.

 

[Jays2]

Time of year.
And we are still 17 days off the shortest day!

 

[Gaston aires]

IIRC Gaston aires has or had an Alden system which tilted the solar panels whilst tracking the sun (or similar)? It’s also possible I might be imagining such.

https://www.vanbitz.com/wp-content/uploads/Phoenix-mounting.pdf

We had one on our last van. It worked extremely well but was expensive. Our Wi-Fi is poor we are in South America.
Phil

 

[rsoen]

We just use the foldable panels. That way we put the van in the shade and the panel in de sun. Overhere in the south of France shade is a very good thing to have!

 

[Tony50]

Some of those tilting methods look a bit precarious and all adding extra weight

I had a solar panel that tilted and turned following the sun every 20 miy , I swear to turn it it took all the power that had been previously put into the battery

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[Raul]

I had a solar panel that tilted and turned following the sun every 20 miy , I swear to turn it it took all the power that had been previously put into the battery

I guess that’s a joke, in reality a tilting actuator takes tiny energy, a tracker even less, the move is minuscule as is already up.
In my case, it lifts in 50 sec say 1min, then another one for lowering, then twice a day, 2amp motor, at 13.6v, it’s about 1.8-2wh. Even if you multiply that by 10 to cover for a cumbersome inefficient tracking mechanism, that’s still only 18-20wh. My router eats that in a hr.

 

[Tony50]

I guess that’s a joke, in reality a tilting actuator takes tiny energy, a tracker even less, the move is minuscule as is already up.
In my case, it lifts in 50 sec say 1min, then another one for lowering, then twice a day, 2amp motor, at 13.6v, it’s about 1.8-2wh. Even if you multiply that by 10 to cover for a cumbersome inefficient tracking mechanism, that’s still only 18-20wh. My router eats that in a hr.

It was a French system ,never was that efficient.

 

[AlanandMayya]

One issue nobody's mentioned is that rainy or very cloudy days are when you really need every kWh of solar power you can get, and tilting doesn't help much here - the sky is pretty uniformly bright. Or dark. Ive had tilting panels on my garage roof for a couple of years and found that in the past 2 winters. Today I compared dead horizontal with 65 degree tilt (which is about optimum for Weymouth in December) - no significant difference (a tiny bit, but I think it got ever so slightly brighter at that point!). So, if you want power to run a fridge, lights, toaster, microwave, kettle, electric blanket and maybe a bit of electric heating, in winter, off-grid, there's no getting away from just having huge panels. Of course you may question why anyone who lives on wheels has to be in a place thats cold and cloudy for days on end ........

 

[Raul]

One issue nobody's mentioned is that rainy or very cloudy days are when you really need every kWh of solar power you can get, and tilting doesn't help much here - the sky is pretty uniformly bright. Or dark. Ive had tilting panels on my garage roof for a couple of years and found that in the past 2 winters. Today I compared dead horizontal with 65 degree tilt (which is about optimum for Weymouth in December) - no significant difference (a tiny bit, but I think it got ever so slightly brighter at that point!). So, if you want power to run a fridge, lights, toaster, microwave, kettle, electric blanket and maybe a bit of electric heating, in winter, off-grid, there's no getting away from just having huge panels. Of course you may question why anyone who lives on wheels has to be in a place thats cold and cloudy for days on end ........

When it’s overcast, with diffused light and no sun, best orientation is straight up zero tilt. You will capture all the cloud diffused light with max surface exposed. In this particular situation, if you tilt, you reduce the panel area pointed to the sky, hence less harvest. It’s called albedo.

 

[AlanandMayya]

Sounds reasonable! So, if your battery is many days' worth of consumption, tilting will help a lot - ride out a few dull days on the battery, then charge up making the most of the sun (say, getting twice what a non-tilter would) when it comes out, to ride out the next dull period. If not (either because you dont want to spend £'000s on a big battery, or because you have high power needs) then you're just going to have to size the panels to keep you going on cloudy days. And having fitted those big panels, they chip away at the case for installing a tilt mechanism - the extra power on the sunny winter days is less necessary now. And panels are cheap - three panels, totalling 1200 Wp cost about £300. So I could have saved £200 by having only one, but that's a small saving compared to the cost of the rest of the system. I guess where tilting really scores is cold, clear days, say in the mountains, in winter. Much less so wintering on a warm(ish) Southern coast.

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[Raul]

Tilting helps with keeping the panel cool as well, as it gets a breeze and no heat build up. Cold panel, high voltage. Win win. I agree with PV sizing, you can only go so large before becomes cumbersome. In winter large array only helps when the sun is out, but a combination of things will benefit to ride out of those dull days. Storage, I found a minimum 5 days storage it’s a workable compromise, more it’s even better but gets expensive, and in my case very addictive.

 

[AlanandMayya]

Yes. (Sigh). Staring at the leaden Weymouth sky, heat build up isn't my biggest problem right now .......

 

[Guigsy]

Tilting helps with keeping the panel cool as well, as it gets a breeze and no heat build up. Cold panel, high voltage. Win win. I agree with PV sizing, you can only go so large before becomes cumbersome. In winter large array only helps when the sun is out, but a combination of things will benefit to ride out of those dull days. Storage, I found a minimum 5 days storage it’s a workable compromise, more it’s even better but gets expensive, and in my case very addictive.

That was my conclusion. When the summer sun is out, you don't need much panel area. When it's dull and through the winter, you need a dozen times more area... I don't have enough roof!

In the summer, my 175w solar often does give me enough daily juice to keep going indefinitely. It's the dark and wet times of the year that are a problem.

For me, my solution is a good amount of storage and some chill pills. I can last about 5 days of darkness (with the fridge on gas) with a 280Ah lithium battery. If I move frequently, I'll last longer because the alternator will offset some of my daily use. But every 7-10 days, I need to stop to do some washing anyway. So that day I'll plug in and fill the battery. The biggest issue was the mental acceptance that most days my battery will deplete.

Being off grid indefinitely in the winter is extremely hard. But just having a down day on a normal campsite once a week is far more achievable.

 

[Raul]

It is hard indeed, oversize panels, and oversized storage, to a degree it will help to go trough couple of weeks of grim winter. I have personal experience with off grid living in our house, I had winters with no generator hrs at all, some with 4-6 hrs and some with almost every day for 4 hrs for 2-3 weeks.
Now as I switched to lithium for the house and doubled the initial PV, we use no generator, and manage to charge the car as well. In a grim winter, if the sun peaks for 2hrs, I have the storage and the panels to harvest as much as 16kwh in that space. The ability to grab fast as much as you can it’s the solution for the winter. At least works for me.
And that’s exactly what I replicated with the van, sun out? Gobble gobble,

 

[AlanandMayya]

It is hard indeed, oversize panels, and oversized storage, to a degree it will help to go trough couple of weeks of grim winter. I have personal experience with off grid living in our house, I had winters with no generator hrs at all, some with 4-6 hrs and some with almost every day for 4 hrs for 2-3 weeks.
Now as I switched to lithium for the house and doubled the initial PV, we use no generator, and manage to charge the car as well. In a grim winter, if the sun peaks for 2hrs, I have the storage and the panels to harvest as much as 16kwh in that space. The ability to grab fast as much as you can it’s the solution for the winter. At least works for me.
And that’s exactly what I replicated with the van, sun out? Gobble gobble,

Interesting! I thought of going off-grid at home, to save the £180 a year standing charge, but the excess power I sell in Summer more than pays for it over a year, so Ive stayed on. But part of me wants to go off, just to stick it to them. I really resent this non-usage based charge. We have gas too, and in Spring and Autumn when heat is needed, I substitute gas usage (water heating, space heating, cooking) with electricity, rather than selling the power. Ive got the van plugged into the mains now, and with no load on it exports solar power back to the house. Tiny, but the big benefit of this is to show Mayya the little arrow in the green on the meter. It stops her reminding me how ridiculous our van looks with those huge panels on it. To be fair, she does have a point.

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[Raul]

Keep the grid; To go off grid in UK you need land, at least 1/2 acre within your yard/ garden. You need a ground array to make trough the winter, and if you near the coast, a 1-2kw wind turbine charging a 48v bank can help. But only if you are a bit away from build up areas.
Our house off grid is in Romania, we spend few months there, few months here, and a bit of travel. UK in winter is very weak for solar, costal areas are very good for wind, but not in build up places.

 

[the1andonly]

My version is doccumented in the threads refferenced by Richard n Ann

stainless hinges as richards.tilt by suspention struts (inner roof of a Mazda Bongo). Used in winter only. Total 550w on roof.
Only the 100w tilts. Locked with patio locks. Accesed via shower roof light

 

[tacr2man]

A couple of interesting tilt systems

and