I’m using 8 pieces of 8 ft aluminum angle to create solar rail for my 6 100 panels but I’m having trouble with my curved bus roof. I have curved renogy z bracket feet so mounting the rail on a curved surface is not the problem- the issue is that mounting the panels on the sides of the bus results in an angle due to the height difference, and i’m guessing I want my panels as close to flat as possible. In the attached pic I have a panel flat in the middle of the roof, but I’d prefer to put 3 on each side of the roof to conserve space for a deck/fantastifan locations/give some space to my wood stove chimney.
Currently one side of the rail/panels is lower due to the curvature of the bus. Is this a very bad thing? I’m considering using blocking to elevate the lower side of the rail, but I’m not sure what material to use. Someone suggested bolting through wood and I suppose I could just put a treated 2x4 under there for an 1 1/2” raise. I saw that some people use adjustable mounts so that they can adjust the angle as needed throughout the year, but those things run like $40 a pop and I’m likely to park in all sorts of different directions during my travels.
Any advice or suggestions would be much appreciated!
What are your concerns with an angled to match the roof panel. Flat is not the ideal angle for collecting sun rays. I'm running mine down the sides of the roof, 2 rows of 3. That keeps the center walkway open.
Oh hey that’s our proposed orientation! I was under the impression that flat (or close to flat anyway) would be more efficient, but I am now realizing that I have no evidence to back this up. Would angled panels work alright? That would certainly be easier for us!
Oh hey that’s our proposed orientation! I was under the impression that flat (or close to flat anyway) would be more efficient, but I am now realizing that I have no evidence to back this up. Would angled panels work alright? That would certainly be easier for us!
You want your panels to face the sun to be most effective. The angle of the sun changes depending on where in the world you are, the time of year and time of day. So ultimately you want your panels to tilt to face the sun in the spot you are in. I'm setting mine up with an arrangement that allows tilting both directions, so you don't have to turn the bus around to get the proper angle.
Ahh so I figure that we won’t often have the option to park facing south. How are you setting up tilting in multiple directions? That’s sounds ideal.
I'm using a couple of cabinet lifts to tilt to angle. Each corner of the panel will be secured with a wing head Dzus fastener. Depending on which side, top or bottom, you release, the panel will automatically tilt to 22.5°
What are your concerns with an angled to match the roof panel. Flat is not the ideal angle for collecting sun rays. I'm running mine down the sides of the roof, 2 rows of 3. That keeps the center walkway open.
Hey sorry to jump on an old thread, but im curious for this installation, where presumably the two rows of panels are at different angles, did you do different MPPT controllers for each row? My understanding is that the MPPT would not be very efficient unless all of the panels had the same exposure.
That is ideal from that point of view, but partial shading front to back will give you the same problem. You can’t always win unless you would give each panel its own controller - that is how residential micro-inverters are configured.
I will set mine up checkerboard patterned, but flat - I have a transit bus.
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