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A few notes on Summer vs Winter Elevation Settings:
The previous page briefly describes how to find the optimum “year-round” array tilt. While this
setting may work for nearly all situations, it may be possible that a different tilt angle is needed
for specific situations.
For example, someone living in Wisconsin or Maine using a US Solar Mounts SD Aerator may
be more interested in keeping an area of their lake free of ice in the Winter. De-icing around
gates or spillways could be very important to them. Either way, folks in the North will have to
deal with snow accumulation on the array. They may want to INCREASE (steepen) the tilt angle
to favor Winter production when the sun angle is very low. The increased tilt angle will also assist
with shedding snow from the array. It is very common to have tilt angles of 50
-60
on Northern
installations.
Installation sites in the Southern part of the US may have completely different solar production
goals at different times of the year. For instance, if the primary goal is to prevent fish kill in a
farm tank during the super-hot months of July & August, they may want to DECREASE (flatten)
the tilt angle of their array for greater summertime production. If they could, the Largemouth in
your tank would thank you for it.
If you would reall
y like to “see” the effect that changing tilt angle has, go out and play with the
array! Pick a nice, sunny day around noon. It only takes a minute to loosen the Angle Brace
Bracket and the Main Pivot Bolt. Make sure to tighten everything up again when you
’re finished.
