Ground-mounted solar panels and assorted questions

JKenH

HertsLad said:

JKenH said:

matelodave said:

Have a look at the area at this time of year to see how much shading you are likely to get.

The sun is getting higher but in December and January the sun is even lower and shadows are even longer than they are at the moment so you may not get anything worthwhile out of ground mounted panels until the sun is a lot higher in the sky if they get shaded by houses, trees or other stuff.

...You can’t beat a roof mount system for getting the best from solar in a domestic situation.

If you are doing DIY ground mount then you can make considerable savings (no scaffold and installation although you do pay VAT and won’t get MCS accreditation) and you can fine tune the system to optimise its performance. 

I'm using a ground mount system and can't see any way the system would produce anywhere near as much energy if I mounted my 6 panels on my house roof, facing SE. For a start, the later the panels can pick up sunshine, the shorter the period over darkness to see you through to the next morning with a battery bank. So 2 of my panels face west.  I recently belatedly moved some of my panels from a summer to winter position. The improved performance was significant.

Fair comment, but I was thinking of most houses in residential areas where there will be other buildings and trees around to potentially shade the panels. You presumably have a fair bit of land to work with.

HertsLad

JKenH said:

HertsLad said:

JKenH said:

matelodave said:

Have a look at the area at this time of year to see how much shading you are likely to get.

The sun is getting higher but in December and January the sun is even lower and shadows are even longer than they are at the moment so you may not get anything worthwhile out of ground mounted panels until the sun is a lot higher in the sky if they get shaded by houses, trees or other stuff.

...You can’t beat a roof mount system for getting the best from solar in a domestic situation.

If you are doing DIY ground mount then you can make considerable savings (no scaffold and installation although you do pay VAT and won’t get MCS accreditation) and you can fine tune the system to optimise its performance. 

I'm using a ground mount system and can't see any way the system would produce anywhere near as much energy if I mounted my 6 panels on my house roof, facing SE. For a start, the later the panels can pick up sunshine, the shorter the period over darkness to see you through to the next morning with a battery bank. So 2 of my panels face west.  I recently belatedly moved some of my panels from a summer to winter position. The improved performance was significant.

Fair comment, but I was thinking of most houses in residential areas where there will be other buildings and trees around to potentially shade the panels. You presumably have a fair bit of land to work with.

No, I am surrounded by other houses on all sides, with only a medium sized garden.