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There was a story last week about commercial solar farms having panel flat on the ground and some people posted about putting home solar setups flat (or slightl
by slyall 4y ago
There was a story last week about commercial solar farms having panel flat on the ground and some people posted about putting home solar setups flat (or slightly elevated with a brick and tied down).
Saving money with the setup beats getting the last percent out of the install. Although probably only some rural home-owners are going to be able/allowed to just put the panels flat on the ground.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33926683 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33926683
- 0cf8612b2e1e 4y agoFor a residential install (10s of square meters, not thousands). I would still feel more comfortable laying down some concrete first to minimize the chance of spoilage from vegetation. Plus something cheap for elevation from any flooding (bricks, cinder blocks, etc).
- Casteil 4y agoYep, as soon as you start talking about flat panels on the ground, you start introducing problems with moisture, and/or snow/ice buildup in the winter. Might be ok in some areas, but not at northern latitudes, and definitely not their winters.
- krallja 4y agoHaha, love it. Sure, you're losing a few percentage points of efficiency, but not THAT much, as long as you're within a couple dozen degrees latitude of the equator (COS(X) ≈ X for small values of X). And if you're far from the equator, why are you messing with solar anyway??