Green-Trust.Org

The sun is at it’s highest intensity at solar noon, and we want our panels aimed directly at the sun at that time, which is called solar south (not magnetic south). We give tips on finding this at http://www.green-trust.org/2000/solar/findsun.htm. Now, there is sun earlier and later in the day, but it’s at a lower intensity. In many applications, it’s not worth the expense to tip the panels to get this lower intensity sun, even though it could boost your collection by 20% or more. In most cases, it’s less expensive to get another panel or two. Tracking systems can run $2000 or more, when that same money could buy 400 watts of solar, or more. Home made DIY trackers have been experimented with over the years. Duane Johnson at http://www.redrok.com has a LED based system for keeping the array pointed at the sun. We found a very interesting method of a single axis tracker using a antenna rotor and a timer at http://www.livingonsolar.com/solar-tracker.pdf. This one has merit, as it’s inexpensive, and simple to build.