F
fourtytwo
Guest
Like 99% of installations I see around here my panels are mounted on the roof in portrait (longest side vertical). Now in the UK winter is upon us and the sun is low in the sky, fortunately my roof is quite steep (52deg) so I still get a reasonable output however being a bungalow with a low roof some items on the horizon now shade the panels when they do not in summer. The horizon shading starts at the bottom of the panels and creeps up as the sun sinks in late afternoon.
The panels are 10 rows and 6 columns with shading diodes connected across each pair of columns however the shading occurs across all columns at once hence the diodes do nothing and the string output current is reduced to that of the shaded cells alone.
I now realize that if the panels were orientated in landscape (longest side horizontal) the shading diodes would work as intended as the horizon shading would blank out entire rows at once forcing the shading diodes to conduct across unproductive rows maintaining the strings output current to that of the unshaded cells.
Am I missing something here or are most installations not good with horizontal horizon shading ?
The panels are 10 rows and 6 columns with shading diodes connected across each pair of columns however the shading occurs across all columns at once hence the diodes do nothing and the string output current is reduced to that of the shaded cells alone.
I now realize that if the panels were orientated in landscape (longest side horizontal) the shading diodes would work as intended as the horizon shading would blank out entire rows at once forcing the shading diodes to conduct across unproductive rows maintaining the strings output current to that of the unshaded cells.
Am I missing something here or are most installations not good with horizontal horizon shading ?