Solar Panel Location

[bchristie]

Cutwater 26: My solar panel is located in the the usual configuration, cabin top aft under the radar mount. There is always some shadow on the panel from the radar. I am considering moving the panel forward and/or to the side to reduce the shadow issue. Before I do this I would appreciate any feedback as to how much improvement I should expect with full sun vs. small shadow. Has anyone measured panel output relative to this shading issue? Thanks in advance for feedback.

 

[Cutwater28GG]

This is a critical change in my opinion. Move it as far away from the tower as you can. Any shadow kills the output front the panel. Better still uograde the panel to one of the new panels that is bicell. In that if half is shadowed you still get power from the second half.

 

[scross]

Agreed, you need to move it out of the shadow.
When installing my solar system, I needed to position the panel a bit more forward than the panel frame would allow to get the best position away from my Yakima Rocket Box.
I used two 4’ lengths of t slot 30x30 extruded aluminum to go between the panel and the sports rack bars. This gave me the flexibility to move the panel several inches forward from where it could have been mounted without the t slot extrusions. It was very easy to mount the panel to the extrusions and then mount the panel+extrusions to the sports rack bars. See my photo album for pics.
gallery2.php?g2_itemId=70468
PS: With a longer set of 30x30 t slot extrusions I think you could move the panel up to a 2 feet or so forward or aft of your sports rack bars. The extrusions are super stiff!