When you buy a solar power generation system online that needs to be installed by yourself, you need to know how to correctly install it in the right place to ensure that it can work safely and efficiently. If you don’t want to pay for a professional installation electrician, you can do it yourself.

However, if you are a novice in the field of solar energy and want to install it yourself, we will provide the following suggestions for your solar project:

Maximize solar panel efficiency

Solar panels play a key role in the whole solar power generation system. Its efficiency directly determines how much power you can get.

After making sure that every panel in the solar series works properly, what you need to consider is how to maximize the solar radiation intensity so that it can produce as much energy as possible.

When people think about where solar panels should be installed, roof is a conventional choice, but roof installation is certainly not the only way, although this installation method has its obvious advantages. You put your solar panels up and away from dangerous places, but you also keep them away from places that are easy to maintain and clean. Therefore, installing solar panels on the ground may be a better choice than installing them on the roof, which requires specific analysis.

If you are considering installing solar panels in your home, cabin or other buildings, there are many things to study before you make a choice. Of course, each situation will be different. Budget, installable space, weather, climate – these factors all play a role in how to choose between roof installation, ground installation and other solar panel configurations.

The angle of the sun is the most important factor affecting the degree of radiation. The problem is that if you can find a bracket suitable for the ground setting, you can change its direction according to the sun’s trajectory and different angles. Similarly, the sun tracker can do the same. However, roof installation will make you lose the flexibility of operation.

Even if you don’t want to spend too much on the angle, you can get enough irradiance for the solar panel by facing it to the south, which is the case in the northern hemisphere, of course. In addition, in order to obtain a better sunlight angle, it is also helpful to tilt the solar panel properly when installing it. You can set the inclination of the panel according to the local latitude, so that it can get more sunshine at noon, which is the most effective time of the day.

Keep the wires as short as possible

In addition to the situation of solar panels, there are many factors that will affect the power generation of the system, one of which is line loss.

In a circuit, several components, including resistors, may cause the voltage to drop. The conductor itself has a small amount of internal resistance, which depends on the specification (thickness) and length of the conductor.

Wiring loss of solar photovoltaic system (from one unit to another)

Recommended value:

3% for most systems

1% if thicker wires or very short wires are used

Generally, the thickness is not easy to change due to the amount of current in the system. Therefore, what we can do to reduce the wiring loss is mainly about the wiring length. If you use short wires not only between the solar panel and the controller, but also between the controller to the battery, the battery to the inverter and the inverter to the load, the whole optimized wiring will reduce your loss by about 8% – 10%.

In fact, this idea requires you to place different accessories in a short distance. Generally, considering that the solar panel should be outdoors, the connecting cable of the solar panel controller cannot be shortened, but the controller is installed indoors, especially when the solar panel is on the roof, it needs to be extended between them.

Therefore, the simple way to reduce wiring loss is to bring other accessories closer, including controller to battery, battery to inverter and inverter to load.

Ensure good ventilation

For indoor solar generator sets, good ventilation is necessary, especially in hot areas.

The inverter and load output heat during operation. If there is no vent, the heat will remain in the whole room. Temperature exceeding 86 ° f / 30 ° C will limit efficiency, mainly due to the loss of about 2% of battery discharge capacity and the high voltage of the inverter. Long-term operation in enclosed space will affect the service life of controller, battery and inverter.

Therefore, in order to run longer and more effectively, these solar modules should be placed in a well-ventilated place.

Keep the battery warm

Lithium batteries rely on chemical reactions to work, and cold can slow or even prevent these reactions. Unfortunately, charging them at low temperatures is not as effective as in normal weather conditions, because the charged ions cannot move normally in cold weather.

There is a hard rule: in order to prevent irreversible damage to the battery, when the temperature drops below the freezing point (0 ° C or 32 ° f), do not charge the battery without reducing the charging current. Because if it is charged at high speed at low temperature, lithium metal coating will appear on the anode of lithium battery. This may cause internal short circuit and failure of the battery.

Low-temperature conditions also limit the discharge capacity that can be released, and its efficiency will be greatly reduced when the ambient temperature is lower than 25 ° C / 77 ° F.

The battery capacity determines how long the load can run after being connected to the inverter. So it is absolutely necessary to put the battery in a warm place. Or, if you really want to use it in a cold place, prepare a heating box or battery box to isolate it from the cold air.

Conclusion

When your solar power generation system exceeds 1kW, the total loss of efficiency will be amazing. Therefore, by placing different system accessories in the ideal position, you will also get as much power as possible.