www.TheDoItYourselfWorld.com

Now I guess I could have looked all over the web and YouTube for these answers, but I want the down and dirty version. Living in Kansas I wont have some of the regular problems like lack of sunlight. But I will have things like golf ball sized hail that kinda sneaks up on you. And heat that gets super hot like Oklahoma and Texas. So here is my questions.

1. Best panel resistant to hail? Does it exist?
2. Would it be better to mount my panels on a pole facing south rather than on the roof of the barn? Oh, and the barn has a metal roof.
3. Since I have an area that is almost horizon to horizon direct sun for the panels. I have decided to use mono-crystalline and 12 volt. So 12 volt? or with that much sun 24 volt?


Thank you for your time.

chadrook wrote:Now I guess I could have looked all over the web and YouTube for these answers, but I want the down and dirty version. Living in Kansas I wont have some of the regular problems like lack of sunlight. But I will have things like golf ball sized hail that kinda sneaks up on you. And heat that gets super hot like Oklahoma and Texas. So here is my questions.

1. Best panel resistant to hail? Does it exist?
2. Would it be better to mount my panels on a pole facing south rather than on the roof of the barn? Oh, and the barn has a metal roof.
3. Since I have an area that is almost horizon to horizon direct sun for the panels. I have decided to use mono-crystalline and 12 volt. So 12 volt? or with that much sun 24 volt?


Thank you for your time.

Hi,

Sorry for my late reply. I was gone for easter and found thousands of spam posts to my forum and article site. Just caught up today.

There is no best hail resistant panels to my knowledge. What is advised is to keep them at an angle to the sky, which is best to catch the sun anyway.

Mounting the panels on a pole and with free air flow underneath is the best due to heat. Hot panels perform worse than cooler panels. Having free air flow under them helps. I have found that first hand.

24 volt panels are better for less power loss in the wires. The longer the run of wires to your home, the more loss. Therefore the higher the voltage of your solar panels should be. Most professional panels are at least 24 volt.

Please feel free to ask any questions. I should be on top of things from now on. Again, sorry for the delay.

If solar was my only means of power, I would consider having some sort of storm shutter to cover them. Around here the hail never gets bigg then about a half an inch. Somehting like a plastic greenhouse panel might afford some protection and still allow some light through, before and after the storm (not that you would leave them up all the time... Just in anticipation of a storm).

Wingnut247 wrote:If solar was my only means of power, I would consider having some sort of storm shutter to cover them. Around here the hail never gets bigg then about a half an inch. Somehting like a plastic greenhouse panel might afford some protection and still allow some light through, before and after the storm (not that you would leave them up all the time... Just in anticipation of a storm).

If left on an angle, solar panels are mounted on the roof of houses all the time and there is not much hail damage. It usually deflects off the angle. If you knew a bad storm was coming, then I guess you could cover them if you had to. But I never heard of that being done before.

Well that does clear up a lot of the questions i had, but im still curious as to the volumes that would be need to be produced daily? And also for that matter, how much petrol do we use daily as a civilization?

the opening post said you had to worry about golf balls, me too i just lost one over the summer due to a golf ball but as far as hail goes its a different subject a golf ball sized hail stone will not do as much damage as a golf ball at the same speed, so forget about the hail and worry about the golf balls.:> Aside from moving or a giant fence i have no idea what im going to do...

I would be marching right over to the golf course to get that panel replaced for sure.