Personal achievements of solar trackers ?

[French from 97-4]

Has anyone ever seen personal achievements of solar trackers ?
ie orientation systems on 2 axes of rotation as to be able to keep the pannel perpendicular to the sunrays at any time of the day.
Where please ?

Such a system is 3 times more efficient than a flat system. This significate that it could need 3 times less surface for the same production of energy or 3 times producted energy with the same pannels. It is very strange there is none topic about this.
Of course, there is this model in the market , but it is undersized and is so expensive that it is indecent.

In my opinion, it is possible to easily make a two-axis mobile system that would be manually oriented by its owner 3 times a day or more. On the other hand, it is true that it would be more difficult to automate it because it would require strong skills in electricity and computer science.

 

[RVTravel]

It seems fairly easy to have fixed tilting of solar panels on roof mount. The two axis would be more difficult for sure. The link is youtube search for rv solar tilting.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=rv+solar+tilting

 

[free2enjoy]

The two axis manual system essentially would be portable panels on the ground

 

[John TF]

Trackers showed up for full house systems back when panels cost so much , that tracking made up for the cost of themselves .
When the prices of panels fell , the trackers do not pay for themselves .
Same with the automated / motor driven , the consumed more power than they made up for .
Then they came up with gas-charged trackers , these were like shocks on a car and when cold [ night time ] they move the panels to the east , as they warmed up , sunlight , they move the panels with the sun , but again the cost ratio was an issue .
Now with mobile , not enough room for enough panels , tracking my help , but auto tracking would consume more that they would make up for .
Lastly , vertical tracking only changes with weeks / months , horizontal to follow the day is the way to go , so manual .
Using numbers / calculation will answer most questions .

 

[Weight]

I can tilt my panels up to 45* on the roof of my van. It is a pain, but makes difference outside of summer. Tracking another direction would not be practical on a van. Just move the parking spot.

 

[lenny flank]

My van has a fully omni-directional system for aiming the solar panels. It's called a "steering wheel".

 

[MrAlvinDude]

I think it would be a good learning experience to start with only one direction of tilt.

Many of the youtube videos linked to above, already show how to do that, using simple and yet strong designs.

Using a linear actuator it would be somewhat simple to control the tilt from a microcontroller.  Sensing the direction to the sun could probably be done using three light sensors (LDR)

Here is a simple setup that uses four sensors, but it is able to track the sun in more than only a single tilt direction.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Arduino-Solar-Tracker/
These components can be acquired for less than $30

 

[DLTooley]

My panel is mounted on my hood, so it is always at a slight angle. Prevailing winds here are from the SW and I cook off my tail, so I almost always park with my nose to the SW. This works pretty well.

Given the dynamics of solar charging over the course of a day it would be best to be manually pointed to the SE.

 

[French from 97-4]

Thanks for these answers !

If one tilt the panels on the best fixed slope on the horizontal axis, the sun rays will be perfectly perpendicular only at noon, only at ONE moment of the day. In this case the increase of dayly electrical production seems to be 30% to 50% in average (depending on the slope accuracy).
If one adds a vertical axis as to follow the sun all the day long, if the 2 directions are constantly automated, the sun rays will be perfecly perpendicular at every second of the day. As I said : I was told the efficiency is multiplicated by 3 times in comparision with panels laid flat very close to a roof. 

Let's hope this person will tell us the results in a few months .  He has 2 identical 2 axes installations. He says : "I can always disconnect one of the arrays from the tracking controller and keep it in a fixed position for comparison. I may try that in the spring".

Only practical experience can give us the evidences of the truth.

 

[MrAlvinDude]

I wonder where you have come across the claim that there is 3 times the difference in efficiency from flat to tracking.

This guy in the video mentions that you can improve by about 25% by each axis you add to the tracking.  So adding about 50-55% is possible.

It might be simpler (and cheaper)  to simply add 50%-55% to the surface of the flat solar panels. So only if you have maxed out the available space, and still need more power, might it be worth considering adding one more axis of tracking.

 

[John61CT]

The farther from the equator and the colder the weather, the greater the benefit ratio will be.

I think only a single axis is worthwhile (cost effective) in a mobile setting, moving the vehicle can act as the second, but likely the fuel cost cancels the PV gain.

 

[jimindenver]

Oh yes, the seconds it takes to move the truck a few feet three times a day cost sooooooooo much.

Brahahahahaha