Vehicle Mounting

Mounts and an adjustable angle frame for putting solar panels on a vehicle roof.

Do not use Z or L shaped aluminium brackets pop riveted to your roof. Water gets through the holes you make and rusts the roof and the interior out in a couple of years. Everything here avoids that. The two kitsets glue down with an adhesive such as Sikaflex and put no holes in the roof at all, and the only hole you might make is for the cable, which goes through an IP67 entry housing with two glands.

The five piece kit takes one panel up to 220W and is four ABS corner mounts, 15 x 15 x 6 cm, plus the cable entry housing. The seven piece kit takes one panel up to 410W and adds two side mounts, 18 x 12 x 6 cm, because a larger panel needs holding along its edges as well as at the corners. Both hold the panel clear of the surface so air can move underneath and the panel runs cooler, which assists its output and longevity.

The angle mounting kit is the other approach. It takes a panel up to 500W and up to 110 cm wide, the long rails are 105 cm and the vertical adjusters are 55 cm, and it lets you tilt the panel instead of leaving it flat on the roof. A flat panel only makes its rated output with the sun square on to it, which on a vehicle roof happens for only a short part of the day.

For New Zealand the best tilt angle in summer is your latitude times 0.93, minus 21 degrees. In winter it is your latitude times 0.875, plus 19.2 degrees. For spring and autumn, take the latitude, multiply by 0.98 and subtract 2.3. In Wanganui, at 40 degrees, that is 16.2 degrees for summer. The four dates to change it on are on the angle mounting kit’s page.

When you park, point the panels north for the best total production over the day. Nor northeast catches the morning better and nor northwest catches the afternoon better.

The panels are in Solar Panels, and the two flexible ones there are worth a look if your roof is curved. Cable is in Solar Cabling and the MC4 connectors are in Solar Connectors. For a building rather than a vehicle it is Roof Mounting, and for an array on the ground it is Ground Mounting.