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Angle of Solar Panels
The quick and dirty is that your solar panels sould face due south or due north, depending on if you are in the northern or southern hemishpere; and that they should be angled at same angle towards the sun as the latitude of the location they are being installed. Here's the explanation:
The most efficient method of capturing solar energy would involve angleing your solar panels such that they are perpendicular to the rays of the sun. The picture below briefly summarizes this, but it is definitely not to scale. The sun is 110X the size of the Earth and very, very far away.
That statement means two things:
First, solar panels need to aim exactly at the equator. Simply geometry will prove that if you are in the southern hemishpere, you would want to aim due north; and if you are in the norhtern hemishpere, you would want to aim your panels due south.
Second, the angle of your panel is going vary depending on your location on the earth. The closer you are to the equator, the closer to 0° your panel should be. With not as simple trigonometry you find that the angle that is perpendicular to the sun is the same angle from the local horizon as the angle between the equator and location on the Earth's surface from the center of the Earth. Huh? The lucky part is you can simply take the latitude of the location you are installing your solar panel at to get that number. :-) So, being in Daytona Beach, Florida, my panels would most optimally be placed about 29.2° from level ground in the direction of the sun.
Also, just for additional information, there is one more thing to add. Because of the fact that the Earth rotates about an axis that is not vertical, the most efficient angle will not always be the latitude of the location of installation. But if you aren't bulding very, very high tech tracking panels, don't worry about it. Most people install solar panels that don't face due south if their roof doesn't, and they typically don't angle it different than the roof pitch, and they still benefit greatly from their solar investment.
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