We recently purchased a summer home with a steel roof. The slope is 4 in 12.
The house is oriented so that it is impossible to place PV at right angles to the roof slope or in line with the roof edge and still be pointed 180 degrees true south.
I have split the array in two sets of 4 Sharp Nt 175Uc1 in series/parallel. One is already up and pointing about 140 degrees Az/49 Elev) parallel with one roof edge. I was thinking of putting the next set of 4 panels parallel with the other edge (thus facing 230 Az/49Elev. Both these orientation are very inefficient but are better than nothing. Both sets feed into an Outback FM60 (theoretical 70V@20A, then into a 24v battery bank)
I have never seen PV panels oriented diagonally on a roof. Aside from the mounting challenges, and possibly a visually disturbing sight, is there any reason not to locate both arrays so they actually face true south? They will not be level with the horizon, being diagonal on a sloped roof and all, so I'm not sure if there will significant gain, given the monumental task of moving one and installing the other without having the roof joists laid in a simple straight line.
The racks use the Pro-Solar channel system.
Regards
Rob Linschoten