As with most things, there are trades to be made. Bruce, as our resident skeptic, has pointed out a couple interesting ones involving the weight and cost of flat arrays vs tiltable arrays, and they need to be considered.
Trades:
At 20 pounds per 100 watts, if you add 20% more panels, you add 15 pounds of panels. Can you save 15 pounds by eliminating the inner (tiltable) tray and expanding the outer (fixed) tray? Maybe, but you won’t save much more than that. So this is pretty much an even trade.
At $1 per watt, if you add 20% more panels, you add $72 to the cost of the panels. Can you save $72 by eliminating the inner (tiltable) tray, and expanding the outer (fixed) tray? I doubt it, but you may come close.
In other words, from a weight and cost standpoint, flat vs tiltable it is pretty much an even trade for this configuration. But if your rig doesn’t have 20% extra area for additional panels, there is no trade to be made. The guy who built this thing made the trades that fit his needs and his rig, and others might make different choices. The point is that he has opened up some new ideas for all of us.
Bill
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