Good day to all. Our local Canadian Tire store recently had a sale on what looks to be=20 decent solar panels and I've purchased a few. Now I need advice on=20 how best to use them. These are a relatively-small panel: 31.5" x 14" putting out 40=20 Watts. The area where I want to use them is about 19 feet=20 long. That gives me room for about 16 panels. These panels packaged by / sold as Coleman but the documentation that=20 comes with them says they come from Sunforce Products. They have the=20 usual 25 year Sunforce warranty (minimum of 80% full output at the=20 end of 25 years). They are rated at 12V output: 17.1 Vdc 2.3 Amps. Cost seemed decent: Can $100 per 40 Watt panel. That amounts to Can=20 $2.50 per watt. Now I need to figure out how to best use them. I live in Edmonton,=20 AB, Canada and our Latitude is about 53.5 degrees North. We=20 generally have snow on the ground from sometime in October through=20 March, give or take a month in either direction for both start and end of s= now. I have a shed in the back of my place that has a south-facing=20 wall. My first instinct is to simply mount the panels vertically at=20 the top of that wall - this would give me fairly close to maximum=20 power during the winter. Being vertical, the panels should remain=20 snow-free during the winter. The downside of this is that I'll get generally lousy insolation=20 during the summer months. I may be able to build a frame on which I can mount all 16 panels=20 which I could then tilt from vertical to about 45 degrees. I'm=20 looking at this now. If it works like I'm thinking, I would be able=20 to adjust the tilt angle electrically using linear actuators. Maybe. Anyway, I'm just in the beginning stages of this project. I'd like=20 to have it up and installed before we get snow this year - that gives=20 me a couple of months. I'm looking for advice and opinions on how to best mount my panels=20 and how best to use the power from them. Many thanks! dwayne --=20 Dwayne Reid Trinity Electronics Systems Ltd Edmonton, AB, CANADA (780) 489-3199 voice (780) 487-6397 fax www.trinity-electronics.com Custom Electronics Design and Manufacturing --=20 http://www.piclist.com/techref/piclist PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .