How to plant trees to shade home but not shade PVs is tricky.

rollandelliott
rollandelliott Solar Expert Posts: 834 ✭✭
in Energy Use & Conservation #1
When my home was made the construction company wiped out pretty much all the trees. I was hoping to plant some trees, but it is hard knowing they might one day shade the solar pv install I have.

I've settled on getting some mid size arborvitee evergreens in the south East USA. They are fairly predictable in how they grow and shade. a home. I'll plan them on east and west sides of home only so they do not shade the pv.
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  • CDN_VT
    CDN_VT Solar Expert Posts: 492 ✭✭✭
    #2
    Re: How to plant trees to shade home but not shade PVs is tricky.

    I threaten all my trees / bushes & even the grass with destructive tools to them !!
    Lawn Flatterer , Heghog bush trimmer , screamin-demon stihl , just the Stihl's dust puts the trees in fear !!
    Of course there are the manual shears & guillotines ;)

    Learn to crop / trim / prune and plant those that can handle it plus you learning. Get free trees, we (Royal'WE" = Wife) must of planted a few thousand so far & she finds the new starter's for free and replants .
    Some of my 250' cedars trees broke off at say 40' and now 6 years later it's base stump is 3.5' but just 42' but lots of green new branches. I was surprised at the growth .
    The Ms prunes everything within the year, many are old and stubby. Living in a rain forest , fruit trees need sun but Cedar,Hem & Fir plus Alder/aspen can overgrow the fancys ..
    This winter after all the birds & such have left,I have 8 250' plus to drop , this is also to help with the upcoming PV solar system in the works .
    Shade is as important as root invasion also in houses.

    VT
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  • icarus
    icarus Solar Expert Posts: 5,436 ✭✭✭✭
    #3
    Re: How to plant trees to shade home but not shade PVs is tricky.

    Conifers don't like to BR pruned, they then tend to sprout multiple growing points, leading to more shading,, and more dangerous trees. Bottom line, spend some research time figuring out how high things will grow, how they can be pruned, and how far away they can be.
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  • Dave Angelini
    Dave Angelini Solar Expert Posts: 6,891 ✭✭✭✭✭✭
    #4
    Re: How to plant trees to shade home but not shade PVs is tricky.

    Shade brings mosquitos in many areas! Cut everything down around the house/arrays and use a minisplit to make up for the heat gain. You will be safer in a fire and have less maintenance. The other approach I like is high voltage out to distant arrays if you really want trees to shade a house.
    "we go where power lines don't" Sierra Nevada mountain area
       htps://offgridsolar1.com/
    E-mail offgridsolar@sti.net

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  • Cariboocoot
    Cariboocoot Banned Posts: 17,615 ✭✭✭
    #5
    Re: How to plant trees to shade home but not shade PVs is tricky.

    Build your own trees! Instant shade that never changes height. :p
    There was a news piece a while back about such tree sculptures with solar cells for leaves; dual purpose!

    And totally impractical.
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  • niel
    niel Solar Expert Posts: 10,300 ✭✭✭✭
    #6
    Re: How to plant trees to shade home but not shade PVs is tricky.
    Cariboocoot wrote: »
    Build your own trees! Instant shade that never changes height. :p
    There was a news piece a while back about such tree sculptures with solar cells for leaves; dual purpose!

    And totally impractical.

    build a tree? how about an artificial christmas tree?:D
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  • Cariboocoot
    Cariboocoot Banned Posts: 17,615 ✭✭✭
    #7
    Re: How to plant trees to shade home but not shade PVs is tricky.
    niel wrote: »
    build a tree? how about an artificial christmas tree?:D

    Good example!
    Got one of them and it's been 6' tall for the past ten years. If it's growing I haven't noticed. :p
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