₦airaland Forum

Hello everyone,

I'm Fred, an electrician by training who turned into an Android developer. I wanted to open a discussion on a topic I don't see addressed enough on Nairaland, and I'd really like to hear the community's real-world experience.

**The topic**

Nigeria sits between roughly 4°N and 14°N latitude. For these low latitudes, most online calculators give very generic panel tilt recommendations (typically 10°-15° facing south, year-round). But here's what I've observed:

- If your panels don't face **exactly** due south, the optimal tilt is different from what generic calculators say
- Seasonal sun path variations between Lagos (6°N) and Kano (12°N) are real but rarely mentioned
- Adjustable ground-mounted setups (very common here for off-grid and small businesses) could benefit from 4+ adjustments per year — but nobody really knows by how much to adjust

**What I've been working on**

For the past year I've been developing a free Android app called **Opti Solar** that computes the optimal tilt **as a function of your actual panel orientation and location**. You place your phone on the panel, the GPS + compass + inclinometer do the measurement, and the app gives you the optimal angle for today and each season, plus the kWh/year you'd gain by adjusting.

It uses PVGIS (European Commission), NREL (USA) and NASA POWER data in cascade, with an offline math engine as backup when the network is down.

**Open discussion**

I'd love to hear the Nigerian perspective on a few questions:

1. Those with adjustable ground-mount setups — how often do you actually adjust tilt? Once? Seasonally? Never?
2. For off-grid businesses (phone charging, borehole pumps, shops) — is panel angle optimization a real concern, or is battery sizing the bigger bottleneck?
3. Do installers here recommend seasonal adjustments at all, or is "set it and forget it" the norm?

If anyone wants to test the app and give me feedback (Nigerian panel brands to add to the database, language options, use cases I'm missing), I'd be grateful: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fredz.optimanglesolaire

Honest discussion welcome — I'm not trying to sell anything, the app is 100% free.

Fred