I was under the 'mistaken' belief that everyone, well, every adult that is, knew the distinction. Maybe I was taking things for granted being a pilot and thus having to know the difference... so perhaps the distinction is NOT common knowledge.
They are putting in my solar panels today, or rather, digging the holes for the foundation.. (ground mount, not rooftop). You can't believe the confusion I've been going through all morning... the crew digging the holes, the salesman, the engineer, NONE agreed with each other. Then there was the 'head honcho' out of Utah who called in on the confusion.
The blueprint shows the direction SSW... which is 'magnetic south'... but the engineer said "NO, I want it south". So we replied...
"Ok, but do you mean true south or magnetic south".... which infuriated him... his reply, "SOUTH, (shouting), do you not understand SOUTH?"... this was to the crew, by the way, not me, the customer. He continued "I want it TRUE SOUTH, just use your compass on your phone". See the problem? A phone compass, by default, will indicate magnetic north and south.
There was no getting around this with this guy.... he couldn't grasp it. The guy in Utah said "It won't matter". The salesman said, "Use the blueprint". It was chaos.
So here is how I decided, "do what you want"... and I decided this BECAUSE I am guaranteed, by contract, a certain kW output.... if they don't reach it they have to fix it, no cost to me.
Lastly, I do not really know the optimum direction for Solar Panel placement in my area... my guess is south-westerly, but I don't KNOW that. I do, however, know true north from magnetic north. - JamesJM
