While designing for solar, a solar site survey is the first step. This is the point in which you can determine just how much or little solar potential a site has. If you are considering going solar, now is the time for this survey. The winter solstice has just past and the sun is at it's lowest elevation of the year and also the shortest day of the year. ( in the northern hemisphere) No need for charts or tools, just go outside and observe how much sun reaches your home or site over the next day or two. If the sun strikes your target from 10am-2pm, at this time of the year, you have good solar potential. More is obviously better, but this is the goal you should be shooting for. If you wish to do this at any other time of the year a solar site survey is recommended. Here is a good resource for many of the tools needed to do this yourself. http://www.builditsolar.com/SiteSurvey/site_survey.htm
Don't forget about magnetic declination, this is where your compass is not pointing true north. To avoid the problems associated with declination, I prefer the solar noon method for determining true north south.
I used this during the summer and shadow cast was not as long as I had hope for. If I had done this now, during the winter solstice, the shadow cast would have been much longer. This is the best method for getting a true north/south line, all you need is the time, a long level and/or board, and the time of solar noon, the half way point between sunrise and sunset for any given day. For more accurate info check here:
http://www.srrb.noaa.gov/highlights/sunrise/sunrise.html . If you don't know your longitude and latitude, I like google earth, this allows you to zoom right in on your location and get the exact numbers.
If your thinking adding any kind of solar to your home or business, now is the time to do a quick survey to determine if solar is right for you, you may have more solar potential than you think, use all of it to your advantage. Don't forget the sun doesn't send you a bill each month and rises each day with new energy for you to harness and use.
Tom Pittsley
http://www.eebt.org/
ecobuilder@aol.com
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Great post, Tom. Being a window tinter in Richardson TX, we've seen quite a bit of recent demand for residential window tinting in the area. Most of these homeowners are concerned with going solar with their homes as well, and have invested in solar windows, roofs, and pools. I think we're definitely seeing the growth of an energy-conscious nation.
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