Home Orientation for Solar

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Southwest is fine. I would recommend a site survey by someone with a Solar Pathfinder to get an idea of how much the surrounding trees will impact your solar performance.
 
saleem145 said:
Hello Guys,

My roof is facing Southwest -- please check the link below

http://maps.google.com/?ll=41.172272,-73.325204&spn=0.000409,0.000625&t=h&z=20

Would my home work as a good solar site??

Saleem


Wow, that google images is really eerie. So if you look at this tool:
http://www1.solmetric.com/cgi/insolation_lookup/lookup.cgi" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

You'll see that for Danbury Muncipal, CT a perfect setup at 37 degrees tilt and a 179 degree azimuth is 1648kWh/m2. If you adjust that to what your roof is say for example 18 degrees that comes down to 1581 or 95.9% of perfect. Then if you adjust your azimuth to 225 degrees that brings it down to 1514 or 91.9%. So roughly the southwest face of your roof causes only a 4% decrease relative to perfect.

Does your southwest roof get any significant amount of shade?
 
Amazing location. You seem to be on a rocky plateau with fissures everywhere. Please tell us more about the terrain. You should be fine for solar, with the only issues being tree shade and cloudy weather conditions. Both of these can rob surprisingly significantly from your potential solar output.
 
Boomer23 said:
Amazing location. You seem to be on a rocky plateau with fissures everywhere. Please tell us more about the terrain. You should be fine for solar, with the only issues being tree shade and cloudy weather conditions. Both of these can rob surprisingly significantly from your potential solar output.

Heh, that's just the shadows of the trees in the fall, that or the fissures have opened up his neighbors house.
 
QueenBee said:
Boomer23 said:
Amazing location. You seem to be on a rocky plateau with fissures everywhere. Please tell us more about the terrain. You should be fine for solar, with the only issues being tree shade and cloudy weather conditions. Both of these can rob surprisingly significantly from your potential solar output.

Heh, that's just the shadows of the trees in the fall, that or the fissures have opened up his neighbors house.

Ohhh, silly me. Thanks. It did look other-worldly, though.
 
I think I will need to bring down one tree. I need to do that anyway as it is too close to the home and after the storm I realize it's just too close for comfort. It's a wooded area and the pic is taken in the fall so trees are missing their leaves. BTW you can see my jag in the driveway!! I think the site will be fine. My only worry is getting the cost down to $3.5 per watt.

Saleem
 
Hi Saleem,

Your roof is facing southeast, not southwest. But, that shouldn't be a problem. Very few houses have roofs that face perfectly for solar.


Mark
 
Hello,

So far one installer (Solar City) has said Solar will not work out for me due to trees. One said I might have to cut a few trees. Another said it is good. But none has actually visited the site yet!!

I do have a quote for $3.5/Watt in Connecticut before rebates (Encon). For a 10kW system the pack back will be 5 years which is from a perspective a pretty good investment.

But I want them to come take a look at the site first. I am curious to hear opinions -- I will I could post some clearer pics.

Saleem
 
Mothernaturesolar said:
Hi Saleem,

Your roof is facing southeast, not southwest. But, that shouldn't be a problem. Very few houses have roofs that face perfectly for solar.


Mark


I have a SE facing roof in NH. I have solar hot water installed. I have some midwinter post noon shading. Those trees would have to go if I were to add pv. But otherwise my system works well

My installer said my roof orientation wouldn't be a big hit overall
 
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