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Location specific information on the sun: SR/SS max angle

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  • 12-03-2008 11:03am
    #1
    ircoha
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,290 ✭✭✭


    My first post here, spend most of my time over on Construction and Planning/Green Issues.

    Given the growing interest in solar panels, I am wondering if any of the weather experts on this forum know where I might find software that will, for a specific location [lat/long] produce the following sort of information:

    Sun rise
    Sun set
    maximum angle reached during the day and at what time and position in the sky { eg: south, south west}.

    The reason I ask is that to make the best use of the sun, assuming no cloud cover, to properly size the panels, the above information is required.

    The current use of panels in Ireland is to just heat the tank of HW and then not use the rest of the heat captured by the panels.

    I am currently in a house in Germany where a 28,000 litre tanks, 7.5 metres high, with 800mm insulation, is situated in the house from basement to first floor: see link for idea
    http://www.sonnenhaus-institut.de/baukonzept.html.

    The tank and panels are sized on the minimum winter sun, which is location specific.

    One issue with solar panels at present is that their capacity is being over sold by some installers, based on dubious data, just like during the first wave of double glazing/composite insulated plasterboard/ wood pellet boilers and so on...

    Software like I am looking for will give the required independence to the customer

    Thanks.


Comments

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    #2
    nilhg
    Registered Users Posts: 5,145 ✭✭✭nilhg


    Heavens above will give you data for any particular day, I presume what you want is something which will give you a table/spread sheet with data for the whole year. Most of the astronomy software available should be able to do that for you.


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    #3
    squonk
    Registered Users Posts: 9,273 ✭✭✭squonk


    I use StarryNight Pro which is excellent astronomy software. Even the cheapest version of SN is around €50 or a bit more I think now. You could check out Cartes Du Ciel (http://www.stargazing.net/astropc/) though and see how you get on with it. It's free and a lot fo the astronomy crowd do use it before they upgrade.


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    #4
    Danno
    Registered Users Posts: 8,913 ✭✭✭Danno


    face her due south and on the 21st of march record how high and where the sun is in the sky to get optimum position.


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