Elizabethtown Solar Power Information & Peak Sun Hours
Solar Green Energy Summary for Elizabethtown, Illinois
Lattitude: 37.4499
Sunlight
Fixed Tilt Sunlight Hours: 4.5 hours per day
1-Axis Tilt Sunlight Hours: 5.6 hours per day
2-Axis Tilt Sunlight Hours: 6.4 hours per day
Looking at the average peak sunlight hours in Elizabethtown is a valuable number for determining your solar power setup. Peak sunlight hours are only the hours a day in which the sunlight is strong enough for the solar panels to do their job. Not every hour of sunlight was created equal. For example, solar panels do not provide much use during early sunrise and sunset, and therefore you should not look at total hours of sunlight in a day, but instead focus on peak sunlight hours. Using this number will provide a much better estimate of your needs for setting up panels in Elizabethtown, Illinois.
Although you can easily predict sunrise and sunset hours each day to the minute, looking at latitude can help with your solar planning. The closer you get to the equator the closer your latitude gets to zero. Sunlight hours on the equator are consistent throughout the entire year. Places further from the equator can have large variance in daily sunlight. For example higher latitudes can have very long summer days with lots of sunlight and very dark winters. The latitude of Elizabethtown is 37.4.
Throughout the day the sun obviously moves throughout the Elizabethtown sky. The suns position in the sky also changes throughout the year with the seasons. A fixed solar panel does not accommodate for these changes. However, a 1-axis panel rotates and follows the sun’s path during the day. A 2-axis panel both follows the sun’s daily path as well as the seasonal differences
Looking at latitude, average peak sun hours and various data can obviously help when planning for your solar power needs. The one thing you can never fully account for is changing weather. Storms, rain, cloud coverage all have an impact on solar panel capabilities.
The average daily peak sunlight hours in Elizabethtown, Illinois is 4.5 hours. Use this number when trying to calculate your solar needs in Elizabethtown. As you can see above, if you were to use a 1-Axis or 2-Axis panel then the daily average would increase to 5.6 hour and 6.4 hours, respectively.