Southwood Acres Solar Power Information & Peak Sun Hours
Solar Green Energy Summary for Southwood Acres, Connecticut
Lattitude: 41.961
Sunlight
Fixed Tilt Sunlight Hours: 4.3 hours per day
1-Axis Tilt Sunlight Hours: 5.1 hours per day
2-Axis Tilt Sunlight Hours: 5.9 hours per day
It goes without saying that throughout the year the amount of sunlight in any given day is going to vary. The time of year and weather will have a strong influence on daily sunshine. Looking at the average amount of peak sunshine hours in a day during an entire year stretch is a valuable exercise when trying to determine the amount and type of solar panels you need to install to power your business or your home. 4.3 peak sun hours means that in Southwood Acres on average there are 4.3 hours a day where the sun is strong enough for solar panels to harness its energy. This number is less than the amount of total sunlight hours in a day because there are times during the day (ex. sunrise and sunset) where the sun is not strong enough to benefit solar panels.
If you open the newspaper in the morning or watch the weather channel on the news you can get an accurate prediction of sunrise and sunset each day for Southwood Acres. However, still knowing that the latitude of Southwood Acres is 42.0 can be a helpful number for your solar panel setup and planning. The closer your latitude is to zero the closer you are to the equator. At the equator you find the most consistent total sunlight hours throughout any given day of the year. As your latitude increases you can see larger discrepancies of daily sunlight hours during the year. For example, having very long summer days and very short and dark winter days
Throughout the day the sun obviously moves throughout the Southwood Acres 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
Peak sun hours are greatly affected by weather patterns. Cloud coverage is a huge factor in peak sun hours per day because heavy cloud coverage will diminish the power of the solar insolation. You can use historical climate data to estimate average cloud and weather coverage, but it will obviously vary slightly from year to year.
By taking the latitude of Southwood Acres one can get a close estimate of the amount of average peak sun hours per day for the geographical area. It varies with technology and the type of solar panel mount you use, but for a fixed mount solar panel in Southwood Acres one can expect close to 4.3 average peak sun hours per day. With a 1-axis tracking mount you would get 5.1 hours per day, and 5.9 hours per day with a 2-axis tracking mount that tracks the sun everywhere in the sky.
Helpful & Interesting
How much does a fan use in electricity?
At the midpoint, 70 watts, if a kilowatt costs 10 cents per hour, the fan would cost 0.7 cents per hour (0.07 kwh x 10 cents). Extend that out to a month and it works out to $5.04 per month if it runs around the clock (0.7 cents per hour x 24 hours x 30 days). Two fans would be just over $10 per month.