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When trying to calculate your solar power needs there are a variety of factors to consider. Panel type and location, electricity needs, number of panels needed etc. One key to figuring out the math is factoring in the average peak sunlight hours in a day. Unlike total sunlight hours, peak sunlight hours are only when the sun is strong enough to power your solar panel. Using this number can help determine your needs to power your home or business in Douglass, Kansas.

Sunlight hits the earth directly at the equator. This is why the equator has a latitude of zero degrees. The latitude of Douglass is 37.5. Knowing the latitude of Douglass can help you plan for your solar panel setup, as the larger the latitude the more variance you will see throughout the year for total daily sunlight hours.

Throughout the day the sun obviously moves throughout the Douglass 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

Weather is one of the major culprits that will cause inconsistent total peak sun hours for any given day. The sunrise and sunset will always be predictable every day, but the weather is hard to predict and cloud coverage can greatly diminish the efficiency of a solar power system on any given day. On the bright side, a location that is known to have cloudy weather a majority of the year could have unexpectedly more sunny days, so it can go both ways.

We can use previous years of data to estimate the amount of peak sun hours in Douglass. A fixed tilt mount for example will receive 5.5 average hours per day. For more efficiency for your system in Douglass you could use a 1-axis tracking mount and increase your daily peak sun average to 6.6 hours, or even further with a 2-axis panel to get an average of 7.7 hours.