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Looking at the average peak sunlight hours in Vilas 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 Vilas, Kansas.

Sunlight hits the earth directly at the equator. This is why the equator has a latitude of zero degrees. The latitude of Vilas is 37.7. Knowing the latitude of Vilas 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.

Depending on your output needs, to get more out of your solar panels you can either upgrade your technology, buy more panels, or buy different tracking type panels. A fixed solar panel remains fixed at one angle throughout the year. A 1-axis panel will produce more output because it follows the path of the sun from sunrise to sunset to maximize sun exposure. Even more productive is a 2-axis panel that not only follows the sun's path throughout the day, but also accounts for the more subtle sun changes throughout the year with the different seasons.

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.

We can use previous years of data to estimate the amount of peak sun hours in Vilas. A fixed tilt mount for example will receive 5.6 average hours per day. For more efficiency for your system in Vilas you could use a 1-axis tracking mount and increase your daily peak sun average to 7.4 hours, or even further with a 2-axis panel to get an average of 7.6 hours.