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Looking at the average peak sunlight hours in Encinal 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 Encinal, New Mexico.

Sunlight hits the earth directly at the equator. This is why the equator has a latitude of zero degrees. The latitude of Encinal is 35.1. Knowing the latitude of Encinal 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.

You will notice that the average peak sun hours for Encinal change based on the type of panel being used. The reason for this is quite simple. A fixed panel does exactly what it sounds like, remains fixed in one position at all times. A 1-axis and 2-axis panels have axis that allow them to rotate. The 1-axis rotates with the sun's daily east to west movement while a 2-axis also adjusts for seasonal changes.

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 Encinal. A fixed tilt mount for example will receive 6 average hours per day. For more efficiency for your system in Encinal you could use a 1-axis tracking mount and increase your daily peak sun average to 8 hours, or even further with a 2-axis panel to get an average of 8.3 hours.