La Conner Solar Power Information & Peak Sun Hours
Solar Green Energy Summary for La Conner, Washington
Lattitude: 48.3925
Sunlight
Fixed Tilt Sunlight Hours: 3.9 hours per day
1-Axis Tilt Sunlight Hours: 4.8 hours per day
2-Axis Tilt Sunlight Hours: 6.8 hours per day
Looking at the average peak sunlight hours in La Conner 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 La Conner, Washington.
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 La Conner is 48.4.
They type of solar panel you use has an affect on the average peak sunlight hours. Some panels allow for movement, so they can track the sun as it rises in the east and sets in the west, or as the seasons change and the sun's path changes. A fixed panel remains fixed and does not have the ability to rotate, whereas a 1-axis and 2-axis panel can adjust with the sun.
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 La Conner 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 La Conner one can expect close to 3.9 average peak sun hours per day. With a 1-axis tracking mount you would get 4.8 hours per day, and 6.8 hours per day with a 2-axis tracking mount that tracks the sun everywhere in the sky.