Better still do it a few times throughout the year.
How much sun does my roof get.
How much sun needs to hit my roof.
You need a sunny roof to benefit from solar panels but yours may be sunnier than you think.
The ability of the material to reflect the sun s energy back into the atmosphere called solar reflectance and the amount of heat the material rejects instead of absorbs called thermal emittance both are measured on a scale from 0 to 1 with higher scores translating into cooler roofs.
The rooftop temperature results from two different properties.
Understanding how much sunlight falls on a home s roof can help a homeowner make decisions about roofing materials insulation and the placement of solar panels.
Project sunroof is a solar calculator from google that helps you map your roof s solar savings potential.
Sun number measures your roof calculating the pitch orientation and size of each roof plane.
My goal is to wake up with the sun each day to get my body s circadian rhythm synchronized with daylight based zeitgebers help me get better sleep.
How much sunlight does your roof get on average.
The nrel national renewable energy laboratory has some excellent solar maps 5 to determine average daily sun rays across the united states.
After all 40 of your solar production comes during the winter so summer is not the only season that matters and your shade may be vastly.
Additionally available sunlight varies by location.
Because the seasons and weather conditions affect the amount of sunlight hitting your roof and the amount of sunlight also varies on the time day you can t use just the solar panel ratings to predict how.
How big are the solar panels and how efficient are the solar cells at converting energy.
So to do this test your best bet when you re home for an entire day is to check your roof each hour and record how much sun is shining on it.
We add in local factors and compute your home s sun number score that will range between 0 100.
Top production occurs when solar panels face south a tilt angle of 30 to 45.
Your roof needs to get enough sun as we said above to power your solar panels.
Calculating the amount of sunlight.
Sun number calculates the amount of solar radiation for every square meter of your roof.
A roof s angle though has less impact on panel performance than the direction it faces.
So i set myself a bedtime alarm for visible sunrise minus 9 hours to ensure i am getting a solid 8 hours of sleep each night.
Google s project sunroof gives building by building details and now has data for parts of all 50.