Tools that give sun position, climatic data for solar design, and radiation on a solar collector.
Tools to design window overhangs.
Directory of page: |
Solar Site Survey | |
Solar Site Survey...
|
![]() This free and simple survey only takes an hour and is fun and educational. Its a must do for any type of solar project! |
Skyview app to do solar shading surveys |
![]() To use it, you make sure it is set to your location, then set the date and time of interest, then select the sun object. Standing at your your proposed collector location, pan across the horizon -- the path of the sun will be projected on the screen so you can see when it is lower in the sky than nearby trees, buildings etc. The logical first date to start with would be Dec 21 (the winter Solstice) when the sun is lowest. I tried this on my iPad, and it worked pretty well, but I would still do the site survey listed just above rather than relying fully on Skyview -- it can be a real disaster to get the shading wrong. Thanks to David for finding this and sending it in. |
Solar Shading and Other Solar Tools for Android Phones... |
![]() Cost is $16. Comments from Lawrence... They also offer several other PV and electrical oriented tools for Android. |
Sun
Tracker -- an iPhone application http://www.imeasuresystems.com/
|
![]() While I've not had a chance to actually try it, it looks to me as though it would do a good job. Price is now up to $40 at the Apple App Store. |
Solar Pathfinder http://www.solarpathfinder.com/index
|
![]() Probably a bit of overkill for the DIYer building one or two projects. |
Bright Harvest Solar Survey
|
They did a report for my house, and
here are my thoughts on it...
|
Effect of Collector Orientation On Performance | |
Effects of Tilt and Azimuth On
Annual Incident Solar Radiation For the United States Locations Craig Christensen and Greg Barker The full paper... (pdf) |
![]() Covers only the US, but the general relationships would be useful elsewhere. Some limitations -- read the cautions in the paper.
|
PVWatts http://rredc.nrel.gov/solar/calculators/pvwatts/version1/ |
The very useful PVWatts tool can be used to work out the best orientation
for solar PV or thermal collectors at your location. Simply try different tilt and azimuth angles until you maximize solar irradiance on your panels over the desired time frame. |
Solar Position, Solar Radiation, Solar Design Climatic Data | |
Sun Charts |
![]() |
GAISMA
|
![]() (thanks to WYWhiteWolf for suggesting this) |
Climate Consultant, UCLA Energy Design Tools http://www2.aud.ucla.edu/energy-design-tools/
|
![]() It provides a variety of ways to visualize weather for a specific location. Weather data files are available for hundreds of locations. This is a brand new version, and is very easy to use. "It graphically displays climate data in either metric or imperial units in dozens of ways useful to architects including monthly bar charts, timetable charts, and psychrometric charts, sun shading charts, and sun dial charts." One of the most interesting charts is the Psychrometric chart with overlays that show the design strategies (e.g. passive solar, evaporative cooling, ..) will work for the location in question. |
WeatherSpark
|
![]() The graphical presentation is very well done, and conveys a lot of information in a very readable format. |
Weather Underground www.wunderground.com |
![]() |
Psychrometric Charts US units psychrometric chart... SI units psychrohttp://www.uigi.com/UIGI_SI.PDFmetric chart... |
![]() Climate Consultant (just above) provides temperature/humidity data overlaid on a Psychrometric Chart for many locations. |
Hoyt Tyler, Schiavon Stefano, Moon Dustin, and Steinfeld Kyle, 2012, CBE Thermal Comfort Tool for ASHRAE-55. Center for the Built Environment, University of California Berkeley |
![]() (Thanks to Nick for finding this) |
NOAA
Solar Calculator http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/grad/solcalc/ |
![]() |
Solar Time to Local Time -- Solar
Noon, NOAA www.srrb.noaa.gov/highlights/sunrise/sunrise.html
|
![]() Helpful in many situations, including finding true south at your location.
|
SunCalc www.suncalc.net |
![]() |
Print Your
Solar Noon Calendar
|
![]()
|
Surface meteorology and Solar
Energy NASA http://eosweb.larc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/sse/sse.cgi?na+s01#s01
|
![]() Provides solar parameters for solar thermal, PV, solar cooking, etc. based on 10 year history for your exact location. |
Solar Radiation Tables... | The tables provide solar radiation on a south facing collector at various tilt angles and for a range of latitudes. |
NOAA - Climate Data Online |
NOAA - Climate Data Online This free online service allows you to search a huge collection of climate data for the US and the world, and then to download the data you select. |
More Solar Radiation and Weather
Data Sources NOAA NOAA CLIM20 Weather Summaries by City NREL (and other) Solar Radiation and Climatic
Data
Total and diffuse radiation or building surfaces:
Typical Meteorological Year weather files |
NOAA provides a variety of weather
related products and data. The CLIM20 product provides pretty detailed historical weather summaries for many US towns. It includes temperatures, precip, and heating and cooling degree days. Lots of good data. NOAA year to date degree days provides deg day totals for the current year. Updated each week. NREL Bluebook: The Solar Radiation Manual for Buildings gives total and
diffuse radiation on S, N, E, W and horizontal surfaces. TMY weather files give provide typical hour by hour weather files to provide weather input for simulations. |
|
![]() |
Solar Electricity Handbook --
Irradiance Calculator http://solarelectricityhandbook.com/solar-irradiance.html Note that PVWatts, which is a PV oriented calculator by NREL also provides solar irradiance on the surface you specify, and this can be used as input for solar thermal calculations in the same way. |
![]() Output is in KWH/sqmeter -- 1 KWH/sqmeter = 317 BTU/sqft Thanks to Andre for suggesting this |
Clear Sky Charts
|
![]() It gives a cloud cover forecast by hour for about 48 hours for thousands of locations. |
The Solar Spectrum... |
![]() |
Borst Engineering and Construction
Calculators Many Calculators... |
Borst Engineering has a whole raft of calculators -- HVAC, solar position, shading, and incident heat, water wheels, pipe sizing, ... |
Heating and Cooling Degree Days | |
Energy CAP Free Degree-Day Weather
Tools http://www.energycap.com/weather/
|
![]() Provides historic, current, and even near term degree day forecasts. Very easy to use. Note that a default balance point temperature is 55F is used -- you can change it to the more usual 65F if you wish. |
Year to
Year Degree Day Comparisons
http://www.weatherdatadepot.com/dd.asp
An example of how to make apples to apples comparisons of fuel use in for two years ... |
![]() This allows you to make apples to apples comparison of fuel use for two years, and to see the actual effect of changes you made to reduce energy use. An example of how to make apples to apples comparisons of fuel use in for two years ... |
Degree
Days.net -- Worldwide Degree-Day Tool
|
![]() The data comes from Weather Underground stations, so it may be easier to find a location near you. |
NCDC Degree-Day Maps
Heating and Cooling Degree Day Maps
National Climatic Data Center |
![]() |
Window Shading and Overhangs | |
Designing Shading Overhangs with
Google SketchUp
Example -- Using SketchUP to model sun and shadows on a home... |
![]() You can easily draw a wall with a window and overhang (or a whole home), and play the sun over it for various times of day and times of year. Shading structures of all types can be modeled, including trees, solar sails, shade walls, window fins, ... Sun patterns inside the home are also shown. It would be good for modeling sunspaces and greenhouses as well. |
Sustainable By Design Solar Tools www.susdesign.com/tools.php Several other useful tools listed on the same page. |
![]() The overhang design tool is very good, and is the best way to get a quick feel for how overhangs work. |
Wind | |
Got Wind? --
How to use the Wind
Resource Atlas of the United States
|
![]() |
PV | |
PVWatts -- A Performance Calculator for Grid-Connected PV Systems From NREL http://rredc.nrel.gov/solar/calculators/PVWATTS/ This is a really useful tool. |
An easy calculator you can use to find out how
much power you will get from a PV installation in your area. It calculates PV system performance based on hour by hour records for sun in your area. Version 1 is very easy to use, and works worldwide. |