HI Ken;
Don't tell me, but you probably still have a copy of /The Passive Solar
Energy Book/ on your shelves, with those nice old solar siting charts?
Those of us lucky enough to have been in the business for decades have
been confronted with Ken's little considered fact: *Trees grow*. I went
back to a site I had done in '99, and was amazed I was so stupid to put
the array in the shade of a 30 ft tree. That must have been before I
got my Solar Pathfinder, I thought......Then I started looking at the
tree and my old pics of the site, and realized that tree was only about
5 ft tall, when I did the system. As Homer Simpson says: " /Douhh!/ "
On the flip side, beetle kill in the Southwest has had the opposite
effect; arrays that were on tall poles to get above the tree shading are
now rather ridiculous looking sitting out by themselves in the now large
clearing.
While I certainly didn't go into solar to cut down trees, sometimes it
needs to happen along with clearing trees close to the house for fire
danger. I do my best to get folks to move the array to save the big
beauties. (yea, I'm a tree hugger at heart) Higher voltage arrays
courtesy of MPPT controllers help in that regard, too.
Ray Walters
Remote Solar
303 505-8760
On 9/3/18 12:26 PM, Ken Schaal wrote:
I started siting SHW systems in 1976.
Studied sun angle chart persistently, until i had a good sense of how
the sun moves for our area in central Virginia.
We also have lots of trees...fast growing, tall trees !
So while precision shading analysis is a valuable tool, the info is
static.
Our sites are rarely static !
The biggest issue here is getting clients to manage their trees.
I learned this even before I started installing SHW, when I first
built a sunroom on the south side of my house in 1974.
Many trees have grown, and then become firewood, since then.
When the pv system was installed, in 2008, several more trees on the
east and west were removed.Fortunately there were now taller trees to
the NE and NW to shade house in summer. Exterior movable shading,
sunscreen, on south windows, combined with interior insulating
shades, allowing the collectors and pv panels to be in full sun, while
the house is protected from unwanted spring, summer, fall solar gain.
Being a full service solar contractor requires a long term perspective
in our climate. And most importantly, clients willing and able to
manage their trees !
It has been my observation that folks that love solar, hate to cut
trees, even tho trees, in our climate, grow faster now due to climate
change.
Ken Schaal
CommonWealthSolar.com
On Mon, Sep 3, 2018, 12:45 PM Dan Fink <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
I use Solar Shading from Comoving Magnetics on Android. I had my
class test it versus the Solar Pathfinder and Solmetric Suneye,
and our shading readings were within 6-8%.
The Solmetric Sunviewer app is also handy. I have never tried
their iPV app because of the price, and because Solar Shades is
working fine for me.
Dan Fink
Professor of Solar Energy Technology, Ecotech Institute
IREC Certified Instructor™ for:
~ PV Installation Professional
~ Small Wind Installer
Executive Director, Buckville Energy
NABCEP Registered Continuing Education Providers™
NABCEP PV Associate
970.672.4342
On Mon, Sep 3, 2018 at 10:28 AM Jerry Shafer
<[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
I still use the sun eye and solmetric, noting works as well as
being on site, solmetric had an app way back when that was on
a subcription bases
Jerry
On Mon, Sep 3, 2018, 9:22 AM Jay <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Hi all,
I’m wondering about which apps people are using for
determining shading and sun position.
Thx
Jay
Peltz Power.
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On Sep 3, 2018 9:22 AM, "Jay" <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Hi all,
I’m wondering about which apps people are using for
determining shading and sun position.
Thx
Jay
Peltz Power.
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