Gadget to measure Sunlight ?

xclaim494 · Oct 26, 2022

total noob here .. so i apologize in advance for the stupid question.

Looking into Solar panels/batteries/inverters for the first time in my life … Is there a gadget, sensor that I can mount of my roof or side of house or yard to see where I get most sunlight ? or something I can gauge how many hrs. sunlight I get in a day ?

I want to be able to mount it then measure for a few days then re-mount it in another spot ? I live in a wooded area and I'm trying to see which trees to trim back and find the most optimal spot to mount panels.

TY so much in advance.

Don B. Cilly · Oct 26, 2022

There are small 12V solar panels for less that $10.
That and a multimeter would do it. Put it on milliamps and short-circuit the leads through it.
You might also want to look at light meter apps for Android and such.
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42OhmsPA · Oct 26, 2022

Pvwatts. gov
Suncalc. org

2 very helpful sites I've came across on here.

You could throw up a remote / trail camera and have it snap photos at x frequency to gauge shadows / sun.

Supervstech · Oct 26, 2022

Project Sunroof

Enter a state, county, city, or zip code to see a solar estimate for the area, based on the amount of usable sunlight and roof space.

sunroof.withgoogle.com

It does't have every address, but for those it does it useful for figuring irradiance

xclaim494 · Oct 26, 2022

Don B. Cilly said:
There are small 12V solar panels for less that $10.
That and a multimeter would do it. Put it on milliamps and short-circuit the leads through it.
You might also want to look at light meter apps for Android and such.
-

TY Don :

Like this ?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09JFYPDNC/ref=sspa_dk_detail_1?pf_rd_p=3309c9d3-bf37-499a-888c-9ce693c3483f&pf_rd_r=XASBP648C7WFY7C3660E&pd_rd_wg=z1jnP&pd_rd_w=i1ENA&content-id=amzn1.sym.3309c9d3-bf37-499a-888c-9ce693c3483f&pd_rd_r=9e42de89-c969-4c1b-b685-880f145e4dbc&s=lawn-garden&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9kZXRhaWxfdGhlbWF0aWM&th=1

So I want to be able to leave it out for 1-2 days and then measure sunlight over a span of 5-8 hrs. per day

I buy this panel maybe I can connect it to a wifi/IOT device that tracks and measures power generated by the USB port ? something like that ?

I understand using the multimeter but isn't that a one time thing ?

TY

Don B. Cilly · Oct 26, 2022

xclaim494 said:
Like this ?

There are even smaller and cheaper ones, but yes.

xclaim494 said:
I understand using the multimeter but isn't that a one time thing ?

Well, if you want to log (and plot) the data you would need some kind of data logger.
Something like this.
Otherwise, you'd have to read the multimeter (you can run leads from the panel to it) every so often and plot it with pen and paper.
To turn milliamps to millivolts, just make a little shunt (a foot or less of thin - say 15-18 AWG - wire will do) and measure voltage at the ends.
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Danke · Oct 26, 2022

Supervstech said:
Project Sunroof

Enter a state, county, city, or zip code to see a solar estimate for the area, based on the amount of usable sunlight and roof space.

sunroof.withgoogle.com

It does't have every address, but for those it does it useful for figuring irradiance

Cool site, it says it models with the nearby trees too.

alfsauve · Oct 26, 2022

A number of the weather stations, like Ambient Weather have a UV or Solar Radiation function. I’d never really looked at mine, but they do keep daily stats of my readings online. You could mount it on a base that you could move around for your survey.

alfsauve · Oct 27, 2022

Here's the last 24 hours of Solar Radiation from my Ambient Weather station. Gives you an idea of the relative amount of sunlight during the day. Clouds obviously passed by and at this time of year my weather station gets some shading from the trees.

alfsauve · Oct 27, 2022

I wish I had investigated this earlier. I installed this Ambient Weather station mainly for the temp, wind and rain, but I'm discovering the "light" sensor aspect. Their graphs are so good. Along with the UV and Solar Radiation they give you the Sun's height. Here's the today's graph along with the sun and moon inclination. You can see I have a tree problem.

Gadget to measure Sunlight ?

xclaim494

New Member

Don B. Cilly

Energetic energy padawan

42OhmsPA

What's in a title?

Supervstech

Administrator

Project Sunroof

xclaim494

New Member

Don B. Cilly

Energetic energy padawan

Danke

Solar Wizard

Project Sunroof

alfsauve

New Member

alfsauve

New Member

alfsauve

New Member

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