Covered by trees, help me find out how much solar potential!

[boxrick]

Hello, I currently own a detached bungalow I get a little bit of sun but I am surrounded by trees so it probably isn't ideal. However for my own curiosity I would to see the potential.

Is there any cheap USB solar panel / logging style of setup I can place in different positions on my roof and leave for a few days to check how it would scale up to a larger system?

I am trying to avoid calling out a professional to do a survey and really just looking to see if it was even possible!

 

[BradCagle]

Problem is, you'll have different shading at different times of the year. So just collecting a few days of data wont tell you what it'll be in different seasons.

There are some apps you can download to help.

 

[Woody]

There is a product/website that address this issue - https://www.solarpathfinder.com/

I have an older solar pathfinder version from them and this device can be helpful in planning solar collection location and to see if your location works with solar.

 

[Bluedog225]

Here is the cheap, long way.

Pick a spot on your roof that gets the most sun. About 12’x12’. Guess how many hours of sun it gets summer, and winter.

Go to the nrel pvwatts calculator and find the hourly report. Don’t be intimidated by the site. Use default values for now.

For the PV array, figure out how many watts solar panels you can fit in 12’x12’.

Then look at the hour you have and the production from the table. This will give you your watts per day.

Then more math to calculate system size.

But watts generated per day, per season is a good start.

You will find that mid day sun counts for most production so you may not be out of luck.

 

[robby]

Use an App called Sun Tracker AR.
It can show you in AR the Suns arc in the sky for today or any day of they year.
It helped me to figure out my Panel placement to get the most out of them

 

[Bluedog225]

PVWatts

Estimates the energy production and cost of energy of grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) energy systems throughout the world. It allows homeowners, small building owners, installers and manufacturers to easily develop estimates of the performance of potential PV installations

pvwatts.nrel.gov