Sunshine map?

Timco

Are there insolation maps for the US? We have several weeks straight of inversion in Utah during the winter, and solar would not do well many days out of the year. Can that be measured to project the performance of a solar loop in an indirect? Our winter air here in the valley is the worst in the US many days of the year...



Tim

CC.Rob

try this

NREL



http://www.nrel.gov/gis/solar.html

hot_rod

you don't need clear sunny days

to harvest solar energy. It's the electromagnetic radiation that carries the energy. Similar to getting a sunburn on an overcast day, or the way radiant floor heat works.



@ 50% of the energy is in the wave lengths that can't be seen. Although clear day radiation numbers will be higher than overcast. Some of the solar maps show the data for clear and various overcast conditions.



The site mentioned allows you to drill down to the actual weather stations near you and get data. If it goes back 20 years it will catch that inversion trend as it started in the valley in the late 70's. I remember working at Snowbird and watching that layer creep up every year. I suspect now it crosses over some of the passes.



There are a number of solar thermal systems in your area with data loggers on them. That would be the best way to get current data on what is actually being harvested on a day to day basis this year.



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