South Bend Solar Power Information & Peak Sun Hours

Solar Green Energy Summary for South Bend, Washington

Lattitude: 46.6683

Sunlight

Fixed Tilt Sunlight Hours: 3.6 hours per day

1-Axis Tilt Sunlight Hours: 5 hours per day

2-Axis Tilt Sunlight Hours: 6 hours per day

The average peak sun hours of South Bend is a crucial measurable component needed to efficiently implement a solar power system in a home or business. Put simply, peak sun hours are the hours of sunlight a day that are strong enough to be efficiently absorbed by solar panels and eventually turned into usable electricity. Not every minute of sunlight during a day is strong enough to be useful to a solar power system. Think about just minutes after the sunrises, which officially counts towards total hours of sunlight, but is usually too weak to be counted in peak sun hours because the strength of the solar insolation is not strong enough near the horizon to be absorbed and turned into electricity at an efficient rate. Times during the day like this, where the sun is out but not strong enough, are not counted as peak sun hours. In other words, the amount of peak sun hours in a location will theoretically always be less than total sunlight hours for a given day.

Knowing that the latitude of South Bend is 46.7 can be helpful for understanding total sunlight hour variance. As you approach the equator latitude approaches zero. The closer the latitude is to zero, the more consistent the daily sunlight hours are throughout the year. Total sunlight hour consistency simply makes planning for your solar power needs easier, but it is certainly not a requirement.

They type of solar panel you use has an affect on the average peak sunlight hours. Some panels allow for movement, so they can track the sun as it rises in the east and sets in the west, or as the seasons change and the sun's path changes. A fixed panel remains fixed and does not have the ability to rotate, whereas a 1-axis and 2-axis panel can adjust with the sun.

The sunrise and sunset is very predictable every day, but things like cloud coverage and weather are less predictable and vary daily and annually. If a location that is usually very sunny experiences a huge increase in storms and cloud coverage in a given year than the average peak sun hours for that day or year will probably decrease. Tall objects such as trees and buildings can block out the sun during high solar insolation times, so be sure to strategically place your solar panels to get better efficiency.

Since we know the latitude of South Bend we can take the average amount of total sunlight hours and estimate that with a fixed solar panel there would be an average of 3.6 peak sun hours per day. 5 hours per day with a 1-axis tracking mount that tracks the sun from sunrise to sunset, and 6 hours with a 2-axis tracking mount that tracks the sun everywhere in the sky.


Solar Businesses in South Bend, Washington




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