Gilman Solar Power Information & Peak Sun Hours

Solar Green Energy Summary for Gilman, Montana

Lattitude: 47.5091

Sunlight

Fixed Tilt Sunlight Hours: 4.7 hours per day

1-Axis Tilt Sunlight Hours: 6.2 hours per day

2-Axis Tilt Sunlight Hours: 6.3 hours per day

Looking at the average peak sunlight hours in Gilman is a valuable number for determining your solar power setup. Peak sunlight hours are only the hours a day in which the sunlight is strong enough for the solar panels to do their job. Not every hour of sunlight was created equal. For example, solar panels do not provide much use during early sunrise and sunset, and therefore you should not look at total hours of sunlight in a day, but instead focus on peak sunlight hours. Using this number will provide a much better estimate of your needs for setting up panels in Gilman, Montana.

If you open the newspaper in the morning or watch the weather channel on the news you can get an accurate prediction of sunrise and sunset each day for Gilman. However, still knowing that the latitude of Gilman is 47.5 can be a helpful number for your solar panel setup and planning. The closer your latitude is to zero the closer you are to the equator. At the equator you find the most consistent total sunlight hours throughout any given day of the year. As your latitude increases you can see larger discrepancies of daily sunlight hours during the year. For example, having very long summer days and very short and dark winter days

The sun moves through the sky during the day, and changes positions in the sky throughout the year as the seasons change. A fixed solar panel remains fixed in position during this movement. So, although it is effective in capturing sunlight, a 1-axis or 2-axis panel can be more efficient. A 1-axis panel tracks the sun's movement throughout the day from sunrise to sunset. In addition to that, the 2-axis panel also accounts for the movement throughout the year.

The sun is a great ball of gas that rises and sets every day that the earth rotates while in orbit around the sun. Barring any major disasters this is a very predictable occurance every day. Latitude helps predict this even more, narrowing it down to the minute for sunrise and sunset. But some things aren’t as predictable that will greatly influence the efficiency of solar panels. Weather and cloud coverage for example can greatly diminish peak sun hours on any given day. Thick storm clouds will block a high percentage of the sun's rays, resulting in lower output of your solar panels. Weather needs to be factored into deciding when to use your system, or how much output one expects to get.

Since we know the latitude of Gilman we can take the average amount of total sunlight hours and estimate that with a fixed solar panel there would be an average of 4.7 peak sun hours per day. 6.2 hours per day with a 1-axis tracking mount that tracks the sun from sunrise to sunset, and 6.3 hours with a 2-axis tracking mount that tracks the sun everywhere in the sky.


Solar Businesses in Gilman, Montana




Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *