White Oak Solar Power Information & Peak Sun Hours

Solar Green Energy Summary for White Oak, Pennsylvania

Lattitude: 40.3415

Sunlight

Fixed Tilt Sunlight Hours: 4 hours per day

1-Axis Tilt Sunlight Hours: 5.1 hours per day

2-Axis Tilt Sunlight Hours: 5.3 hours per day

If you put your solar powered math calculator in your backpack it will turn off from the lack of sunlight needed to power the device. As you slowly open your backpack and begin to let sunlight in, the calculator will eventually turn on when the amount of sunlight is enough to power the calculator. Similarly, peak sun hours refer to the hours of they day where the sunlight is strong enough to power a solar panel. This is different from total sunlight hours, which is simply the amount of hours in a day when there is any sunlight.

The latitude at the equator of the earth is zero degrees. This is where sunlight strikes the earth most directly. Due to the earth's curved shape, sunlight hits at a various angles depending on location. As latitude increases, the further you are located from the equator and more variance you see in sunlight hours. The latitude of White Oak is 40.3.

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.

Weather is a big determinate of average peak sun hours each day. There are many aspects of weather that can increase or lessen the peak sun hours in a day in a particular location. For example cloud coverage is a crucial variable. And more importantly, what type of cloud coverage; thin scattered clouds will have less diminishing power on the solar insolation than thick rainy storm clouds. Sometimes long periods of sunny days are rare in certain locations, this would increase average peak sun hours for that time-frame

In White Oak you can look at the average peak sun hours of a fixed solar panel mount, which will be 4 hours. This number iis an estimate based on data of previous years. With a tracking mount in White Oak you could theoretically increase the amount of peak sun hours per with a 1-axis mount, and get 5.1 hours, or a 2-axis mount and potentially increase your average to 5.3 hours.


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