How Much Sunlight Does My Roof Get

Solar radiation peaks at solar noon when the sun reaches the highest point in the sky.

How much sunlight does my roof get. Understanding how much sunlight falls on a home s roof can help a homeowner make decisions about roofing materials insulation and the placement of solar panels. Calculating the amount of sunlight. A rough estimate is that sun should hit your roof between 9am and 3pm to to meet your energy needs. That s about 500 550 kilowatt hours of energy per year from each panel on your roof.

Although your panels may get an average of 7 hours of daylight a day the average peak sun hours are generally around 4 or 5. Our solar technicians will help determine both your summer and winter exposures to figure out if you get enough power from the sun to energize your home. Let s say on a good day you average 5 hours of direct sunlight. Learn more get an estimate and connect with providers.

The us ranges from about 4 hours 6 hours of sunlight per day on average see the below map. Multiply 5 hours of sunlight x 290 watts from a solar panel 1 450 watts or roughly 1 5 kilowatt hours per day. 4 how does that compare to your annual energy usage. How to calculate your peak sun hours.

Or 30 kwh 5 hours of sun 6 kw of ac output needed to cover 100 of your energy usage. You need a sunny roof to benefit from solar panels but yours may be sunnier than you think. The number of peak sun hours you get per day increases the closer you are to the equator and typically during the summer months. Green roofs on the other hand absorb sunlight and even put it to good use.

Dark roofs absorb light up to 90 of solar energy and convert it to heat emitting it back into the atmosphere. Weather is also a factor. White ones absorb much less light by reflecting the light without transferring it into heat. So the kwh divided by the hours of sun equals the kw needed.

States like californiaor floridacan expect more clear and sunny days. Let s estimate you get about five hours per day to generate that 30 kwh you use. Easy to use tools allow you to construct your own scene and automatically plot the shadow results. 6 but don t forget every house is different.