Date: Sun, 5 Aug 2007 16:21:52 -0700
Reply-To: Michael Elliott <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Michael Elliott <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Google Pages/Solar Energy
In-Reply-To: <vanagon%2007080517133640@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
True all that you say. I was thinking that at higher latitudes while day
is longer during the hemispheric summer, the sun is also lower in the
sky and has to pass through more atmospheric rubbish. Shade from trees
and stuff are also longer and more likely to interfere? It's just
guesses, someone who designs solar for those latitudes is welcome to
chime in and I'll happily correct my error.
--
Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
71 Type 2: the Wonderbus
84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
74 Utility Trailer. Ladybug Trailer, Inc., San Juan Capistrano
KG6RCR
Bill Glenn typed:
> Michael,
> I have utilized Google since its inception, but never bothered to look at
> features other than e-mail; thanks for demonstrating Google Pages, you did
> a nice job. One small note with regard to the last, summarizing paragraph
> on the solar page. You wrote: "...then get enough solar panel power to run
> it all, based on your latitude (less sunlight at higher latitudes) and
> expected hours per day of sunlight."
>
> That statement may apply to the design for a fixed PV installation, on an
> annualized basis, but I'm not so sure. For a mobile installation, in the
> northern hemisphere, during the summer months when most of us are camping,
> the reverse is true.
>
> At the equator, daylight and dark are each twelve hours in length,
> year 'round. On any given day in the northern hemisphere in summer, as one
> moves north to higher latitudes, the day is progressively longer. At 44
> degrees north in Idaho, I enjoy a longer day than you do in Southern
> California (at the time of the summer solstice around June 21st, it's light
> here until 10 p.m.), and if one travels far enough to the north, well,
> that's why it's called the land of the midnight sun, and for a certain
> period of the summer, the sun does not set.
>
> In summer, the higher the latitude, the greater the amount of sunlight,
> simply due to the increased hours of sunlight. If the solar panels are
> properly oriented to the sun, I should think that the solar energy captured
> will also be greater at higher latitudes, than at lower latitudes, all else
> being equal, no?. (Fixed panels on the top of the van, which cannot be
> directly oriented to the low angle light of the higher latitudes, may
> indeed incur some loss of capture, but the longer day at the higher
> latitude may still result in more net energy captured than at lesser
> latitude)
>
> Of course, all else is seldom equal. Dust or smoke in the atmosphere,
> humidity, tree cover, and clouds will affect the amount of solar energy
> available at any given place on any given day. Dirty solar panels will
> also reduce the capture of the available energy.
>
> Michael, the central point of your message, which is to design for your
> individual circumstances, remains valid. And don't be too envious of my
> longer days. I pay for it around the winter solstice, when it's dark at 5
> p.m., and my house is in the shade most of the day for about five weeks due
> to mountains blocking the low-angle sunlight.
>
> Bill
>
| 
