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Renewable Energy for the Home

Evaluating a building site for solar?

12 years ago

We are considering purchasing some land, contingent on whether the site will get enough sun for a passive solar home and a vegetable garden. It's surrounded by woods, so the question is can we clear enough to make it work, or will we be in the shadow of trees outside our land's boundaries? I know there are various tools to assist with calculating sun shadows, but we want a professional to evaluate the site and give us an opinion. Any recommendations on how we find such a person? We are in southern Massachusetts. Any guidance will be much appreciated.

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Annie Deighnaugh
12 years ago
Contact one of the solar panel providers. They will be able to do an eval for you....much will how close to solar south the roof will be placed, the pitch of the roof and how high the roof is relative to the tree line and how far it will be placed from the surrounding trees.

In our area, we get a state subsidy for installing solar panels, but the subsidy is based on an analysis of how effective the panels will be given placement, shade etc. so the installers are required to provide all of this information.

This post was edited by AnnieDeighnaugh on Fri, Jun 13, 14 at 8:28
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