A Solar Pathfinder

The Solar Pathfinder is a standard shade analysis tool. You can use it to find out exactly where the shadows will be at particular times of the day or year. The data is in graphical form, so you can make sense of it at one glance.

Another popular tool is the Solmetric Suneye. This instrument is rather user friendly, but is much more expensive than the Solar Pathfinder. This will set you back by at least $1,500…yet there is a cheaper option.

Why Do We Need To Use A Solar Pathfinder?

A proper instrument like a Solar Pathfinder can save you lots of time and guesswork. Moreover it is reasonably easy to use and is affordable.

If we do not have any instrument to predict shadow positions, we’ll have to sit up from dawn to dusk to observe how they move. This is a waste of time! Moreover, these positions shift (slightly) through different seasons because of how the earth rotates around the sun.

But why do we care so much about the extent of shading? You may not realize this, but the effect of shading is devastating to solar energy production. Even if your solar panel is slightly covered under a shadow, the power output can drop drastically.

Consider this…if you shade only one solar cell out of the entire solar panel, your energy production is likely to drop by a third. If you shade a row of photovoltaic cells, your electricity output reduces by about 90%. This means your solar panels have virtually stopped working!

Therefore when installing your solar panels, shading is your first and most important concern.

But is it worthwhile to use a solar pathfinder? Perhaps we should ask ourselves if we could determine shadow positions without the use of a scientific instrument… In fact, the additional electricity you’ll be able to generate quickly covers the cost of the Solar Pathfinder. This is especially true for larger systems.

After all, you’ve invested money and effort on your solar cells, batteries and inverters… Are you going to sacrifice a potentially significant part of its energy output just to save a few bucks? I hope not!

In case you are thinking of installing solar panels without a Solar Pathfinder, drop the idea as soon as possible. Because guesswork will eventually cost you dearly! You may be concerned about the cost…or you may be worried about the complexity of the instrument. The fact is this instrument only costs $249 and you’ll probably take only 15 minutes to learn how to use it.

Whatever it is, if you’re without a Solar Pathfinder, I’m confident of this — you cannot even begin your installation… Without this instrument, you’ll be lost!

To use a Solar Pathfinder, you simply have to bring it to the spot you feel is most suitable for installation. Then you’ll need to level the instrument and point it to the right direction with the help of an in-built compass. The plastic dome will show you a paranomic view of the entire area together with the regions affected by shading over different times of the day or year.

To record your readings, you can use a wax pencil (or grease pen) to outline the shadow or simply use your digital camera to take a snap shot. (I prefer the second approach – it’s instantaneous!)

The effects of shading are exceedingly damaging to solar energy production. Therefore you need to eliminate the guesswork — which can end up costing you a lot — and adopt a scientific approach to install your solar panels. Among all known techniques, the easiest and cheapest way is to use a Solar Pathfinder.

Continue Reading:

1. Solar Panel Installation
2. Do-It-Yourself Solar Panels – Electricity Conversion From Sunlight
3. Used Solar Panels – How To Use Them To Build Cheap DIY Solar Panels

With this, you can also get a good feel on how sunlight intensity changes through the seasons…

A sun chart helps you estimate the sunlight and its intensity over the course of a day in an intuitive, graphical form. It helps you determine if skyline effects are of concern to you. Different objects like trees, buildings, mountains, towers, et cetera affects your skyline. (These details should be included in your sun chart)

If there is a mountain at your skyline, you’ll perhaps experience sunshine only at 7:30am instead of 7:00am. This affects the energy production of your solar panels. Knowing this, you can consider another location where you can get sunlight earlier instead.

Interestingly, each location at your property has a different skyline. But your best chance for maximum sunlight is usually on your roof, where elevation is highest.

The best instrument that can help you plot a sun chart is a Solar Pathfinder. It is quite expensive, but you can rent it for a week for a reasonable fee. So grab hold of one of these, because it helps you in many ways.

A Solar Pathfinder

You can bring your solar pathfinder to the place where you believe it’s best for PV panel installation. Then look into the dome to find out where those obstacles (shading) may be.

Usually, for most of us, there is only so much space on the roof. Thus we can’t really shift the solar panels much further. But if you have a really big, flat roof, you should be walking to different spots just to find out which one is the best.

To use this instrument, all you have to do is point the instrument southward and level it. There is a compass provided for you to point it in the correct direction. It also comes with a bubble level so you can level it without too much hassle.

Looking into the dome glass, you can see the reflection of all the objects that will shade your solar panel and the time it occurs. This reflection is superimposed onto a chart marked with the hours of the day and months of the year.

With this instrument, you can easily find out the shade information at any particular location. This information is certainly crucial for proper solar panels installation.

Continue Reading:

1. Solar Panel Installation
2. Do-It-Yourself Solar Panels – Electricity Conversion From Sunlight
3. Solar Pathfinder – What Does It Do For You?