No shade from 10-4. Get someone to check it out with the right equip.

its not like bc has a shortage of trees. further to the fact that trees block views not just sunshine. just be very liberal with the chainsaw. sort of like when friends cut friends hair.

if your all about minimum stumpage then a trained professional will be able to calculate the lowest arc travelled in winter (not necessarily on dec 21) and the widest arc travelled in summer (not necessarily june 21). and clear the exposure to acknowledge this region of exposure.

A quick check is easy, although you will want to undertake a real solar interference study.

Get a solar calculator like this: (the are many more)

http://solardat.uoregon.edu/SunChartProgram.html

and determine your solar elevations and azimuths. 

An example:  At 50°N and 120° W on December 21 (it will be at or close to the lowest sun) you will find that 10am and 2pm elevation is ±12° at azimuths of ±150° and ±210°.  Solar noon is has an elevation of ±17° at 180° azimuth.  The rest is trig.

The tangent of 12° is .213 and the tanget of 17° is .306

IF (and this is why you should do a real solar interference study) the tops of the trees are 80 ft higher than the base of your collector, then you need:

80ft/.213=375ft of clearance at ±150° and 210° azimuths

80ft/.306=260ft of clearance at 180°

This will give you the "order of magnitude"

Remember...trees grow.  If the trees are deciduous, the leaves may be less of an issue in the winter.

Bruce

 

I am happy to confirm that my new south facing lot (building a passive solar) will probably not require running AC in summer since there are trees providing shade from extreme east and west directions. My neighbor says they have only run theirs twice this year with great breezes coming off the lake. I was concerned about cooling costs of building a large home w/ high ceilings. The piece of crap home on the property now remains fairly cool on a 90 degree day w/ no utilities on.

You'll need to set up a line of site laser (LOS) laser from your panel angle (needs to be at a 90 deg angle from the face of your panels). Shoot the laser directly into the treeline and you'll see exactly which trees need to be cut. It's sometimes better to do this at night as you can see the laser better.

<!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:SimSun; panose-1:2 1 6 0 3 1 1 1 1 1; mso-font-alt:宋体; mso-font-charset:134; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 680460288 22 0 262145 0;} @font-face {font-family:"\@SimSun"; panose-1:2 1 6 0 3 1 1 1 1 1; mso-font-charset:134; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 680460288 22 0 262145 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:SimSun; mso-fareast-language:ZH-CN;} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:purple; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> <!--[if gte mso 10]> You may want to think about building your own solar panels…

 

Let me start off by saying we (Agua-Luna) are a non-profit organization that live, promote and teach 100% “off grid” living and complete self sufficiency”. To give you an idea of this, we typically don’t leave the Ranch but once or twice a year.

 

The following steps were taking directly out of a DIY guide I offer to those who would like to run their homes on solar power, reducing their monthly utility bills or even selling power back the electrical companies. The entire guide is available at http://www.agua-luna.com/diy_guides.html. It’s pretty simple but if you have any problems feel free to email us directly at [email protected] we can walk you threw the process.

Materials you will need…

 
A sheet of copper flashing from the hardware store. This normally costs about $5.00 per square foot. We will need about half a square foot.
Two alligator clip leads.
A sensitive micro-ammeter that can read currents between 10 and 50 microamperes. Radio Shack sells small LCD multimeters that will do, but I used a small surplus meter with a needle.
An electric stove. My kitchen stove is gas, so I bought a small one-burner electric hotplate for about $25. The little 700 watt burners probably won't work -- mine is 1100 watts, so the burner gets red hot.
A large clear plastic bottle off of which you can cut the top. I used a 2 liter spring water bottle. A large mouth glass jar will also work.
Table salt. We will want a couple tablespoons of salt.
Tap water.
Sand paper or a wire brush on an electric drill.
Sheet metal shears for cutting the copper sheet.

The first step is to cut a piece of the copper sheeting that is about the size of the burner on the stove. Wash your hands so they don't have any grease or oil on them. Then wash the copper sheet with soap or cleanser to get any oil or grease off of it. Use the sandpaper or wire brush to thoroughly clean the copper sheeting, so that any sulphide or other light corrosion is removed.
Next, place the cleaned and dried copper sheet on the burner and turn the burner to its highest setting.
As the copper starts to heat up, you will see beautiful oxidation patterns begin to form. Oranges, purples, and reds will cover the copper.
As the copper gets hotter, the colors are replaced with a black coating of cupric oxide. This is not the oxide we want, but it will flake off later, showing the reds, oranges, pinks, and purples of the cuprous oxide layer underneath.
The last bits of color disappear as the burner starts to glow red.
When the burner is glowing red-hot, the sheet of copper will be coated with a black cupric oxide coat. Let it cook for a half an hour, so the black coating will be thick. This is important, since a thick coating will flake off nicely, while a thin coat will stay stuck to the copper.
After the half hour of cooking, turn off the burner. Leave the hot copper on the burner to cool slowly. If you cool it too quickly, the black oxide will stay stuck to the copper.
As the copper cools, it shrinks. The black cupric oxide also shrinks. But they shrink at different rates, which makes the black cupric oxide flake off.
The little black flakes pop off the copper with enough force to make them fly a few inches. This means a little more cleaning effort around the stove, but it is fun to watch.
When the copper has cooled to room temperature (this takes about 20 minutes), most of the black oxide will be gone. A light scrubbing with your hands under running water will remove most of the small bits. Resist the temptation to remove all of the black spots by hard scrubbing or by flexing the soft copper. This might damage the delicate red cuprous oxide layer we need to make to solar cell work.
Cut another sheet of copper about the same size as the first one. Bend both pieces gently, so they will fit into the plastic bottle or jar without touching one another. The cuprous oxide coating that was facing up on the burner is usually the best side to face outwards in the jar, because it has the smoothest, cleanest surface.
Attach the two alligator clip leads, one to the new copper plate, and one to the cuprous oxide coated plate. Connect the lead from the clean copper plate to the positive terminal of the meter. Connect the lead from the cuprous oxide plate to the negative terminal of the meter.
Now mix a couple tablespoons of salt into some hot tap water. Stir the saltwater until all the salt is dissolved. Then carefully pour the saltwater into the jar, being careful not to get the clip leads wet. The saltwater should not completely cover the plates -- you should leave about an inch of plate above the water, so you can move the solar cell around without getting the clip leads wet.

now place in the sun with the magnified on top.
The solar cell is a battery, even in the dark, and will usually show a few microamps of current.
That’s it it’s that simple. If you’d a more detailed process and some pics (couldn’t put them here) it’s available along with some other DIY alternative energy projects at  www.agua-luna.com

 

Hope this helped, feel free to contact me personally if you have any questions if you’d like assistance in making your first self sufficient steps, I’m willing to walk you step by step threw the process. I’ve written several how-to DIY guides available at http://www.agua-luna.com/diy_guides.html on the subject. I also offer online and on-site workshops, seminars and internships to help others help the environment.

 

 

Dan Martin

 

Alternative Energy / Sustainable Consultant, DIY Instructor, Living 100% on Alternative/Fuel & Author of How One Simple Yet Incredibly Powerful Resource Is Transforming The Lives of Regular People From All Over The World... Instantly Elevating Their Income & Lowering Their Debt, While Saving The Environment by Using FREE ENERGY... All With Just One Click of A Mouse...For more info Visit: 

 

www.AGUA-LUNA.com

Stop Global Warming!!!

Dan, what next? What do you do with the thing you put together with the copper and salt water and alligator clips? How much power does it generate? How many 2 liter bottles do you need to run a 2000 sq foot house off-grid?

BS