Provides radiation levels on a solar flat plate collectors based on:
- collector location (latitude)
- collector orientation (azimuth angle and tilt angle)
RadOnCol (Radiation On Collector) provides hour by hour collected energy, or month by month collected energy for full sunshine conditions.
It is good for answering questions such as:
- How much less energy will a collector see if its pointed SE instead of S?
- How much energy will I lose if the sun is blocked from 11am to noon?
The program gives energy collected for FULL SUN conditions -- it does
not account for cloudy weather, and should not be used to estimate how
much energy you will actually collect in your location.
Screen Shots
Keywords
solar radiation, solar collector
Validation/Testing
The method was taken from "Solar Thermal Engineering", J. Lunde. The
results were checked against the printed solar radiation tables in the
same book.
Expertise Required
No special expertise needed.
Users
New program, May 2005, only a few so far.
Audience
Ordinary folks who want to do a solar project involving flat plate collectors. Might also be of interest to solar engineers, solar installers.
Input
Local Latitude, altitude, and azimuth and tilt of collector.
Output
Table of numbers providing direct and indirect radiation on panel as
either a function of the hour of day, or the month of year. A comma separated values (CSV) format is also offered, which allows direct import into spreadsheets for charting.
Computer Platform
Windows XP with .NET framework
Programming Language
Visual Basic.NET
Strengths
Very simple and quick to use. Easy Interface.
Weaknesses
Does not account for clouds. Should NOT be used to estimate the energy
that a flat plate collector will collector over time under real
(sometimes cloudy) weather conditions. It is an aid for aiming
collectors, not a tool for estimating the total energy that will be
collected over time.
Contact
Availability
Available for free download from the web site.
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