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Comment: Homebrew solar insolation analysis (Score 5, Informative) 85

by Hyperion X (#39515991) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Home Testing For Solar Roof Coverage?

Before I put solar panels on my roof, I built a system with a camera placed vertically over a reflective sphere (one of those cheap garden decorations), and then took photos from each corner of my roof. I then manually aligned each photo to north based on a compass in the photo and trimmed it to a square centered on the sphere. A script computed the path of the sun transformed onto the surface of the sphere, and drew a line over the photo for each month, with crossing lines for hours in solar time, and a point plotted for the position of the sun at the time the picture was taken. The point lined up "close enough" with the sun in the photo for me to assume that the lines were accurate. Any segment of a month line that was across sky would signify time where the panels would be active. and line crossing trees would be time lost to shade, enough to get a rough estimate of how well the panels would work.

Then I called a solar installer, who came out for a free quote with a handled tool that took a single photo, autodetected the position, orientation, and where the photo was sky vs. trees, and spit out the percentage of total incoming solar energy that would be absorbed at that point. I recommend doing it that way.

Programming

+ - Teaching children to write software?

Submitted by
Desmond Elliott
Desmond Elliott writes "I recently worked on a piece of software for an undergraduate course which involved me writing a Sudoku game using the GWT. My youngest sister (9 years old) was fascinated to know how I had done it and seems quite keen to want to know more. I know that some people say that children and fickle at that age but I'm keen to let her have the resources that she needs to learn more about programming if she wants to. Does anybody know about any good resources for children to learn more about Java?"

You have all eternity to be cautious in when you're dead. -- Lois Platford

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