Sunny February Days
Have you ever noticed that we do have a significant amount of sunny days, in Wisconsin, in February?
As the days are getting longer I'm noticing that my southern facing home is staying warmer thanks to the four 4'x10' solar thermal collectors that are helping to heat our radiant floor and domestic hot water.
Even in our darkest month of December, Madison, WI receives an average of 3.9 sun hours per day. In July it shoots up to 10.7 sun hours per day. Wisconsin averages about 7.2 hours of sunlight per day, or about 2635 hours of sunlight per year.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has a great set of maps showing the insolation amounts across the United States. Here is a map for the month of February.
Insolation sounds like insulation, but it has a completely different definition. Insolation is derived from three words: incidence of solar radiation, and these maps from NREL measure the amount of insolation each state receives in terms of kilowatt-hours per square meter per day.
For me, this is a comforting thought as we gear up for more warmer and sunnier days.
Here is another neat sun hour map for the United States:
As the days are getting longer I'm noticing that my southern facing home is staying warmer thanks to the four 4'x10' solar thermal collectors that are helping to heat our radiant floor and domestic hot water.
Even in our darkest month of December, Madison, WI receives an average of 3.9 sun hours per day. In July it shoots up to 10.7 sun hours per day. Wisconsin averages about 7.2 hours of sunlight per day, or about 2635 hours of sunlight per year.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has a great set of maps showing the insolation amounts across the United States. Here is a map for the month of February.
Insolation sounds like insulation, but it has a completely different definition. Insolation is derived from three words: incidence of solar radiation, and these maps from NREL measure the amount of insolation each state receives in terms of kilowatt-hours per square meter per day.
For me, this is a comforting thought as we gear up for more warmer and sunnier days.
Here is another neat sun hour map for the United States:
Labels: wisconsin insolation in february
