When installing a Solar System it is important to know how many sunshine hours one can expect over the course of a year so that the number of solar panels and the size of the inverter are properly matched.
The number of hours of sunlight in Port Elizabeth ranges between 6 hours and 54 minutes daily in June and 8 hours and 54 minutes for each day in December
The longest day of the year is 14 hours and 15 minutes long and the shortest day is 9 hours and 44 minutes long.
There is an average of 2 818 hours of sunlight per year (out of a possible 4 383) with an average of 7 hours and 42 minutes of sunlight per day.
64.3% of daylight hours are sunny and the remaining 35.7% of daylight hours are cloudy, hazy or have low sun intensity.
At midday the sun is on average 55.5° above the horizon at Port Elizabeth.
A blazing hot and sunny day will not render ideal conditions for solar panels and you will find that days with lots of sunshine and a cool breeze will yield greater production.
Solar panels have a life that can extend beyond 25 years with around 20 to 30% degradation in output. Solar panels also have a rated efficiency (the higher the rating the more expensive).
Inverters are pretty state of the art with our preferred inverter’s converting 97% of DC energy supplied by the Solar Panels.
When calculating the size of a Solar Panel installation we at Straton Solar err on the side of conservatism by assuming an 80% efficiency from Solar panels and equipment and basing our calculations on an average of 5.5 hours of sunlight daily.