To zoom in on any part of the charts, click and drag over your area of interest.
Latitude | Longitude | State | Turbine Type | Hub Height | Number | ||||||||
Inputs: | |||||||||||||
Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Ann | |
Speed (m/s): | |||||||||||||
Power (kWh): |
To compare the amount of electricity your system will generate with your actual load profile, you can upload your unique load profile. A load profile represents the amount of electricty consumed over 1 year on an hourly basis.
The uploaded file must be a comma-separated values (CSV) file and contain only two columns: hour and load.
An example of this format is provided below.
Hour,Load
1,0.37
2,0.38424
3,0.39348
4,0.40037
5,0.45952
6,0.60112
7,0.66822
8,0.65341
9,0.48361
10,0.39927
11,0.38133
12,0.37741
13,0.37187
14,0.37675
15,0.3807
...
8760,0.3201
This is the size of your solar panel array in kilowatts. A typical roof-mounted array is 4 kw, which typically corresponds to 32 m2. After drawing your solar array, you may change its size in this box. The value represents the maximum direct current (DC) energy produced by the system.
The derating, or derate factor, represents the amount of electricity lost in the conversion from DC to alternating current (AC) power. The defualt value is 0.8, which corresponds to a 20% loss. IMBY uses this value to calculate the AC energy output of the system.
The tilt angle is the inclination from horizontal (0° = horizontal and 90° = vertical) of the PV array. The table below gives tilt angles for various roof pitches (the ratio of vertical rise to horizontal run) for roof-mounted arrays.
Roof Pitch | Tilt Angle (°) |
---|---|
4/12 | 18.4 |
5/12 | 22.6 |
6/12 | 26.6 |
7/12 | 30.3 |
8/12 | 33.7 |
9/12 | 36.9 |
10/12 | 39.8 |
11/12 | 42.5 |
12/12 | 45.0 |
For a fixed PV array, the azimuth angle is the angle clockwise from true north that the PV array faces. The default value is 180° (south-facing) for locations in the northern hemisphere. This normally maximizes energy production. In the northern hemisphere, increasing the azimuth angle favors afternoon energy production, while decreasing the azimuth angle favors morning energy production. The table below provides azimuth angles for various headings.
Heading | Azimuth Angle (°) |
---|---|
N | 0 or 360 |
NE | 45 |
E | 90 |
SE | 135 |
S | 180 |
SW | 225 |
W | 270 |
NW | 315 |
This is the year of solar data that IMBY uses to create a production estimate. IMBY uses a modified version of the PVWatts performance calculator that can use a specific year of modeled hourly solar data to estimate your system's solar electricity production. By using a specific year, you can compare your system's output with your actual load profile for a given year.