Turns a sunpath assessment into the shade factor an output estimate is multiplied by.
Most of the form is filled in already with figures that give a sensible answer. Adjust what you know and press the button.
Convert a completed MCS sunpath shading assessment into a shade factor, using the procedure in MGD 005.
The MCS sunpath chart is divided into 84 segments, each worth one per cent of the year's useful irradiance. An assessor stands at the middle of where the array will go, plots what blocks the horizon onto the chart, and counts the segments covered. This tool takes that count and returns 1 minus the loss, which is the SF term in the MIS 3002 output estimate.
Objects within ten metres of the array are near shading and are assessed separately, from each affected part of the array, not from its middle. They can be listed here for the record, but MGD 005 is explicit that near shading has a considerable effect and should be avoided.
This tool does not perform the assessment. It does the arithmetic on an assessment somebody made.
The same calculation answers on
POST /api/calculators/solar-pv-shading
and as the MCP tool solar_pv_shading.
How to call them.
Short answers on what a roof will generate, whether direction and shading matter, what happens to the electricity you do not use, and what the panels need.
Every MCS solar quotation contains a figure for annual generation, and every one of them is arrived at the same way. This is the method, the data behind it, and what the number does and does not promise.
A shadow across one corner of an array can cost far more than its share of the roof. MGD 005 gives a standard way of measuring the loss, and it is the term in a solar estimate most often left at zero.