So Olar P Positio On: Altit Tude Is The

So

olar P
Positio
on
The
e suns m
movement through the day and throu
ugh the year
y
is on
ne of the most cru
ucial
envvironmenttal factorss to unde
erstand wh
hen desig
gning high
h perform
mance buildings.
If you
y
design your building with
w
carefu
ul conside
eration of the sun
ns path, you
y
can take
t
advvantage of strate
egies such as nattural dayylighting, passive heating, PV ene
ergy
gen
neration a
and even
n natural ventilatio
on. Howevver, if yo
ou are no
ot careful, these sa
ame
opp
portunitie
es can work against you, pro
oducing glare
g
or ovverheating.
Altittude is thee vertical an
ngle the sun
makkes with thee ground pllane (0 < alt
< 90
0).
Azim
muth is thee horizonta
al angle
betw
ween the su
un and truee north (18
80
< azzi < 180, positive
p
in a clockwisee
direcction from north)

Sun
n Path and Solar Posiition
The
e first thing
g to underrstand is the suns path
p
at you
ur location
n. At any given
g
pointt on the suns
path, its heigh
ht in the skky is called
d its altitud
de and its horizontall angle rela
ative to tru
ue north ca
alled
its azimuth.
a
Sea
asonal Variations and
d Important Dates
The
e suns path varies th
hroughout the year. In the summer the su
un is high in the sky, and rises and
setss north of east-west in the nortthern hemisphere (in
n the south
hern hemisphere, its south of easte
wesst). It also rises
r
much earlier and
d sets mucch later in summer
s
th
han in wintter. To stud
dy the extre
eme
of hot
h summe
er sun, you
u often want to studyy the sunss path on the
t summe
er solstice, the day when
w
the sun is at itts highest noon altitu
ude.
In the
t
winter the sun is
i low in the
t
sky, an
nd rises and sets so
outh of ea
ast-west in
n the north
hern
hem
misphere (in the sou
uthern hem
misphere, its
i north of east-we
est). To study the exxtreme of the
winter sun pa
ath, you offten want to
t study th
he suns pa
ath on the
e winter so
olstice, the day when the
sun
n is at its lowest noon
n altitude.

To study more average

e positions, you can
n look at the suns path on the spring
g and autu
umn
equ
uinoxes, wh
hen the sun rises and
d sets due east-west. The altitude of the noon
n
sun a
at the equinox
is determined
d
d by the latitude of the
t site. Th
his is why the
t rule-off-thumb fo
or the optimum angle of
sola
ar panels is the latitu
ude of the site. At th
his angle, the
t sun's rays are mo
ost perpen
ndicular to the
pan
nel for mosst of the ye
ear.
Som
me tips and
d rules of thumb inclu
ude:
Study parrticular days:
Thee solstices: Study
S
the extremes
e
o the sunss position.
of
Thee equinoxess: Study average sun position.
Study diffferent seasons:
Win
nter studiess: How can you maxim
mize sun to
o passivelyy heat the building?
b
Sum
mmer studiies: How ca
an you min
nimize sun to passively cool the
e building?
There are four important dates to remember when
considering su
un position
Look at sp
pecific tim
mes of day::
Morning: You may wantt to capture
e suns ene
ergy to warm up spaces when the
t sun is low in sky. But
you
ull also nee
ed to prote
ect againstt glare.
Noo
on: Sun is the strong
gest and highest in the sky. You may wan
nt to avoid
d the hot midday
m
sun to
reduce cooling loads in some area
as. But you may wantt to capture
e the sun in other casses for passsive
sola
ar heating or energy generation
n.
Notte that sometimes noon
n
is no
ot the high
hest altitude angle. This is be
ecause of the differe
ence
betw
ween sola
ar time (de
etermined by positio
on of sun) and
a local time
t
(dete
ermined byy time zone
e).
Afte
ernoon: Yo
ou may wan
nt to preve
ent overhea
ating and glare
g
Occcupancy ho
ours: You may
m be pa
articularly concerned
c
about the
e times wh
hen the bu
uilding is most
m
hea
avily occupied.
Sola
ar Time vs.. Local Time
In most
m
locations, there
e will norm
mally be a difference between solar and local time
e. Solar tim
me is
determined by the posittion of the
e sun. At no
oon it is att its highesst altitude, with sunrise and sunset
occurring at symmetrica
al times either side off noon.
Local (or clockk) time is determined
d
d by the local time zo
one and is taken at a reference longitude.. For
example, the local time
e zone for Perth is ta
aken at a longitude of
o 120 (in
n the midd
dle of Western
Ausstralia). How
wever, the longitude of Perth iss 116.
For each degree of diffe

erence in longitude
l
between the actual and refere
ence, there is a 4-min
nute
time differencce. Thus, to
o convert solar time to
t local tim
me, use the following formula:
Tloccal = Tsola
ar + ((Longitude - Lon
ngituderef)) * 4)
If yo
ou notice iin some off your analyyses that the sun is not
n the highest at noon on your building site,
thiss is the reasson.
You
ull usually want to do analysis with respe
ect to local times beccause thats the time
e that all other
mem
mbers of the design team will be
b referenccing for thiings like op
peration scchedules.
Visu
ualizing the
e Sun Path
h
The
ere are seve
eral ways of
o visualizin
ng the sun's path. See the Sun and
a Shado
ow Studies section for
how
w to use Au
utodesk to
ools.
Stereographiic sun path
h diagram
ms are used
d to read th
he solar azzimuth and
d altitude th
hroughoutt the
dayy and year for a give
en position
n on the ea
arth. They can be likkened to a photograph of the sky,
take
en looking
g straight up
u towards the zenith, with a 180 fish--eye lens. The
T paths of the sun at
different time
es of the ye
ear can then be projjected onto this flatttened hem
misphere fo
or any loca
ation
on Earth.
Summ
mer
Sunpa
ath
On the left is a 3D
visualizatio
on of
the stereogrraphic
diagram on
n the
right, showing the
movement of the
sun through
hout
the day on June
21st. (summ
mer
solstice)
(Click to view animation)

a
Winte
er
Sunpa
ath
On the leftt is a
3D visualiza
ation
of the
stereograph
hic
diagram on
n the
right, showing the
movement of the
sun through
hout
the day on
December 21st
2
(winter solsstice)

a
The Su
un
at Noo
on
On the left is a 3D
visualizatio
on of
the stereogrraphic
diagram on
n the
right, showing the
position of the
sun through
hout
the year at the
fixed hour of
o
12pm.

a

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To study more average

For each degree of diffe

(Click to view animation)

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