Help needed interpreting a sun chart for greenhouse design

Outdoor Growing
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sunchart1
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:thinking:

Right?

Univ. of Oregon Solar Radiation Monitoring Laboratory has this handy tool:

Sun Chart Program

It’s driving me crazy trying to visualize a year-round optimal shape for a clear roof, trying to achieve minimal deflection of sunlight.

It seems that a sphere-oid(shit is that a word? :man_shrugging: ) mimicking the earth’s roundish :laughing: shape. Certainly more difficult to DIY with hardware store materials.

I wish @Northern_Loki would program the Lore to this Data & spit out a 3D model! :sweat_smile:

The fact that virtually no greenhouse I’ve ever seen had any fancy-pants engineered shape other than a hoop-house or an A-frame does occur to me, but that’s not good enough for OGers.

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I’m planning to build this on top of a semi-flattened lava dome & make it level & square… :blush:

:evergreen_tree:

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this does an ok job in laymans terms, i found it by clicking around on that website
An explanation of using a sun path chart to orient a greenhouse to receive the most sun can be found by clicking here.
roof shape? i don’t know how this could help with roof shape.

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@cannabissequoia look up the app:

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Well, I mean, the graph tells you where the sun rises and sets as well as the elevation/azimuth transits for certain dates (blue lines). The red lines show for given times, where to expect the sun throughout the year. Take it point-by point on any given line. You can see that the extents during summer solstice are actually N of E/W. March/September are pretty close to rise/set due E/W. Minimum sun is December 11, when it only rises about 47 degrees above the south. I don’t know what the optimal greenhouse design is for this circumstance, but I suspect anything will work fine. It’s obvious that southern exposure is more beneficial than northern exposure, so if something needs to be opaque, put it on a northern wall.

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Thanks folks :stuck_out_tongue:

Trying to achieve a 90 degree angle throughout the day AND year is a mf’er

:evergreen_tree:

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“It’s driving me crazy trying to visualize a year-round optimal shape for a clear roof, trying to achieve minimal deflection of sunlight.”

Have you considered building a geodesic dome greenhouse @cannabissequoia?

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focus on maximum sun during the fall/early winter. DLI falls off big time and nugs suffer unless you supplement light.

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Not really…but it kinda might work. :man_shrugging: Definitely worth considering.

@Mudballs the seasons here are a bit different but the dec 21st sun angle is about half the June angle so good point.

The UV here is pretty damn intense year-round but it’s 60% cloudy on average. When it rained 7 weeks straight, obviously, the growth was shitty. Then I ran a generator about 4-5 hrs every other day to keep them from falling off.

:evergreen_tree:

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Beat me to it mate, thats the best shape/construction, or a north facing greenhouse/ hoop tunnel.

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