How can I caculate how much full sun a area will receive ??

So how can I caculate how much full sun a area will receive ???

I know the basic rule of thumb that '4 fingers equals about 1 hour' but that is far from accurate

Is their some formula based on lattitude, date and the angles of full exposure to caculate the amount of full sun a area will get in spring/summer/fall ??

Try this: http://www.gaisma.com/en/dir/us-country.html

pick your area and run. Hope this helps

Singlemalt said:

Try this: http://www.gaisma.com/en/dir/us-country.html

pick your area and run. Hope this helps

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Not what I was looking for

But VERY HELPFULL

Thank You

you'll need to hire someone to stand out there for 24 hours a day over the course of a year and keep detailed charts.

Put your pecker out there and see how long it takes to get sunburned.

Far from accurate sounds about right.

What date in particular were you wanting to know this for? Because the earth is tilted ya know.

well all ya gotta do is hop on google earth and locate the area you were thinking of. there is a feature called the sun clock - it shows you what an area looks like sun/shadow-wise, at any time of the day, any day of the year. so find yer spot, go to what it looks like in may, then you can scroll through your whole season in a minute or two to ensure that it doesn't lose all the light come fall. it gives you a pretty solid idea of where your best light will be.

hoonry said:

well all ya gotta do is hop on google earth and locate the area you were thinking of. there is a feature called the sun clock - it shows you what an area looks like sun/shadow-wise, at any time of the day, any day of the year. so find yer spot, go to what it looks like in may, then you can scroll through your whole season in a minute or two to ensure that it doesn't lose all the light come fall. it gives you a pretty solid idea of where your best light will be.

Click to expand...

Thing is calculating sunrise to sunset times are simple enough

But then things like tree lines and obstructions must be factored in

The only google maps I have seen are to old ,and not detailed enough not to mention Typing exact coordinates of a vedgi garden in does not make sense to me

I will agree that you have to account for trees, etc when using google earth, but the sunclock does give you a very good idea of what you will be working with. you want to shoot for at least 8 hours of uninterrupted sun a day - the more the better. its not always a bad thing to have some shade though, if you live in a really hot place, a tree that provides an hour or two of shade in the mid-afternoon can be a benefit.

You don't have to punch in coordinates - you can just scroll around. It's hard to imagine that the maps you're seeing are too old to work with... good luck!

you go to your spot, with the basic knowledge that the sun rises in the east sets in the west, and if in the northern hemisphere, the sun will be lowering its angle, falling in the southern sky as the season progresses toward fall. This is an important factor because an area that may have gotten good sun in early summer, may not in fall.