Shading factor

[Kumiko Sakai]

Hello,

I have a question about Shading factor.

The more I broaden the pitch of the array, the lower the factor becomes.

In the 3D shading scene,I only draw arrays.

So I think the factor gets higher because there is no shading obstacle without arrays.

Is there any misunderstanging about Shading factor? Please teach me.

[André Mermoud]

The shading factor is the ratio of the shaded area, with respect to the total sensitive area.

For a same collector tilt, if the pitch increases, the mutual shadings (shading factor) will decrease of course.

I don't understand the rest of the question.

In the 3D construction, you can have a look on the shading factor using the "Animation" (button on bottom left).

[Kumiko Sakai]

Hi, Andre

Thank you for your reply.

I have two more questions.

In your reply, the shading factor is the ratio of shaded area.

Does the shading factor =1 mean that the point is fully shaded ?

(But in the tutorial, the factor=1 is no shadings.)

In the tutorial, the shading factor table is for the positions on the sky hemisphere "seen" by PV plane (page 53) .

It's like the "Height" depends on the tilt of PV plane.

Does the "Height" mean the degree depndindg on the tilt of a PV plene or simply sun height?

Sincerely,

Kumiko

[André Mermoud]

The shading factor is the ratio of the shaded area, with respect to the full sensitive area.

Therefore it is 0 when ther is no shading.

Please tell me on which page of the tutorial the shading factor is one for no shadings.

I checked and didn't see anything like that.

(NB: This was the case in very old versions of PVsyst (perhap's in versions <=4, I don't remember).

In the shading factor table, the height is defined as the angle between the concerned direction and the horizontal plane.

[Kumiko Sakai]

Hi, Andre

It is written in page53 in the tutorial that the shading factor is one for no shadings.

The tutorial was written by January 2014 for PVSYST6 and it is now available online.

Thank you for your reply.

Sincerely,

Kumiko

[André Mermoud]

Thank you. It is indeed a mistake in this text, we will correct it.