Park facing west or east

^^ Rofl

I tried to point out these exact points to my wife, and barely escaped with my life. Nowadays I just encourage here to put up the sunshade; and if she seems in a good mood I suggest she point the car facing the street.

 

Yes, I do. It is a function of local site constraints.

 

At Local Apparent Noon the sun is due south anywhere north of the Tropics.

That is the time of peak solar panel absorption.

But yes, the car interior continues to heat up as the day progresses.

I guess that's what we're talking about...

 

Soon we will all be parking under solar panels, no joking!

 

I'll accept that the sun is going to be due south at some point in the day but for the layman it is confusing to say "local apparent noon" better to give them the tool and let them figure what time of the day it really occurs and let them realize how it changes from one part of the year to another.

Try this one SunCalc - sun position, sunlight phases, sunrise, sunset, dusk and dawn times calculator and drag the slider from 6am to 9am. Pay attention to the time the sun is actually north of my location. Then try and figure out what time of day due south occurs. I'm not sure if that site takes into account daylight savings or not but it claims due south occurs at 38 minutes after the hour on Jun 21.

The thing is the sunlight is a curve if you think about its direction throughout the day. It doesn't just move east to west, it curves from northeast down to east down to south east down to south then starts working its way back around the other half of the curve.

Imagine that curve with a car parked once in the middle and it is going to get direct sun on 3 sides of the car during a day. When the sun is hitting that many surfaces on your car the angle you pick is a minor factor.

Move the car during the middle of the day and you can restrict that light primarily to 2 sides of the car with your choices being

Front + Left
Front + Right
Rear + Left
Reaf + Right

you are going to need do do some elaborate work to keep it down to 2 faces and forget about trying to keep it to 1.

I think I'd be more concerned about finding a tree or SUV or building to get some shade from than I would about picking which window gets more sun.

 

Yup. Highway rest stop, during my recent vacation in Italy:

 

fuzzy,
That is a beautiful sight !!
Why are we behind the curve on stuff like this?

Could it be Cheney was right when he said "It's all just feel good technology" ?

After all, everyone he knows is doing just great in the status quo 'Oil Economy'....

 

Yes, we are way behind the curve. I didn't get pictures of a few solar farms filling the otherwise inaccessible land inside highway cloverleafs or roundabouts, but did get some shots of this noise wall along the A22, I think near Bolzano:



Having commissioned my own home solar system (starter sized, 1.6kW) just before this trip, I've been paying attention to other installations, and saw a huge amount in Italy. While their industry is still in its infancy, many homes, barns, and sheds were covered with PV, far more than here.

 

Deleted.

 

I tried parking both East and West and was not able to see any appreciable difference. The South side of the car sees the most direct sunlight for the longest period of time. I do have tinted windows all around except for windshield.

I have recently purchased the Weathertech window visors and have started leaving my front windows cracked open. This has made the most improvement. I was seeing cabin temps in the 115 to 120F range before the visors. Since then I have not seen cabin temps above 105F or about a 15F drop in cabin temps. This makes a big difference in how quickly the AC can cool down the cabin and makes an improvement in mpg. It also keeps the HV battery temps from rising as high and cools them down quicker.

I have also brought my PriusChat Heatshield back out and started using it again. I had been using a cheap Walmart two-piece heatshield. It was much easier to use and store but it did not cover the complete windshield. The PriusChat Heatshield covers the entire windshield plus the side windows. I started doing this at the same time as the window visors so do not know how much this has contributed to the drop in cabin temps but feel certain that it contributed.

 

I use the Pop Top (Car Covers, Car Sun Shades - California PopTop)
and it's held in heavy wind, and never seen a scratch from it. And the improvement in outside sun deflection vs inside is, well, night vs day.

Sorry wanted this to quote the other post and reply about using a car cover, but I could not get it on here.

And, no, I'm not part of the company selling it, nor getting anything for mentioning it!