Shadow studies [RE-wrenches]

[William Miller]

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Friends:

This is another aspect of this industry that keeps me intrigued and 
separates the dedicated from the "newby".  Your average electrician has no 
idea of these concepts.

Thanks to those that have provided a refresher course in trig.  I could not 
present the material any better.  I still have my junior college text that 
has the pertinent formulas inside the covers.  You may want to look for one 
at flea markets.

For those of you that carry some version of the Palm Pilot, here is a tool 
that I have found very helpful:

http://www.davidbray.org/palm/riseset.html

With this free-ware, I can punch in any point on the globe and find the sun 
angle at any date and time.  Of particular usefulness, this program shows 
the transit for every day, that is, the time when the sun (or moon) is due, 
true south.  When laying out a critical job, we set a shadow pole and set a 
string at the appropriate moment.  From there we can establish our layout.

For more complex problems, I use a 3D CAD program that has a solar study 
function.  I can put a structure anywhere on the globe, specify a time and 
date and see the shadows.  Also, I can animate a period of time and see the 
shadows move throughout the day or week.  On a job last year, I 
photographed the shadows cast by one complex roof onto another.  After 
CADing the job, the shadows indicated by the computer were exactly as I 
photographed them, increasing my confidence in this function.

William

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