With energy prices on the rise and awareness of climate change growing, interest in solar power has been increasing among private homeowners.

But with variables from weather patterns to roof angle impacting effectiveness, only certain homes are suitable for adoption of solar technology. Now, at the click of a button, residents of the District of North Vancouver can find out if theirs is one of them.

Early last summer, the municipality launched an application on its website called, simply, "Solar" that allows users to locate their home on an online map and view a diagram showing how much sunlight hits each square metre of its roof over the course of an average year. It indicates which precise spot would be best for the installation of a solar hot water heating system, and assigns the whole surface a rating from poor to excellent in terms of its overall suitability.

Users whose roofs appear to be good candidates can then punch in some additional information about themselves — how many people live in their home, whether they use gas or electric heating — and the program will calculate how much money, if any, a solar heating system added to their existing setup would save them on their bill.

 

Click Here to test drive the application:  http://geoweb.dnv.org/applications/solarapp/

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