[Talk-GB] Solar Panels

[SK53]

Very late to this so not much to add:

* Virtually all solar hot water installations have 4 panels or less, most
are typically 1 or 2. The standard panels are slightly larger than the
commonest solar pv panels (~ 1.3 m vs 1 m on short side): measurement tools
in JOSM & iD can help here (and are invaluable for estimating module counts
when the imagery is too dark for a direct count).
* For QA purposes module counts of 1 and 2 may need double checking as
these are the ones most likely to be confused. There are plenty of pv
installations of 3-4 panels, most usually on new builds where some houses
will have bigger installations.
* In the overall picture 10 thermal installations may only yield a module
count of 1 pv install so a wrong guess is not likely to be put things too
much out of kilter
* Dual solar hot water/pv installations are quite common sometimes with the
hot water enclosed by the pv or two separate groups of pv either side of
the thermal panels.
* On very good imagery one might see the pipework associated with the
thermal collectors
* Josm presets do not really support the current tagging approach

I usually add a fixme, but I like Russ's suggestion very much, but perhaps
we could use generator:method=unknown which would obviate the need for a
fixme.

I should try & add some of this to the wiki page.

Jerry

On Sun, 9 Jan 2022 at 21:46, Steven Hirschorn <steven.hirschorn at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Thanks Gregory,
>
> Here's one I spotted - would that be PV then? Or something else entirely?
> https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=21/51.4899334/-0.0857639
>
> Is there a standard note to add when we're not sure? It feels like they're
> worth tagging when I find them even if I'm not sure.
>
> And I presume "direction" is irrelevant when they are on a flat roof?
>
> On Sun, 9 Jan 2022 at 19:34, Gregory Williams <
> gregory at gregorywilliams.me.uk> wrote:
>
>> Steven,
>>
>> Definitely still mapping them. I see that Jeremy mentioned my
>> comparison site below. The rate of mapping has slowed a bit since the
>> quarterly project a while back, but is still making good progress.
>>
>> As to the PV vs solar thermal, it's not always possible to tell from
>> aerial imagery. Solar thermal installations tend to be quite small,
>> typically the size of one or two PV modules. So installations appearing
>> larger than this in aerial imagery are more likely to be PV. Also, I
>> think that solar thermal installations tend to be more southerly
>> facing, whereas PV installations can have a bit more flexibility
>> (though are still most effectively the more southerly they face).
>>
>> Ultimately a ground survey is best. Perhaps you could add a note for
>> installations where you're not certain. Then, even if you're not local,
>> another local mapper could go and check.
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Gregory
>>
>> On Sun, 2022-01-09 at 17:53 +0000, Steven Hirschorn wrote:
>> > So I've read through the Wiki pages now and besides a mention
>> > somewhere to distinguish between thermal and photovoltaic panels, I
>> > don't see any advice on how to tell them apart from aerial imagery?
>> > The Overpass query above (thanks!) shows a few thermal panels though
>> > even on a single roof, similar looking panels can have been tagged as
>> > a mixture of thermal and PV. eg on this
>> > roof: https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=21/51.6480733/-0.5313908
>> > and here: https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=21/51.6480733/-0.5313908
>> > Is there a tell-tale sign that something is thermal rather than
>> > photovoltaic? Or if I tag them all as PV will someone check them?
>> >
>> >
>> > On Sun, 9 Jan 2022 at 12:19, Jeremy Harris <jgh at wizmail.org> wrote:
>> > > On 09/01/2022 10:14, Steven Hirschorn wrote:
>> > > > While working on tagging other things, I often see rooftop solar
>> > > > installations that aren't tagged yet. I did a quick search
>> > > > through old
>> > > > talk-gb messages but still have a couple of questions:
>> > > > - are we still mapping them?
>> > >
>> > > See http://osm.gregorywilliams.me.uk/solar/
>> > >
>> > > Useful overpass query: https://overpass-turbo.eu/s//10iv
>> > > _______________________________________________
>> > > Talk-GB mailing list
>> > > Talk-GB at openstreetmap.org
>> > > https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-gb
>>
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