Question

Solar radiation at the surface of the earth is about 700 W/m2. How much solar energy is incident on a roof of dimensions 5.31 m by 16.66 m in 1.37 hours?

Answer 1

The first step is to calculate the area of the roof (in meters). This will be:

`A=5.31*16.66=88.4646m^2`

Now, we can multiply this by the solar radiation, which will give us:

`P=700*88.4646=61925.22W`

However, we must remember that W is equal to J/s. So, we can find out how many Joules there are by multiplying the Energy and the time:

`E=61925.22*1.37*3600=305415185J`

Note that we needed to multiply it by 3600, as our time needs to be in seconds, not in hours.

Then, our final energy is E=305415185J