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They are using Google's Project Sunroof[1] to do the modeling. The tool uses satellite images of your roof to create the estimates, and accounts for orientation
by pyoung 9y ago
They are using Google's Project Sunroof[1] to do the modeling. The tool uses satellite images of your roof to create the estimates, and accounts for orientation, shading from trees, etc...
[1] https://www.google.com/get/sunroof https://www.google.com/get/sunroof
- ianai 9y agoThat's amazing. Just seriously amazing.
- toomuchtodo 9y agoFunny enough, it was someone's side project at Google.
- NamTaf 9y agoSo was Maps, originally. This is why there's so many fans of the 20% project concept.
- salesguy222 9y agoA distributed file sharing system (later known as the Internet) was Tim Behrners Lee's side project at CERN for a while too :) He was only allowed to take his 20% project to 100% after his manager wrote up a justification XD
- _jal 9y ago> later known as the Internet My turn to be pedantic, I guess, but 80 and 443 are only two of many available ports. The internet is much bigger than just the web, even if lots of people never bother to look beyond their browser.
- salesguy222 9y agoPedantry is fine by me when accurate and done in the spirit of learning more nuance about a subject :)
- hossbeast 9y agoAn important clarification
- NamTaf 9y agoIf you ever get to go to Geneva, swing by the CERN exhibit. There's the original fileserver, complete with 'This machine is a server. DO NOT POWER DOWN!!' scrawled on tape stuck over the power button. There's also his paper describing the WWW with the feedback of his manager written across the top: "vague but interesting...". It's kind of comforting to know that my academic and computing experiences thus far are shared both across the globe and across decades.
- salesguy222 9y agoHaha "vague but interesting". Isn't it amazing how big of a disconnect there is between "people who are capable of identifying/executing on big ideas" (aka Tim and his manager).... and "the projects that businesses/agencies want their employees to do"
- ianai 9y agoEspecially when, in hindsight, it's anything but vague.
- remael 9y agoTo be pedantic, he wrote "Vague, but exciting". See http://info.cern.ch/Proposal.html http://info.cern.ch/Proposal.html for more info.
- jpgvm 9y agoSorry to be a pedant but Maps is not a 20% project, it was an acquisition of a company called Where 2 Technologies. Google Earth was also an acquisition (Keyhole). GMail however is a 20% project. :)
- rdudek 9y agoI'll totally use this when making my next house purchase.
- pdabbadabba 9y agoWhat makes you think that? I'm a little skeptical because Sunroof doesn't cover my address, but I have no problem getting an estimate.
- pyoung 9y agoThey have a link to sunroof below their estimate. Not sure what happens if you aren't covered by sunroof, but their are a ton of solar estimation tools out there that will give you a rough idea of your potential just based on lat/lon.
- pdabbadabba 9y agoRandom number generator, I guess. :)