Sun & shadow

Search an address or Eircode, or tap any building, to see how many hours of direct sun it gets.

How the sun & shadow map works

Pick a home or tap a building and the map draws the buildings and trees around it in 3D, the sun's path for the chosen day, and the shadows they cast at any minute. It also adds up how long each side of the building is in direct sun — the hours a garden, a living room window or a solar panel would see.

How the hours are counted

For every 10 minutes of the day the sun's position is worked out for the spot, and a line is traced from the spot toward the sun. If a building or tree within 450 m is in the way, that slot is in shade. Walls are checked 1.5 m above the ground and 1 m out from the wall, on the two longest free walls facing each way; a wall joined to the neighbour's house is marked as shared. The roof and open ground are checked too, for this day, the equinox and both solstices.

Where the data comes from

Building outlines are Tailte Éireann's national building footprints (2026 edition). Heights and tree crowns come from the OPW LiDAR survey, mostly flown in 2011 at 2 m resolution and published by Geological Survey Ireland. About nine in ten Dublin buildings have a measured height; buildings put up since the survey have their height estimated from OpenStreetMap floor counts, the home type in our listings, or their footprint size. The basemap is OpenStreetMap via OpenFreeMap.

What to bear in mind

These are estimates, not a survey of a particular window. Roofs are drawn flat at the building's height, trees as measured in 2011 and in full leaf, and the ground as flat. Extensions or extra floors added since 2011 may not be reflected. For an apartment the figures are for the whole building's walls, not one unit.

Where it works

Dublin city and its nearer suburbs for now. Elsewhere the map shows no buildings and the property page has no sunlight card.

Questions

Which side of a house gets the most sun in Ireland?: Usually the south-facing side: it gets sun for most of the day all year. East and west walls get the morning or the evening sun, and in summer north walls see a little sun early and late. Neighbouring buildings and trees change this a lot, which is what the map shows for a particular house.
Why does a wall show 0 hours?: On that day the sun never reaches it unblocked: it faces away from the sun's path, or a building or tree in front of it keeps it in shade whenever the sun is on that side. Try the summer solstice to see the most it can get.
How much less sun is there in winter?: A lot. In Dublin the sun is up for about 7.5 hours at midwinter against about 17 at midsummer, and it stays low, so even short buildings cast long shadows. Each side's midwinter hours are shown under today's.

12:00

2026

Time

00:0006:0012:0018:0024:00

Date

iHouse