Homeowners
Free, always.
Check before you sign.
See whether the panels get sun in winter too, how many fit on the roof and how long they take to pay back. With those numbers in hand, you can compare quotes like for like.
Open the simulatorSun · shadows · solar panels
How much sun does your house really get?
Hikina builds your place in 3D from real terrain, satellite imagery and the buildings around it, then follows the sun on any day of the year. See the shadows, the hours of sun on every window and what panels on your roof will really make, before you spend a cent.
- Free
- No account
- Anywhere on Earth
The real horizon
The mountain isn't on your electricity bill.
Most solar calculators assume a flat horizon. Solar quotes are often made from a bill and a photo of the roof. Neither one sees the hill behind the house.
Hikina downloads the terrain 25 km around and works out how high the ridge is in every direction. Then it follows the sun minute by minute.
In Bușteni, on 21 December, the sun clears the mountain only at 09:22 and drops behind it at 14:58: 5 h 36 min of sun out of an 8 h 42 min day.
What you can do
From the shade on your terrace to the money on your bill.
- Shadows of buildings, trees and mountains, on any day at any hour.
- A map of sun hours on the ground and roofs, for one day or the whole year.
- Hours of sun at one spot: a window, the terrace, the garden.
- Your new house's 3D model (.glb, .obj), placed on the terrain.
- An eye-level view, as if you were standing in the yard.
- Click a roof and the panels lay themselves out.
- Hour-by-hour output from three years of real weather at your place.
- Losses from the ridge, neighbours and trees are already taken off the kWh.
- 170 panels from Romanian shops, compared by the real price per kWh they make.
- Your consumption from your bills, month by month.
- Self-consumption worked out hour by hour, with or without a battery.
- Romania's 2026 prosumer rules; elsewhere, your own prices.
- Payback, 25-year net value and a parts list, with the inverter sized to the strings.
- If you want, offers from up to three verified installers in your county (Romania).
Who it's for
One model of your place, three ways to use it.
Solar installers
The desk assessment, before the site visit.
Terrain, shading and yield for any address in minutes. A PDF quote with your logo and prices, the simulator on your own website, and leads from the counties you work in.
For installersArchitects
Sun studies for building permits.
Hours of sun on the neighbours' windows on 21 December, before and after the new building, under Romania's Order MS 119/2014. Hourly shadow plans and the report as PDF. Rules for Moldova, Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Ukraine and EN 17037 too.
Sun studyHow it works
Three steps, a few minutes.
- 01
Pick the place
Coordinates, the map or “my location”. The link in the address bar points exactly there, so you can send it to anyone.
- 02
Hikina gathers the data
Terrain 25 km around (Copernicus DEM, 30 m), satellite imagery, the surrounding buildings and real weather from the last three years. On request, trees too, estimated from satellite.
- 03
Pick the day and the roof
Move the day and the hour and watch the shadows. Click a roof and get the panels, the output and the payback.
- 25 kmof terrain around your place, for the horizon in every direction
- ≈ 3 %average difference from PVGIS, the European Commission's solar tool, on 29 lowland test roofs
- 700+panels, inverters, batteries and mounting kits from 4 Romanian shops, prices updated weekly
- 26European languages, from Romanian to Ukrainian
- You don't make an account or leave an email to use the simulator.
- The 3D model you load opens in your browser and goes nowhere.
- Your coordinates only go to the data services the calculation needs (terrain, imagery, buildings, weather) and, if you make a project link, to us.
- Your contact details reach installers only if you ask for offers, and only up to three of them.
Questions
Frequently asked
Is it free?
Yes, for homeowners, and it stays that way. The money comes from businesses: installers and architects.
Does it work outside Romania?
Yes. Terrain, satellite imagery and weather cover the whole globe, and the surrounding buildings come from OpenStreetMap. Component prices and prosumer rules are for Romania for now; elsewhere you enter your own prices.
How accurate is it?
The ridge comes from Copernicus terrain data at 30 m, so the times the sun clears a mountain are reliable. We compared the yield with PVGIS (the European Commission's Joint Research Centre) at 20 sites: in the lowlands it comes out about 3 % higher on average, in the mountains more, because the solar radiation datasets disagree there. Neighbouring building heights are estimated, and you can correct them.
Do I need a 3D model of my house?
No. The surrounding buildings appear by themselves with gable roofs; for an existing house, click its roof. For a new house, drop the architect's model (.glb or .obj) into the page or draw the volumes.
Why “Hikina”?
It means “east” in Hawaiian, the direction the sun rises from. Every sunny day starts there.