December PV starting off crappy again.

[Zwy]

Last night was our first below zero temp for the season. Very odd warm winter here. We usually get below zero temps by mid December. Today's high temp is going to be around zero. A little sun today so all heat pumps are running and doing laundry, dishes ect. Might get a dump load ready just incase, but they say thicker clouds moving in by afternoon, hope not.

Did you get the heavy snow? We didn't get as much farther south but what did get is now hard packed in bigger drifts. I just came in from pushing by the back storage shed and it was not a pretty sight. Skid steer for the rest.

I have to run down to IA City next weekend if the weather straightens out, hopefully the wind doesn't bother.

 

[B-Mod]

Did you get the heavy snow? We didn't get as much farther south but what did get is now hard packed in bigger drifts. I just came in from pushing by the back storage shed and it was not a pretty sight. Skid steer for the rest.

I have to run down to IA City next weekend if the weather straightens out, hopefully the wind doesn't bother.

I am in central/north central WI. We missed the big stuff on both storms. We got about 4" per storm. Those were our first storms of the season. In a week they are forecasting near 40 degrees and rain......

 

[mactech]

I'd find a different charge controller or change the strings.

I have several options, the best of which is to move south where it is warmer.

It's not often this cold and this is a secondary array but I have a Victron in mind as I plan to increase this string.

thanks

 

[Nobodybusiness]

I have several options, the best of which is to move south where it is warmer.

It's not often this cold and this is a secondary array but I have a Victron in mind as I plan to increase this string.

thanks

When it’s 11 degrees in NC at night the only place further south is Florida.

I’ve heard it’s getting rather crowded down there.

 

[GXMnow]

-3F with a 15mph wind blowing (higher gusts) that the wind chill factor is making me worry about my batteries.

I grew up north if Chicago. I know wind chill factor pretty well.

The faster the wind blows, the quicker it will cool down something that is warm or making heat. But the actual temperature will not go any lower than the real air temp. That is how fan cooling works. It cools faster, but can still only get the system down to a bit above the air temp. So -3 is all the colder the wall of the building will get, even in a 50 MPH wind. Too bad, that is still too cold to charge LFP batteries. Does the room have any heating? A few good old incandescent light bulbs can do wonders as long as the space is insulated. You need to block that fast moving cold air from getting in. Have still air and a heat source inside.

 

[Zwy]

Sun dogs were out all day so it was clear sky with low temps. Wife did a few loads of laundry and ran the dryer. House loads since 8 am when production started was 12.7Kwh and battery charged 29.3Kwh for a total of 42.0Kwh.

Battery SOC increased about 50%. This is the best PV charging day since 29th of December. Before that was the 17th thru 20th. Those are basically the only PV charging days since December 16th.

It has been a sun desert here.

 

[James Getman]

First good sun in 5 weeks and I can't use it. With 23" of snow this week, the bifacials soften just enough to allow most of it to slide off. The last of the snowfall fell after dark and crashing temperatures froze a layer that won't brush off. A few kW yesterday turned into only 300 W today, not enough heat to soften at -15 F.

Can anybody report on Powerpro heaters experience? Got 3 Powerpros front to back with a blanket of insulation wrapped around them. Just had 2 go into alarm; still at 80% SOC. Does the alarm mean the heaters are in service or it's too cold for them to work either?

 

[timselectric]

Can anybody report on Powerpro heaters experience? Got 3 Powerpros front to back with a blanket of insulation wrapped around them. Just had 2 go into alarm; still at 80% SOC. Does the alarm mean the heaters are in service or it's too cold for them to work either?

I wouldn't expect the heating to come on unless charging.
But if you access the BMS information. You should be able to see what alarm is activated.

 

[James Getman]

I wouldn't expect the heating to come on unless charging.
But if you access the BMS information. You should be able to see what alarm is activated.

The 2 with the alarm are at -8 C, the other is at -2 C. My guess the alarm indicates charging not available at this temperature. Does the Powerpro self consume to keep warm? At night is when the heaters would be most needed, if they don't operate without PV that would extend recovery time the next day. I added a space heater on low blowing under the insulation, see if that will correct the alarm.

 

[B-Mod]

155kwh of much needed power today. Not a overly sunny, but with the cold, fresh snow cover, and sun it all works. Got my battery bank up to 96%. It has been 16 days since it hit 100%. Tomorrow may be the day....

 

[timselectric]

Does the Powerpro self consume to keep warm?

I would hope not. That would drain the battery.
Most only heat from the charging source.

I added a space heater on low blowing under the insulation, see if that will correct the alarm.

That should definitely help.

 

[James Getman]

I would hope not. That would drain the battery.
Most only heat from the charging source.

That should definitely help.

Did switch the space heater to high; started at -9 C, 90 minutes later -2 C. Headed in the right direction.

 

[Zwy]

First good sun in 5 weeks and I can't use it. With 23" of snow this week, the bifacials soften just enough to allow most of it to slide off. The last of the snowfall fell after dark and crashing temperatures froze a layer that won't brush off. A few kW yesterday turned into only 300 W today, not enough heat to soften at -15 F.

Can anybody report on Powerpro heaters experience? Got 3 Powerpros front to back with a blanket of insulation wrapped around them. Just had 2 go into alarm; still at 80% SOC. Does the alarm mean the heaters are in service or it's too cold for them to work either?

I always watch the grid tie panels in a neighboring town the city owns. Fixed angle at 45 degrees. With cold weather like this, they will not clear until it warms up above 10F. That looks to be about a week away. That is a huge hit on production.

My panels at 65 degrees have a slight amount of snow/ice at the bottom of the silver frame and it will not melt off until temps probably warm up. It might cause some loss but it isn't much as I was seeing close to full output during peak sun.

 

[Mattb4]

A partial sun day! or at least not a blizzard. The 4 inch of new powder snow from yesterday was real easy to brush off my panels when it 0F outside. They started producing even though it is still early. Those folks with roof panels will be waiting a few days for the day time temperature to warm enough to see their panels melt through.

 

[Subdood]

We had cold, mid 20s yesterday, and clear skies until about 3pm. Since the battery was down to 30%, and the wife used the toaster oven some, we got about 5.7kwh. Pretty good day for us. The batt was fully charged by 11:30.

But we got about an inch of powdery snow overnight and it's 18 and cloudy today. I had to clear off a half inch of snow off the panels, once I did that the voltage jumped from 100V to 390V. Sun is barely visible thru the clouds, but the snow on the ground ought to help bounce some ambient light onto the panels.

 

[GXMnow]

The weather prediction is still bad now, well into January.

Last night, I was getting down close to the batter shut down limit. My Enphase system only made 9.7 KWHs the whole day, and it was also low the day before. I still didn't use any grid power, but unless good sun came back, I was going to run low today. And the iPhone weather was predicting heavy clouds again. So last night, I se it to grid charge, but only at 400 watts. But this also stops it from pulling 600-800 watts all night running the house. So I was pulling about 1,000 watts from grid for 6 hours overnight at the low mid tier rate.

When I wake up this morning, it only raised the battery voltage about 1 volt, about what I expected. If the sun didn't poke out, I was ready to raise the charge current a bit, but NOPE. By 9 am, we have solid sunshine and I am running the house easily on the Enphase system, AND even pushing 2,000 watts into the batteries. In just 2 hours, the sun has put more energy into the batteries than the 6 hours of grid charging.

The iPhone is still saying the clouds are coming, but it is now pushed back to after noon. I already have enough in the batteries to make it past the 4 - 9 pm high rate time, so I am good for today, but then we have 4 more days of clouds, and even 3 days of rain predicted. So maybe very little solar until next Tuesday. Oh well.

 

[Q-Dog]

The past 2 days were clear blue skies and temps at or below freezing. My 2200 watts of panels made 10.1 kWh each day.

 

[timselectric]

Mine made almost nothing. Not much sunlight got through the snow on them. And it was too cold for me to care enough to do anything about it. lol

 

[Nobodybusiness]

Been getting anywhere from crap to good.
4kwh to 90kWh.

Weather forecast are about as reliable as reading chicken bones for solar production.

Just never know what your going to get.

Sounds like a Forrest Gump saying.

 

[ksmithaz1]

Mine made almost nothing. Not much sunlight got through the snow on them. And it was too cold for me to care enough to do anything about it. lol

Darn Tim, We all wanted to see your electric broom panel crawler contraption you engineered in your head in operation by now. Sheesh.