December PV starting off crappy again.

[ksmithaz1]

As expected, the afternoons are extending, mornings are fairly stagnant. My production has been up very near 70KWH, unfortunately with the cold my heater is running more gobbling all the extra electrons up. Useful output (1000KW) starts around 0800 and ends right at 1700. AZ really is pretty amazing for sunlight, but tomorrow is going to be overcast and cold with rain thru the weekend. Likely spend some time on-grid charging cars. Dec electric bill was $60.

 

[chilly2]

Your snow will melt and clouds will pass. I wish that would solve my situation!

It was sunny for 10 hours here today. I should be able to get at least 15kWh out of my little 3.5kw array.

It generated 5.1kWh. Highest since early December.

My property is heavily shaded by a huge neighboring tree that’s always the last to give up its leaves in winter, and the low sun sits behind it until almost 1pm.

At the moment I can either run the house on solar for a few hours or almost charge the 5kWh battery, but not both.

My kingdom for a shade free array!

 

[Nobodybusiness]

As expected, the afternoons are extending, mornings are fairly stagnant. My production has been up very near 70KWH, unfortunately with the cold my heater is running more gobbling all the extra electrons up. Useful output (1000KW) starts around 0800 and ends right at 1700. AZ really is pretty amazing for sunlight, but tomorrow is going to be overcast and cold with rain thru the weekend. Likely spend some time on-grid charging cars. Dec electric bill was $60.

Same problem we are having.
Any production going straight to heat.


Our solar starts really producing around 1000 and is done by 1600.

 

[nesswill]

Jan been ok but this week has been good. Starts about 8:30 and is done by 15:30.

 

[Madcodger]

The beautiful yellow-orange orb has been showing up here in Maine recently, so I can now go 3-4 days without needing to rely on grid or generator. The trees on my east and west sides are now the big problem, due to low winter sun. If I didn't have to do the pesky "regular" job I'd have time to build another array but that's still a necessity for a few more years. So many fun projects - just not enough free time.

 

[Subdood]

We got about 4 inches of snow overnight, and it's still flurrying some now. Even tho it's mostly cloudy the snow on the ground has helped get us some production today. The other day when it was single digits temps the array hit 413V with no load. Never seen it that high before. Today it's been running around 400V. This is a good test of the bifacials with reflected light hitting the back of the panels. Supposed to be sunny on Sunday so that will be interesting..

Some pics, including my dog who went with me to check things out. BTW, we are now able to get thru the night on one single charge of our Lifepower4 battery. The snow pretty much slid off the panels on its own, I had to clear off the lower parts. Looks like the mount is just high enough off the ground.

 

[Nobodybusiness]

Ok had my first 100KWh day.?
If they were all like that I would be golden..

 

[PreppenWolf]

Dec and Jan suck where I am (NH and North side of a small hill). Had full sun yesterday and got 25kWh. Very good for my array this time of year. But the clouds were back today.

 

[B-Mod]

Very crappy start to the month, but the past week has been good. Next week is going to be awful.

 

[Subdood]

Well, with it being cold (mid teens) and mostly sunny and snow on the ground, we’ve had some great production today.

The BMS limits the battery charging power to about 2.75KW, or 50A. We also had a space heater (about 1KW load) going to supplement the big heater, along with other house loads. So, there were a couple occasions where the PV array output reached over 4KW, with the highest being 4.12KW. That’s impressive considering the 8 panels are rated at 3.56KW peak, so the extra power was being contributed by the reflected light hitting the backside cells.

Now at 3pm, the battery is fully charged and we’ve already hit 5.7KWh. Did some laundry and still running the space heater to take advantage of the ideal conditions. Because of that, the big electric heater hasn't been on most of the day, so we're saving power with it not running. Today will end up being our best day of production ever.

Update: with the sun just going down production for today has ceased, but the total was about 7.7KWh, best we've ever had. With similar conditions tomorrow and less clouds, we might get similar results.

 

[Nobodybusiness]

Days definitely getting longer 107kwh today!!

Unfortunately it looks like rain for the next 7.

 

[B-Mod]

New one day best total. I waisted a little as batteries charged to 100% and I couldn't get enough load connected quickly.

 

[Nobodybusiness]

New one day best total. I waisted a little as batteries charged to 100% and I couldn't get enough load connected quickly.
View attachment 190269

Wow you got like 5.8 hours of sun on a 57kW array.

Guess the cold really helps..

 

[B-Mod]

Wow you got like 5.8 hours of sun on a 57kW array.

Guess the cold really helps..

Cold, snow, bifacial panels.

 

[GXMnow]

The storm they predicted here is real. It didn't rain a whole lot yet, but the clouds knocked my system down from over 15 KWHs just a few days ago to a dismal 3.7 KWHs today. That's a 75% drop in production.

 

[Subdood]

Well, I didn't think we would top yesterday's 7.7KWh production, but today was better. Our battery was down to about 25% this morning, but we had full sun from 10:30, so that got charged back up by noon. We also ran the space heater for 6 hours, did a couple loads of laundry and used the toaster oven, so we took full advantage of the perfect conditions.

We ended up with about 9.2KWh, and 16.9K this weekend. It's back to work tomorrow, and it's supposed to warm up and rain a few days this week, so production will drop. But, I'm very pleased with this weekend's results.

 

[Brett V]

The pain continues.

 

[PreppenWolf]

Going to remain garbage here too. Had two decent days, now that's over. Was 2F here this morning, but now it's going to rain this week ?‍? I hate ice storms.

 

[Nobodybusiness]

Going to remain garbage here too. Had two decent days, now that's over. Was 2F here this morning, but now it's going to rain this week ?‍? I hate ice storms.

View attachment 190818

Yea we are looking at 7 days of clouds and rain.

 

[Madcodger]

Maine. Same misery for the next week except for perhaps a few hours of sun on Saturday. Maybe... Been firing up the wood stoves to avoid using the mini-splits or propane backup heat (feeling cheap, I guess). Lots of exercise moving and restacking, and it's a very comfortable heat, but man, wood sure is dirty. At least the vacuum cleaner doesn't consume all that much power.