PV output, January west of Denver

[willo]

Just figured I'd note some data. It's hard to guess at efficiency through the year!

Today, cloud cover was measured at 0-1%. My Camper with1200 watts of poly flat mounted panels is down below, a bit north of Golden.
My system was down a bit, due to my use of power the other day and a day of high cloud cover and snow.

My system maxed out at 545w, yeah less than 50%. I haven't cleaned them lately so assume some dirt in combination with the angle.
Also, at least one set of my panels was certainly in shade from the adjacent A/C unit. The sun angle is just bad this time of year. Lots of atmospheric interference for sure. My 'flat' mounted panels actually angle down with my roof toward the back half the camper. Since my unit faces south, they are even less effective when in winter storage.

Total PV generation for the day: 2.4Kwh.
Considering the angle and early drop off when the sun dropped behind the mountains to the west (which dropped output down to 100w and then tailed off for the final 2.5 hours)

 

[snoobler]

This time of year, you should get about 2.4hr on flat panels.

That puts you at about 2.9kWh/day. I would assume the terrain shading and/or roof shading accounted for the 0.5kWh you didn't get.



Using the monthly average of 72

 

[willo]

Here's my graph of PV from yesterday. Actually I forgot to check charge state - i hit full charge when the drop off happened.



It hit absorption mode around 13:40, so yeah, looks like production dropped off when storage filled up.
Once I extend another set of wires to my BMV, I should have improved SOC data.

 

[snoobler]

LFP or lead-acid?

If lead-acid, you're also likely on the adaptive absorption algorithm. For testing purposes, I recommend you go to fixed and 2 hours. Once you're in absorption mode, you should add loads to push the panels as hard as they're able.

This presumes you're trying to test peak output. If you're just reporting results from regular use, ignore me.

Ain't VRM awesome?

This was mine yesterday:



Fixed panels at 29° facing about 165°, day started mostly cloudy with mid-day sun. Didn't hit float until about 2.5 hours later than usual.

 

[HRTKD]

I'm south of Denver. I haven't been to my trailer for a few weeks to check the statistics. I doubt it's anything to write home about since the only load on the system is the warming pads on the two batteries.

 

[snoobler]

Same. Basically 56W of of background draw (lights, DLS modem, 12V charging floating AGM in the container) + inverter idle. It's so cool up there right now, my absorption fridge is only coming on about once/day for 1.5 hours @ 300W:

 

[willo]

I have absorption barely configured it's set for like .1v from float - current battery is a Tesla module I scored off CL last spring for $400.
Coming soon, heated 15Kw LifePO4 pack. I was surprised to see it even make the graph for that long.

I've actually run this hardware since the summer, just finally added in a raspberry pi running the victron image.
Data is uploaded thanks to another PI with a 4g LTE card installed that's on my AT&T unlimited data plan.

Right now my idle storage load is pretty high - about 40W. Certainly livable, but I'm going to put a little effort into reducing that.

 

[snoobler]

We have a rodent problem. Lights are the best defense. Since we've been able to power the 5th wheel 24/7, it reclassified the rodent situation from invasion to nuisance. We still catch 1-3 in a month in traps, but we aren't overrun.

3X 4W LED to provide some level of illumination to the entire trailer interior (bedroom, bathroom, main area) + 12V converter + Blink camera wifi module and DSL router - pretty much slashed as much as I can.

 

[willo]

Peppermint oil is helpful - they avoid it. My wife adds it to the cleaner now and they avoid our countertops. (9k feet, lots of mice up here.)
I've had good luck using aluminum tape for sealing entry points.

 

[willo]

@snoobler are you happy with the blink? I've been trying to decide on a cam to stick in there.

 

[snoobler]

I've been through gallons of peppermint oil. It doesn't work for me. We have mice and pack rats. I've been unable to identify their means of ingress. We did seal a big hole that was an obvious entry point, which has prevented any pack rat entry, but the mice still get in from time to time.

Lights were an absolute miracle.

We have have the prior generator Blink XT2 - free cloud storage. I'm very happy with it. Our front door camera lasted a full year on its battery with very heavy traffic.

View from the power pedestal (motorhome is not there anymore):



View from the tote:


Given their price and convenience, I'm extremely happy with them.

I'm not confident that I'd continue with the "all-new blink" line with the subscription plan. They do have a nice feature of being able to store videos on an internal SD card (mine can only store on cloud with limited storage). If I could get the same basic functionality w/o a monthly cost, I'd continue using them.

 

[willo]

I was down working from the camper today (and on the camper a bit) In the afternoon, clouds took over for a couple of hours.
Picked up 2.2Kwh even with the cloudy afternoon. Pretty decent for my flat mounted (and dirty panels).