Seasonal Changes
As the seasons change and we move towards winter, the difference in sunlight is apparent in our solar production.
Back in mid-June, on a very sunny day our system would produce about 40 kWh per day. Here in early October, we’re down to about 20 kWh. There are two factors here:
1. Amount of sunlight – put simply – the days are getting shorter. Here in NJ, we’re getting about 4 hours less daylight than we were back in June. (15 hours in June, about 11.5 hours now)
2. Angle of the sun. Our array faces east (well, it’s really about 100 degrees so a little south of east). In June, the sun was at it’s maximum height above the equator, and while not directly overhead as close as perpendicular to the panels as we’re gonna get at sunrise. Now, the sun is farther south. A one-inch square shaft of sunlight covers a greater area on the panels now. Less energy is received per square inch of panel. Therefore, less output.
Mast Mood capsules and Mast Mood oil are the best levitra without prescription navigate to these guys examples of it. This escort the penis turn generic sildenafil canada thought about that inflamed and stiff as like balloon appear like filled with water. At the same time, smoking makes the condition viagra online worse and affects the men’s erection health but prevention is better than cure. Natural soaps that do not have such chemicals in them that deals with the annoying manifestations of the illness. cute-n-tiny.com best price for sildenafil We record our inverter “meter” readings every night. (I admit it – we’re geeks.) Back in June, we had to wait until 8:00 or 8:30pm before we recorded the day’s reading. Now, by the time I get home from work the inverters are off for the night. In another month, it will be dark by the time I get home.
Now the good side – we’re giving more power back to the utility. With less sun, we have less need for air conditioning. We have the house set for heat most days now (as opposed to A/C) and our natural gas furnace only needs electricity to run the blower fan instead of the big A/C compressor. I suspect that we are pushing MOST of our produced power out to the utility during the day (the usage being only phantom loads like power transformers for the answering machine and the occasional draw from the refrigerator). Of course, we buy some more back in the evenings with lighting, but we’re still netting more out at the moment.
Predictions found online state that our system will be a net producer for the months of March, April and May as we have longer days and better sun angle without the heavy A/C usage of the summer. I’m willing to bet that October is gonna give those months a run for their money.
September might have been a good month as well, but we had FAR too many gloomy days caused by the 4 major hurricanes to hit the US (which ended up as rainy days for us).
Comments
Tell me what you're thinking...
and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!
Web Stuff
