Weather station for residential PV

[tyab]

Due to extensive mountain shading in the morning (we are on the West side of the mountain) and then the tall pines and massive oak trees just beyond my property border, combined with the grading we had to do into the hillside and the multi level retaining walls - by the time all of that clears, the shadow from this setup no longer reaches the panels. For example, currently sunrise is 5:45am but it is not until 8:20am until a single panel gets direct sunlight. It takes until 9:30am for all of the tree shadows to clear the system. I do get about 15mins of partial shadow from this combined with existing tree shadows around 9am'ish but the trees are a much bigger issue. With the enphase site you can see how each panel is shaded over time - very cool.

Here is the current version of the structure. Still have to reroute a junction box to met NFPA 780 separation requirements but I'm down to detail work now.



I have about 17 posts on all the work done since the system went active on January 5th, see my profile for a link to my google blog page. Wish this forum could easily work with google photos - its a real pain have to upload to flickr and then manually edit BBcode just to put in a linkable picture...

You are correct, this unit is a non-commercial grade unit - $140 complete. I have no expectation that UV or watts/m data is even remotely accurate - specs are +/- 15% on solar radiation and it would have to be adjusted to match the tilt angle differences and who knows if it is even remotely linear...

[J.P.M.]

Due to extensive mountain shading in the morning (we are on the West side of the mountain) and then the tall pines and massive oak trees just beyond my property border, combined with the grading we had to do into the hillside and the multi level retaining walls - by the time all of that clears, the shadow from this setup no longer reaches the panels. For example, currently sunrise is 5:45am but it is not until 8:20am until a single panel gets direct sunlight. It takes until 9:30am for all of the tree shadows to clear the system. I do get about 15mins of partial shadow from this combined with existing tree shadows around 9am'ish but the trees are a much bigger issue. With the enphase site you can see how each panel is shaded over time - very cool.

Here is the current version of the structure. Still have to reroute a junction box to met NFPA 780 separation requirements but I'm down to detail work now.



I have about 17 posts on all the work done since the system went active on January 5th, see my profile for a link to my google blog page. Wish this forum could easily work with google photos - its a real pain have to upload to flickr and then manually edit BBcode just to put in a linkable picture...

You are correct, this unit is a non-commercial grade unit - $140 complete. I have no expectation that UV or watts/m data is even remotely accurate - specs are +/- 15% on solar radiation and it would have to be adjusted to match the tilt angle differences and who knows if it is even remotely linear...

Thank you for the response. Understood. I remember the prior photos of lots of work done. You do know that the shading pattern on the array you describe will be quite different in the winter ?

[tyab]

So far I have data from Jan-current, so I expect the rest of the year to mirror those shading patterns, Large line of pines and oaks on the neighbors property that starts almost east of this location and heads down to South East. Hopefully this Topo shows the mountain issue. (click to get full res). The site is a tad to the left of the dot, right in the middle of the 3200' and 3160' topo lines. If I had a drone the tree issue would be easy to see but that is a toy the wife has not yet approved



Thornbury mountain directly East has two main ridge lines, the first is a long one heading mostly East and is giving me all this morning shade in the summer. But it also has another ridgeline that starts East and circles to South West and gives morning shade (of varying amounts) the rest of the year. That ridge in the South West is also giving quite a bit of late afternoon shade in the winter but by late spring it stops being an issue.

[J.P.M.]

So far I have data from Jan-current, so I expect the rest of the year to mirror those shading patterns, Large line of pines and oaks on the neighbors property that starts almost east of this location and heads down to South East. Hopefully this Topo shows the mountain issue. (click to get full res). The site is a tad to the left of the dot, right in the middle of the 3200' and 3160' topo lines. If I had a drone the tree issue would be easy to see but that is a toy the wife has not yet approved



Thornbury mountain directly East has two main ridge lines, the first is a long one heading mostly East and is giving me all this morning shade in the summer. But it also has another ridgeline that starts East and circles to South West and gives morning shade (of varying amounts) the rest of the year. That ridge in the South West is also giving quite a bit of late afternoon shade in the winter but by late spring it stops being an issue.

Thank you. The topo map and prior photos makes things are a bit clearer now (I think).

[tyab]

ARGH just realized that every flickr image I have posted no longer allows the high res to be seen unless you have a stupid yahoo account - looks like a recent change. I'll find a way around it....