Ditto absolutely no reason to shut it off.
It just snowed in Michigan. 8 Inches
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Saying a panel is like asphalt because they're both sort of black is like saying a turd is like a brown shoe because they're sort of the same color.
Panels are not asphalt. Try driving on a panel. Or getting electricity out of a roadway.
Asphalt doesn't thaw.The petroleum stuff holding the aggregate together gets a bit softer as the temp. increases and the petroleum stuff may get less viscous, and some of the lighter aromatics in the petroleum may sublime "off", but it doesn't change phase as "melting" would imply.
Also, to say panels thaw out sort of implies they melt, as in changing phase. Unless panels are made of material that changes phase at usual panel temps., like some type of eutectic material, they are usually and already in the solid or frozen phase and stay that way. They don't get more or less frozen as they heat up/cool down. The H2O in the solid phase on a panel may thaw and run off as a result of the energy added/transferred to it, or H2O in the liquid phase on a panel may freeze from heat loos via thermal radiation to a colder environment, but the panels don't thaw. They simply gain or lose heat.
No, it's radiant energy that's responsible for most of the temperature changes were talking about here. It's also thermal radiation that's at least partially, if not mostly responsible for panels cooling down.
The greater the absorbance of radiant energy in the solar wavelengths, the more radiant energy will be absorbed and the warmer an object will become. Heat as described by an object's temperature relative to its surroundings is the result, not the cause of energy additions or subtractions. .
Take what you want of the above. Scrap the rest.Comment
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Oh, I haven't always lived down here in Florida. I came from the North East and while it might not have been as cold as Wisconsin ( I have been to Marinette a few times in the winter) we did get a lot of snow which is never fun to drive in.Comment
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Perhaps. I just cannot understand why it is hard for someone to understand if a panel is shaded, dirty, or covered with snow the power falls off a cliff and becomes useless. It defies common sense. With a username that starts with dr makes one think the person has an education and should understand basic physics. My wifey is an MD and her username is drB, and yes the B means what you think. A solar panel is a bit like a bridge. It will freeze first long before the road does, and the last to thaw.
Does give me an idea though for up sale to yankees. Remove the Blocking Diodes and backfeed the panels with DC to generate heat and de-ice the panels.
Last edited by Sunking; 12-28-2017, 08:28 PM.MSEE, PEComment
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Perhaps. I just cannot understand why it is hard for someone to understand if a panel is shaded, dirty, or covered with snow the power falls off a cliff and becomes useless. It defies common sense. With a username that starts with dr makes one think the person has an education and should understand basic physics. My wifey is an MD and her username is drB, and yes the B means what you think. A solar panel is a bit like a bridge. It will freeze first long before the road does, and the last to thaw.
Does give me an idea though for up sale to yankees. Remove the Blocking Diodes and backfeed the panels with DC to generate heat and de-ice the panels.Comment
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The way to analyze the situation is with the concept of a heat balance. Heat transfer 101. Set boundary surfaces. Then, consider as many inputs, forcing functions and variables that describe how energy crosses the boundaries as seem relevant. Quite simple to model actually.Comment
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Originally posted by SunkingPerhaps. I just cannot understand why it is hard for someone to understand if a panel is
shaded, dirty, or covered with snow the power falls off a cliff and becomes useless. It defies common sense.
Does give me an idea though for up sale to yankees. Remove the Blocking Diodes and backfeed the
panels with DC to generate heat and de-ice the panels.
the DC power up to 3 times the panel rated output (250W/750W) but that snow never moved.
Guess most people don't understand conservation of energy, it either makes the trip
or gets lost on the way. No recreating it where you wish it was. Bruce Roe
PVmelt.jpgComment
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MSEE, PEComment
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No guessing about it. it is a fact, a sad fact. US public schools quit teaching basic science and math skills decades ago. Political Correctness ruined the USA education system. It was too hard for some students and hurt their poor little feelings. Some poor little kids could not understand the simple law of Conservation of Energy. To fix that problem, they made the rest of the kids as dumb as the slower kids so they did not get their poor little feelings hurt. Works out pretty good for the government. Makes it real easy to control masses if they are ignorant.
Rant mode off.Comment
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It can be fixed and starts with throwing the government out of schools.
MSEE, PEComment
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JPM you and I are Baby Boomers, the last generation to receive a proper education before the Johnson administration hippies started dumbing down the US education system. We traded education for peace, love, sex, and drugs. We allowed it to happen. When we graduated is equal to a 4-year college grad today in a public university. Today to recive a good education requires a private school and university free of government controls.
It can be fixed and starts with throwing the government out of schools.
One thing, among many I try to remember is to stay mindful of how much I probably sound like all the old farts who ranted at me when I was 20 yrs. old or so and who lamented the good old days and how things went in the toilet when the godless hippies took over.
History and some parts of the social order somehow seem more cyclic now than I once viewed them..
But I still think we're screwed.Comment
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Most likely a revolution to throw the government and teachers unions out of the education system. Possible a world war which is not far off.
Look it took 4 decades for the public education system to get where it is today. You and I know that, we lived and seen it happen. My thinking, not my idea, is it will take a state like TX to reject Federal money for public education. Do that and you can throw away all Federal requirements and the Unions out on the street. That is exactly what private schools/universities and home schooled have done. Both educators and students need to be on a Merit System.
It would take at least two generations to fix.Last edited by Sunking; 12-30-2017, 12:28 AM.MSEE, PEComment
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