Solar production Fall/Winter vs Spring/Summer

[juanj5678]

Hi everyone,
Not sure if this is the right topic within the forum here but if it needs to be moved please move to the appropriate section.

I just started my first week of being on solar. Woohoo!!!
First 3 days were super cloudy with day 2 some sun popping out here and there.
Production was
9.675 kWh
25.20 kWh
12.35 kWh

Common sense tells me that partly cloudy days vs sunny days the numbers will change.
The last two days the weather was sunny.
Production was
30.86 kWh
33.68 kWh


The increase was exciting to see of course!

I address my questions to you guys who have had solar now for a couple of years.
Living in Florida will I see better solar production in Fall/Winter or will I see better production in Spring/Summer?
While I realize that spring/summer we have more hours of daylight isn't how the earth is positioned also relative to how much production I will get?
Should I think of this in a different way? If so what way should I think of it?

Out of curiosity guys
What was your best solar production on a given day?
What time of year was it?

[J.P.M.]

Hi everyone,
Not sure if this is the right topic within the forum here but if it needs to be moved please move to the appropriate section.

I just started my first week of being on solar. Woohoo!!!
First 3 days were super cloudy with day 2 some sun popping out here and there.
Production was
9.675 kWh
25.20 kWh
12.35 kWh

Common sense tells me that partly cloudy days vs sunny days the numbers will change.
The last two days the weather was sunny.
Production was
30.86 kWh
33.68 kWh


The increase was exciting to see of course!

I address my questions to you guys who have had solar now for a couple of years.
Living in Florida will I see better solar production in Fall/Winter or will I see better production in Spring/Summer?
While I realize that spring/summer we have more hours of daylight isn't how the earth is positioned also relative to how much production I will get?
Should I think of this in a different way? If so what way should I think of it?

Out of curiosity guys
What was your best solar production on a given day?
What time of year was it?

See NREL's PVWatts for a decent model of what you can expect for output as f(day/month/season/year).

With model inputs that are reasonably close to reality for the application, any year's actual production will probably get within about +/- 10 % of the model's output. It'll also give a readonable snapshot of monthly/seasonal output which sounds like what you're looking for.

Add: Since you're asking, for your curiosity:
The best production day for my array was 35.47 kWh/5.232 STC kW = 6.78 kWh/STC kW. That occurred 05/19/2014.
The best 31 day production was 1,016 kWh/5.232 STC kW = 191 kWh/STC kWh per 31 day period. That was for the period 05/30 - 06/29/2014.
The array was 9 months old at the time and was still burning in. Other subsequent 31 day periods around that time of year were similar but generally a couple/few % less.
Not that any of that means much to an array in FL.

[SunEagle]

Hi everyone,
Not sure if this is the right topic within the forum here but if it needs to be moved please move to the appropriate section.

I just started my first week of being on solar. Woohoo!!!
First 3 days were super cloudy with day 2 some sun popping out here and there.
Production was
9.675 kWh
25.20 kWh
12.35 kWh

Common sense tells me that partly cloudy days vs sunny days the numbers will change.
The last two days the weather was sunny.
Production was
30.86 kWh
33.68 kWh


The increase was exciting to see of course!

I address my questions to you guys who have had solar now for a couple of years.
Living in Florida will I see better solar production in Fall/Winter or will I see better production in Spring/Summer?
While I realize that spring/summer we have more hours of daylight isn't how the earth is positioned also relative to how much production I will get?
Should I think of this in a different way? If so what way should I think of it?

Out of curiosity guys
What was your best solar production on a given day?
What time of year was it?

Based on input from others the best days of production would be when the air temp is cooler and the sun is at the same angle as your panels. It also depends on if they are pointed due South or at a different compass direction. So depending on where you live that could be late spring or early fall but it really depends on the panel aiming direction.

[JSchnee21]

You can also look at the production trends of PV systems near you on PVOutput

https://pvoutput.org/ladder.jsp?c=244&r=Florida

[bcroe]

I just started my first week of being on solar. Woohoo!!!
First 3 days were super cloudy with day 2 some sun popping out here and there.
Production was
9.675 kWh
25.20 kWh
12.35 kWh

Common sense tells me that partly cloudy days vs sunny days the numbers will change.
The last two days the weather was sunny.
Production was
30.86 kWh
33.68 kWh
The increase was exciting to see of course!

I address my questions to you guys who have had solar now for a couple of years. Living in
Florida will I see better solar production in Fall/Winter or will I see better production in
Spring/Summer? While I realize that spring/summer we have more hours of daylight isn't
how the earth is positioned also relative to how much production I will get? Should I think of
this in a different way? If so what way should I think of it?

Out of curiosity guys
What was your best solar production on a given day?
What time of year was it?

My rule of thumb, is panel output under clouds will be 10 to 25% of best sun. Higher
percent might mean the sun was not clouded all the time, or very thin clouds. Here
in northern IL the clouds are dominant in fall/winter, plus shorter days, so production
in Dec might be 1/3 of production in June. Temperature I see as strictly secondary.

Best production here is near end of June (on a sunny day). Bruce Roe

[juanj5678]

thx all for responding and your suggestions!!!

[powerup]

My system was up and running in September 2019 and results in the Fall were fantastic with no bill for month of November.
But here in the Mid-Atlantic area the Winter low sun angle combined with more days of overcast skies coupled with heating needs have really cut in to the solar production.

Just got my bill for December and it was for 16 bucks. However my meter numbers are up quite a bit now....meter read 133 as of Dec. 13 and today it was 290 afte 10 days!

I know the culprit is the portable oil filled electric heater we like to use in the bedroom at night. I cut the gas furnace back to 66F at night and set the heater at 79.

Will have to curb the portable heater use after looking at my power consumption graph showing it's usage.

But there should be more sun and longer days coming in March and later.