Happy Solar Soltice Day (at least here in New England)!

[Rade]

...just a side bar for folks and solar statistics geeks in the darker climates hoping that their arrays will begin generating more power than the home is using...

My hypothesis proofed out! I live in Rhode Island. I have determined that for us to generate more power than the house uses, we need more than 10 hours and 13 minutes of sun hitting the arrays. The last time we had that duration was November 5, and according to https://www.timeanddate.com/ today, February 6 (today!) is the first day we should exceed that mark. And indeed we are at that meridian! We finally generated as much power as the house consumed!

Now... for Winter to finally leave so I don't have a furnace running all night...



Rad

[peakbagger]

My "solstice" day is definitely a local phenomenon in Northern NH, I have a mountain, just south of east. With low winter sun angles, I can see the sky starting to brighten up to the east and then it disappears behind the mountain, only to reappear about an hour later. Eventually, I can see the sky get bright behind the top and then it finally breaks out over it and I get the morning sun. I have fixed arrays pointed south so I do not get lot of extra generation, but it does up my solar exposure through my windows. January this year has been warmer than many but very cloudy, Feb 1st was bright and clear and its been like that for the last 5 days. There is still snowpack on the ground so two of my arrays get a bit of boost from reflection off the snow. I just got my electric bill and my net metering in January was probably the low point of chewing down my surplus and barring weird weather this month I should be building up my surplus although I usually reduce my wood boiler usage so my mini split gets used more to heat the house.

[Rade]

My "solstice" day is definitely a local phenomenon in Northern NH, I have a mountain, just south of east. With low winter sun angles, I can see the sky starting to brighten up to the east and then it disappears behind the mountain, only to reappear about an hour later. Eventually, I can see the sky get bright behind the top and then it finally breaks out over it and I get the morning sun. I have fixed arrays pointed south so I do not get lot of extra generation, but it does up my solar exposure through my windows. January this year has been warmer than many but very cloudy, Feb 1st was bright and clear and its been like that for the last 5 days. There is still snowpack on the ground so two of my arrays get a bit of boost from reflection off the snow. I just got my electric bill and my net metering in January was probably the low point of chewing down my surplus and barring weird weather this month I should be building up my surplus although I usually reduce my wood boiler usage so my mini split gets used more to heat the house.

Right there with you! The sun is still further south, and JUST as it peeks over the hill to the East of us, it hits my neighbors giant oak tree and gets diffused. Today, we got a cloud sheet over the region and I'm getting all of 2kW mid-day.

[bcroe]

The size of my system was based on annual propane use. However,
initial results showed that clouds were having a major impact on output.
To counter that I doubled the number of (cheap) panels, the rest of the
system stayed the same. Even the ground mounts (cost more than
panels) could handle double sided panel mounting with little extra
investment. E-W orientation kept the inverters from being overloaded
at any time, but managed full power at least 8 hours most sunny days.

Net metering means days, nights and seasons do not impact, only
the total energy collected for the year. Bruce Roe

[Rade]

Net metering means days, nights and seasons do not impact, only
the total energy collected for the year. Bruce Roe

May 10 will mark our 1st year on solar; June being the first electric statement with net credits since our system came online. We did well on the net metering for this past season; credited $500. But we've blown through those credits and am expecting the residual bill later this week. I check the meter every morning or so to see if how much power we consumed or generated. As of this morning, our meter is about where it was on May 10. Wholly expected. I am hoping that by the end of this month, barring any outrageous weather patterns, we will start net crediting again.