PVs - summer vs winter

[SteamyTea]

2 hours ago, Ed Davies said:

That was 60

Not far off how north you are.

 

[SteamyTea]

2 hours ago, joth said:

"if it was that easy, everyone would already be doing it."

More a case of not physically, or financially, viable.

Edited December 11, 2019 by SteamyTea

[Ed Davies]

2 hours ago, SteamyTea said:

Not far off how north you are.

 

Coincidence, really. Latitude relative to the ecliptic (plane of the Earth's orbit round the Sun) is probably nearer 80° in February so that'd be about the right angle for direct sunlight but that doesn't see as much of the sky above so tilting the panel back a bit improves the input from scattered radiation. Just happens to be by about 20° so roughly cancelling the effect of the Sun being “below” the plane of the equator.

[H F]

Did a small update video on our autumn performance.

 

 

 

Edited December 14, 2019 by Home Farm

[SteamyTea]

At 11 plus minutes, it is too long.

So not watched it.

[H F]

3 hours ago, SteamyTea said:

At 11 plus minutes, it is too long.

So not watched it.

?

[Ed Davies]

@Home Farm remind us, what orientation do your panels have? Did you mention in another thread that your ridge is north/south so the panels are likely east or west facing? I was a bit surprised by your comment that PVGIS shows the optimum angle for your panels to be 42° for autumn, I'd expect it to be steeper but perhaps it's because of the orientation. If so it might be worth going into a bit when you do your spring update.

 

[H F]

 -20 degrees from south (SSE).

 

With PVGIS I just kept increasing the degree incline one by one and seeing what the outcome for the November was. At 42 it peaked and declined again at 43.

[diarmidR]

PVGIS is giving me an optimum panel tilt angle of 0 degrees. Is this because I live somewhere that is tragically cloudy? (Scottish Highlands)

Even in January the output is higher at 15 degrees than 35 degrees.

[JohnMo]

26 minutes ago, diarmidR said:

optimum panel tilt angle of 0 degrees.

Are you reading from vertical or horizontal, from horizontal makes zero sense. 0 tilt i.e. horizontal/flat will give best part of nothing in winter.

[diarmidR]

Ah, I had the orientation set to North facing. What a plonker.

[JohnMo]

3 minutes ago, diarmidR said:

Ah, I had the orientation set to North facing. What a plonker.

Good for Australia, not so good here

[ProDave]

There is a good argument in Scotland for having vertical or near vertical panels.  That will give more generation in winter when you want all you can get.