Sun hours

[J.P.M.]

145KWH yesterday was pretty good. But today did 149KWH, a match for my best day ever, and not in
June this time. With 150, looks like that elusive 10 sun hour day might happen this summer. Bruce Roe

How do you define a 10 hour sun day ?

[bcroe]

145KWH yesterday was pretty good. But today did 149KWH, a match for my best day ever, and not in
June this time. With 150, looks like that elusive 10 sun hour day might happen this summer. Bruce Roe

[bcroe]

Can the new array tilt to the west for afternoon summer production?

No, that would be efficient in an open field. But here it would just be looking straight at the west neighbors
trees. So the plan is, I have a big clearing, and all panels are at an edge looking across the clearing. To
cover the other direction (setting sun), panels need to be on the opposite side of the clearing facing west.
Give me another year. This is not actually wasteful (by my definition), because I needed this many panels
to keep production up under various levels of clouds, my starting point.

But it was a pretty sunny day, collected 145 KWH. The only time I made those numbers before, was
around June. But this is April, the new array is doing what those test panel curves said, getting power
going pretty early in the morning. If this continues to check out, I expect to move some of the south
facing panels around to face west. Not planning to add any more. Bruce Roe
PVm17Jn16.jpg

[DanS26]

.......At 6:45 am sun time the newest
array (facing east) was well irradiated.........

Can the new array tilt to the west for afternoon summer production?

[bcroe]

Overnight we received some unwelcome ice followed by a couple inches of snow. But it did provide another
snow trial of the array, esp the latest design just put into service this month. At 6:45 am sun time the newest
array (facing east) was well irradiated, with no ice and barely any snow. One quick swipe and 6 KW were
operational. The next near vertical section wasn't entirely out of the shade yet, but took little effort to clear
the snow. What little ice was left, will soon be gone as the sun rises.

The less elevated section (facing south) had a solid layer of ice covered by a couple inches of snow. The
snow slots allowed efficient clearing of the snow, will have to wait for a somewhat more favorable sun
position (and the rising temp) to finish by melting the ice. But by 7am sun time, the system was producing
8KW, more than 50% of capacity. Sorry I didn't take a camera to record the event. Bruce Roe

[bcroe]

Running 2 to 1 DC/AC ratio those Fronius inverters will be screaming on a sunny day.

Part of the reason for easily adjusted tilt, is to better level out the power level over the day, an
ongoing experiment. The curves from a while back are some of the results. For the several
snow months, I expect to just put them vertical, possibly not the perfect angle but not a high
production time anyway. I expect them to them be nearly immune to snow, and ground snow
will do better with reflected sun. Bruce Roe

[DanS26]

Running 2 to 1 DC/AC ratio those Fronius inverters will be screaming on a sunny day.

[bcroe]

Looks good and like lots of fun, but I don't understand why it would boost cloudy sky system output by 20 %.

Light clouds, I can still run close to 100%. Heavier clouds, might run 25% to 50%. Adding 20% panels here would
boost that to 30% to 60%. Bruce Roe

[J.P.M.]

There IS a Superman doll in the booth, not visible here. I worked at Bell Labs Naperville after they
opened it in 1966. We designed, then maintained and upgraded 4ESS, a massive project. It was
the first of the big electronic switches that changed everything, and the first AT&T switch to use
integrated circuits. It managed to serve for 4 decades, now it and I are retired.

Cost, did I forget to mention its a science project? If one doesn't like what exists, build something
better. After that, evaluate, decide which features are worth while, and figure how to reduce costs.
Sort of like at work.

My cost structure is different too. Saved big bucks digging my own foundation, not bringing in a
ready mix truck, free engineering, labor, wiring. Lots of what you see was on the property years
before this project started. A BIG POINT, its built on a considerable slope, no heavy earth moving
equipment used or retaining walls built, causing serious erosion problems later. It just follows the
slope, that saved a ton of time, labor, and money.

Its part of my dealing with clouds and snow in northern IL, should boost output under clouds some
20%, its already quite good. Bruce Roe

Looks good and like lots of fun, but I don't understand why it would boost cloudy sky system output by 20 %.

[bcroe]

It looks like a well engineered solution -- but I'm trying to wrap my head around
cost vs payback of changing tilt a few times a year.

And on the telecom career, Western Electric, Bell Labs, GTE Automatic Electric, or ???

There IS a Superman doll in the booth, not visible here. I worked at Bell Labs Naperville after they
opened it in 1966. We designed, then maintained and upgraded 4ESS, a massive project. It was
the first of the big electronic switches that changed everything, and the first AT&T switch to use
integrated circuits. It managed to serve for 4 decades, now it and I are retired.

Cost, did I forget to mention its a science project? If one doesn't like what exists, build something
better. After that, evaluate, decide which features are worth while, and figure how to reduce costs.
Sort of like at work.

My cost structure is different too. Saved big bucks digging my own foundation, not bringing in a
ready mix truck, free engineering, labor, wiring. Lots of what you see was on the property years
before this project started. A BIG POINT, its built on a considerable slope, no heavy earth moving
equipment used or retaining walls built, causing serious erosion problems later. It just follows the
slope, that saved a ton of time, labor, and money.

Its part of my dealing with clouds and snow in northern IL, should boost output under clouds some
20%, its already quite good. Bruce Roe

[J.P.M.]

superman celebration.jpg He is out ..

"Superengineer !!"

Ya gotta' love it !

[Kingram]

superman celebration.jpg He is out ..

[J.P.M.]

That booth is in A1 condition, from Estes, CO. I got it after spending much of my career (but
not all of it), 41 years designing phone office equipment. Still looking for a rotary dial pay phone
at an affordable price. Bruce Roe

So I guess all this means we can assume you can engineer your way out of a phone booth by now, Right ?

[CharlieEscCA]

It looks like a well engineered solution -- but I'm trying to wrap my head around cost vs payback of changing tilt a few times a year.

And on the telecom career, Western Electric, Bell Labs, GTE Automatic Electric, or ???

[bcroe]

One of the few remaining phone booths !

That booth is in A1 condition, from Estes, CO. I got it after spending much of my career (but
not all of it), 41 years designing phone office equipment. Still looking for a rotary dial pay phone
at an affordable price. Bruce Roe