Solar panel production figures

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

Im going to look at putting a fan up there blowing around the heat sink and see if it helps. Cant hurt for the cost of a usb fan

Not sure you would see enough of a difference to tell.

IMO the only way to do it is to wait for a perfect couple of days.
Day 1 do the first half the day with a largeish fan then remove.
Day two reverse that trend, compare the curves for differences to a non fan equally normal day.
High level cloud etc means the exact numbers of generation are going to be hard to compare, you want to see if you can move the curve for a day with the fan compared to your baseline.
You would need a few repeatable observations I think in order to say it deffo does make a diff.
One thing though, it cannot hurt, keeping the inverter cooler can only help.

My generation curves on clear days are pretty perfect and predictable.

In Aus inverters externally have to be covered with a sun shade, although if that is to stop them overheating or for another reason I dont know. Just noticed all external need one fitted.

 

[Hawk Tuah]

I think it's more to do with the panels than the inverter. Hot panels are less efficient.

 

[The Angry Welshman]

I think it's more to do with the panels than the inverter. Hot panels are less efficient.

Yeh it does say that panels lose 0.5% effiiciencey for every degree over 25c which is what they class as normal operational testing procedures.

i mean my inverter is within the operational temps of between 45 and 60 degrees as per the manual.

 

[alphaomega16]

Old post about potentially keeping them cooler

Cooling down PV panels with water

France's Sunbooster has developed a technology to cool down solar modules when their ambient temperature exceeds 25 C. The solution features a set of pipes that spread a thin film of water onto the glass surface of the panels in rooftop PV systems and ground-mounted plants. The cooling systems...

www.pv-magazine.com

 

[The Angry Welshman]

Old post about potentially keeping them cooler

Cooling down PV panels with water

France's Sunbooster has developed a technology to cool down solar modules when their ambient temperature exceeds 25 C. The solution features a set of pipes that spread a thin film of water onto the glass surface of the panels in rooftop PV systems and ground-mounted plants. The cooling systems...

www.pv-magazine.com

A bit expensive and a bit over kill for such a small array like mine

 

[Ron-ski]

Put your hand on the body work of a car in direct sun, I bet it feels really hot compared to ambient, your panels will be the same - well above ambient.

 

[The Angry Welshman]

Put your hand on the body work of a car in direct sun, I bet it feels really hot compared to ambient, your panels will be the same - well above ambient.

Yeh agree there ron……just have to accept that temps will have an effect on production.

 

[Hawk Tuah]

Didn't Linus install hybrid panels that have water pumped through their back sides to exchange the heat into his pool.

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

Didn't Linus install hybrid panels that have water pumped through their back sides to exchange the heat into his pool.

He did.
It seems to make sense if you have an easy way to transfer the heat from the panel coolant to something else

 

[alphaomega16]

A bit expensive and a bit over kill for such a small array like mine

yeah that I couldnt really get, just a rainwater tank fed pipe with holes in.

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

Well went and looked my panels up and mine are -0.36% / °C

So more impact than I remembered!

I can't find it now but I am sure I read somewhere that typically peak sun your panels would be likely 30 °C above ambient in summer.
Assuming thats correct I would lose 11.1% for those 30 degrees. Doesn't feel that far off.

Actually, I just compared today 16:55 vs the 16th 16:55. Today was very spiky so I selected a time 5 minutes after the start of a spike since I think the spikes can be overstated.

16/6 16:55 4293w
21/6 16:55 4844w
Diff is a reduction of 11.3%! So the typical 30°C seems reasonable

May plot a few other data points to see how they track

Edit to add today was frequent broken sun, 16th was a perfect solid sun all day type day

 

[The Angry Welshman]

Any way, just a smidgeon under 20 for today…..

 

[Freefaller]

Didn't Linus install hybrid panels that have water pumped through their back sides to exchange the heat into his pool.

Who's Linus?

 

[Ron-ski]

Who's Linus?

Who? And this is a computer forum

 

[gpuerrilla]

We had a thunder storm gloom over at 4pm, thought that was it, then half 6 big sun back out so boosted from the 20 we were on to should be finishing on just over 23.

 

[Ron-ski]

Oh, and its that day as well

 

[The Angry Welshman]

Oh, and its that day as well

It is indeed……all down hill from here and we ended on 19.8 in the end

 

[Hawk Tuah]

A few middy clouds, then bursts of sun have given me my highest peak so far. Hit 4.7kw briefly at 12:15. Not the highest overall at 27.9kwh, but pretty close.

Still managing to avoid using any power from the grid for June so far.

 

[Ron-ski]

I'm still averaging 45 kWh a day this month, and the rest of the month is forecast to be sunny.

 

[The Angry Welshman]

I'm still averaging 45 kWh a day this month, and the rest of the month is forecast to be sunny.

Sending clouds…