Voltage drop musings [RE-wrenches]

[Tom Elliot]

William,

Good points all around and an interesting musing to boot.  One thing,
though.  I think it is not always wise to make assumptions about winter
power gain with PV and then applying them to the whole country.  There is a
large portion of the SW (including all of Colorado, where I live) where the
winter sun can produce more power than the summer sun, both cumulatively and
instantaneously.

The heat of summer mitigates against max output of PV and the increase in
cloudiness, especially mid-day T-Storms and/or clouds, also reduces
cumulative production.  I've seen my highest current flow on the shortest
day of the year after a heavy snow, with cold temps, clear skies, and lots
of reflected light from snowcover.  And I've seen just as much output on the
shortest day as on the longest day.

If I fell prey to the "California Energy Mafia" mentality that seems to
inhabit much of the discussion about PV I'd have designed my system
backwards in terms of energy production.  We aren't all Northern Cal or New
England.  Good design requires a fairly intimate knowledge of the local
climate year-round and the idiosynchracies of a particular location to be
done well.

That was one of the problems I have always had with the Real Goods approach.
They always seemed to be designing either for CA or from some insolation
list which was, at best, a general approximation of conditions in my time
zone, but not necessarily at my house site.

Clear skies, bright sun, and a good wind at your back!

Tom Elliot


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