Average sun-hours [RE-wrenches]

[Phil Undercuffler]

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Living off-grid in the high desert south of Santa Fe, I'll second Tom's
observations.  Clear sky in the morning.  The clouds form around noon, and
every afternoon it's heavy cloud cover.  This week it's been rain every
evening (thank goodness).  My system usually coasts through winter, but I
just get by in summer.

Charts are good for generalities, but good design takes into account the
microclimate.

Phil Undercuffler
Dankoff Solar  

on 8/6/04 8:17 AM, Tom Elliot, Guffey Energy Works at telliot at wagonmaker.com
wrote:
> MPPT does make a difference.  My sentiments on this are based on 10 years
> experience of living with solar in the mountains west of the Springs.  I'm
> at 9000 feet and the combination of altitude, clear air, and cold winter
> temperatures have produced as much power on the shortest day as on the
> longest.  At best winter and summer balance out in terms of power output.
> 
> The biggest problem here is that in the summer (absent a tracker) the angle
> of the morning sun is so oblique that the panels don't really produce much
> power until around 10am, at which point we will get good input until around
> noon when the clouds start to form.  I've run my generator more in the
> summer than in the winter to compensate, I hardly ever run it in the winter.
> On a winter morning the sun rises at such a good angle to the panels that
> I'm getting 40-50% output the minute it crests the ridge to the East and the
> days are generally cloudless.  My highest daily output was a cold Dec. 22nd
> after a fresh snow.

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