[RE-wrenches] Shedding ice

Mark Dickson Mark at OasisMontana.com
Mon Jan 16 13:24:39 PST 2012


Wow Bob I take it back--that was really cool!  

 

I am trying to help out some of our local weather forecasters that have a
small 50 watt module mounted on top of one of our peaks that runs a weather
station.  So, unfortunately this may be a little on the small side of one of
your classics, but none the less, if it works. . . 

Do you have any idea on how much power it takes in order to accomplish this?
Would doubling or tripling the system capacity cut it?  Also, how will the
classic determine if there is in fact snow or ice on the module?

 

Best regards,

 

Mark Dickson,

NABCEP Certified Solar PV Installer T

Oasis Montana Inc.

 

  _____  

From: re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org
[mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] On Behalf Of
boB at midnitesolar.com
Sent: Monday, January 16, 2012 2:15 PM
To: RE-wrenches
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Shedding ice

 

On 1/16/2012 11:39 AM, David Katz wrote: 

Mark,
I believe the Midnite Classic has this feature built in. Check with them.
David Katz
 





It just snowed up here in Arlington, Washington A.C.  and we were just
starting to melt some snow
on a couple of modules on our roof just now with one of our charge
controllers here in the lab.

This feature is not yet in the Classic, BUT, check out this experiment that
I did about 3 years ago
in my front yard with an animated gif time lapse.

One module is being powered and the other is not powered, just sitting there
for comparison.
These are KC125s.

The time involved here was about 3 hours and took about 1 kW-hour of energy
but gives you
an idea of what may be done with this idea.  One thing not in our favor here
is that the module
that is being powered is resting on the ground, in the snow, which would
significantly
hinder snow melting I would think rather than being properly mounted.

Oh what fun it is to melt some PV snow tonight !

http://fusion.midnitesolar.com/PVsnowMelt3.gif

boB











From: Mark Dickson [mailto:Mark at OasisMontana.com] 
Sent: Monday, January 16, 2012 10:00 AM
To: 'RE-wrenches'  <mailto:re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>
<re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> 
Subject: [RE-wrenches] Shedding ice 
 

I recall a conversation a while back about the possibility of "reversing"
the current in a solar module to increase the cell temp enough to shed
ice/rime.  To follow-up, has anybody been successful at this?  I am
guessing, if so, it would entail, removal of diodes, increasing PV and
battery capacity and some way to sense the ice at the very least. . . It
sounds good in theory, but I am skeptical as to whether it will work in
reality. . .

 

Best regards,

 

Mark Dickson,

NABCEP Certified Solar PV Installer T

Oasis Montana Inc.

 

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org/attachments/20120116/2aff3a7b/attachment-0004.html>


More information about the RE-wrenches mailing list