[RE-wrenches] Max Insolation

Brian Mehalic brian at solarenergy.org
Wed Aug 29 11:37:06 PDT 2012


I've seen 1300 sustained at 6000 feet and 1800 edge of cloud too. 

Brian

Typos courtesy of my iPhone. 

On Aug 29, 2012, at 1:56 PM, Nathan Jones <solardude97 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> 
> 
> Ray,
> I lived at altitude for many years but before being in this business. Never had a meter up there of course but I was always aware of the heightened power from the sun. Two miles less atmosphere to diffuse the power of the light. My gut and your realistic readings in low light say the meter is spot on. I would have expected higher numbers than STC but did not know it would be that much.
> Others may have a multiplier to use with STC for altitude that could confirm your numbers.
> Nathan Jones
> Power Source Solar
> 
> ------------------------------
> On Wed, Aug 29, 2012 12:26 PM CDT R Ray Walters wrote:
> 
>> Hi All;
>> 
>> I was recently at a mountain top solar site (11,000 ft), doing some testing, and I measured insolation values that were averaging 1400w/m2, with a temporary peak (edge of cloud effect) that hit 1800w/m2.
>> Do I need to my meter recalibrated?  Its the Daystar, and seems to be accurate,  when we got some cloud cover, insolation dropped to 200-300 w/m2 as expected.
>> 
>> Interstingly the aging Photowatt 1000 modules were running at only about 60% of rated output current into a Blue Sky 3048 MPPT controller.  So I'm also wondering if I have faulty modules.  Back of module temps were about 95 deg F.
>> Any help on both the high insolation reading or Photowatt troubles would be great.
>> 
>> Thanks in Advance,
>> 
>> Ray Walters
>> 
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