Sunny vs Cloudy

ViksB

We got solar panels fitted 3 days ago and so hopefully the FIT paper work is going through. What has surprised us is just how much diffe?ence the weather makes.
Yesterday in the glorious sunny November Sunday that we had we generated 7 units. Today on a cloudy, gloomy day we generated 0.5 units!!
Bring on the sunshine. Does it vary this much in summer too?

Equaliser123

ViksB wrote: »

We got solar panels fitted 3 days ago and so hopefully the FIT paper work is going through. What has surprised us is just how much diffe?ence the weather makes.
Yesterday in the glorious sunny November Sunday that we had we generated 7 units. Today on a cloudy, gloomy day we generated 0.5 units!!
Bring on the sunshine. Does it vary this much in summer too?

Afraid that's how solar panels work!

What you will find is that, for e.g. brilliant sunny days are not necessarily the best for peak generation. Cloud edging (i.e. where the sun appears between gaps in the clouds) make our panels hit peak whereas bright sunny days runs at less than peak.

tiggerpud

I've just had worst day so far (since April) - only generated 313w today - have peaked at 25Kw in summer though (on a 4Kw sysytem) ! Been really misty & gloomy here for past couple of days.... only few days ago, generated 7Kw though.

Equaliser123

A few days last winter when the panels didn't operate at all. Particularly when covered with snow!

Brian99_2

tiggerpud wrote: »

I've just had worst day so far (since April) - only generated 313w today - have peaked at 25Kw in summer though (on a 4Kw sysytem) ! Been really misty & gloomy here for past couple of days.... only few days ago, generated 7Kw though.

The 25kWh has lost its 'h'

We all make this error and must all take more care !!

If anyone is confused, the total ENERGY in a day is measured in kilowatt-hours (kWh).

A kilowatt-hour is the energy consumed by 1 kilowatt fire in 1 hour. ( often called a UNIT)

In 4 hours, that 1kW fire consumes 4kWh.

So many people get this muddled , it needs to be said a few times

And kWp is kilowatts peak, for a solar installation.

tiggerpud

Sorry! I knew as I wrote it someone would correct me! lol I know what I mean - that's the main thing!

Thank you for correcting me though.....;)

TrickyDicky101

ViksB wrote: »

Yesterday in the glorious sunny November Sunday that we had we generated 7 units. Today on a cloudy, gloomy day we generated 0.5 units!!

I got exactly the same figures over the last 48 hours. Without sun, the panels just don't seem to get going in any meaningful way.

Brian99_2

So often we read in the adverts, "all the panels need is daylight" LOL!!!

A bright day is FAR better than a dull day.
Ideally, full sun at right angles, plus a bit of bright clouds too.

lanstrom

ViksB wrote: »

We got solar panels fitted 3 days ago and so hopefully the FIT paper work is going through. What has surprised us is just how much diffe?ence the weather makes.
Yesterday in the glorious sunny November Sunday that we had we generated 7 units. Today on a cloudy, gloomy day we generated 0.5 units!!
Bring on the sunshine. Does it vary this much in summer too?

12.26 kWh Yesterday
0.44 kWh Today

What a difference a day makes !

grumpyoldsteve

Some early stats from our 2.45kWp South facing system

Today was also the worst so far for us since going live in September. But looking at the graph of the average, one or two bad days don't make much of a dent in the all time average.:think:
Looking forward to once the days start getting longer and that average starts ramping up:wave:

The_Green_Hornet

Daily output figures are irrelevant but I do understand that people who have been suckered into buying expensive monitors feel the need to constantly check them. I wonder how many months or years it will take for the novelty to wear off?