Sunny vs Cloudy

TrickyDicky101

The_Green_Hornet wrote: »

Why pay an additional few hundred quid for a remote monitor which will probably be discarded in a few years time when the novelty wears off?

You can pick up perfectly good monitors for less than £50 (or even free ones if you subscribe to Martin's weekly email ).

raider

Brian99 wrote: »

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

This is correct. I guess the ideal day for generation is for the sun to not be obscured from the clouds, but for the clouds to be both above and below the sun, thus reflecting that extra light onto your panels.

Not going to happen anytime soon

larkim

raider wrote: »

This is correct. I guess the ideal day for generation is for the sun to not be obscured from the clouds, but for the clouds to be both above and below the sun, thus reflecting that extra light onto your panels.

Not going to happen anytime soon

[pedant mode] aren't all clouds below the sun [/pedant mode] :cool:

How much difference does reflected light from surrounding clouds actually make, does anyone know?

Matt

Equaliser123

The_Green_Hornet wrote: »

More money than sense it seems.

Yeah, probably right. You should see how much I get from FITs...

Thanks!

Equaliser123

TrickyDicky101 wrote: »

You can pick up perfectly good monitors for less than £50 (or even free ones if you subscribe to Martin's weekly email ).

They don't work unless you clip them onto either a positive or negative cable. Generally, I think, most of the solar installations have pos and neg within the same cable.

KevinG

Equaliser123 wrote: »

They don't work unless you clip them onto either a positive or negative cable. Generally, I think, most of the solar installations have pos and neg within the same cable.

There's usually somewhere where the cables are split - mine was coming out of an RCCB protected switch so I used that.

Equaliser123

KevinG wrote: »

There's usually somewhere where the cables are split - mine was coming out of an RCCB protected switch so I used that.

Mine are joined cables all the way through to the box.

raider

larkim wrote: »

[pedant mode] aren't all clouds below the sun [/pedant mode] :cool:

Very good

larkim wrote: »

How much difference does reflected light from surrounding clouds actually make, does anyone know?

Matt

I doubt there is a definitive answer on that, as I think there would be way to many variables, cloud density, distances, sun positioning etc

But just from observing my own SolarPV output on a relatively clear day, I've seen a couple of hundred watt boost on clouds approaching and moving away from the sun.

KevinG

raider wrote: »

But just from observing my own SolarPV output on a relatively clear day, I've seen a couple of hundred watt boost on clouds approaching and moving away from the sun.

But any advantage from that is surely wiped out the moment the clouds pass across the sun, as clouds don't tend to stay still! Continuous sun with no cloud has given me by far the highest output for the day. In my case I have noticed no boost at all from nearby clouds, but that could be because the inverter is already working flat-out.

zeupater

KevinG wrote: »

But any advantage from that is surely wiped out the moment the clouds pass across the sun, as clouds don't tend to stay still! Continuous sun with no cloud has given me by far the highest output for the day. In my case I have noticed no boost at all from nearby clouds, but that could be because the inverter is already working flat-out.

Agree .... although the highest peak readings will be seen under cloud edge conditions the overall generation for that period will generally be lower due to the shade .... Those with inverters rated below that of their panels are unlikely to benefit from these conditions as the inverter will simply 'clip' the excess potential generation ....

HTH
Z