Snow

[CrazyRabbit]

Lite snow, still making 4KW.

 

[ptdusn]

YUCK!! Sunshine here in AZ! But COLD at night and the mornings! Powerwalls charging to 100% by Noon!

 

[CrazyRabbit]

I was amazed I was making anything, was making good power by noon.

 

[bemyax]

Just for a comparison... I have a small system with eight panels about twenty-five feet up on the roof. It looks like about a foot and a half of snow on them. In the previous six days: two days of three watt hours, two days of eight watt hours, and two days not enough current to light up the zigbee communications. Zilch for today, so far. I hope no one is in the driveway when it finally decides to avalanche.

 

[nyprepper]

yeah, it's a real problem here for me. i remember asking the Tesla sales guy about snow on the panels back in 2018 when I first got solar. He said "it melts right off!"..... Well, No, it doesn't melt right off if it stays below 20f for a week. I won't see any solar production for at least 7-8 days here. Thank God and Thank Elon for finally allowing a grid charging option or the vampire drain would really put me at risk of being caught with my pants down. We have had 4 separate grid outages here of more than 12hrs each in the last 2 weeks.

 

[BGbreeder]

There do make plastic snow rakes for solar panels...
e.g. https://www.amazon.com/EarthMark-Avalanche-Removal-System-SnowRake/dp/B00RY8II4Q/
(Not advocating any particular design/manufacturer...)

A lot depends of course on how the snow fell in the first place, and whether or not there is a solid 1/4" of ice bonding the snow to the panels. I agree that at -5F, or so, not much melting is going to happen, but less snow means that whatever melting or sublimation does happen will improve the situation more quickly.

All the best,

BG