As we enter the depths of California winter (sic!) our solar system is producing less and less energy. We’re seeing severe shading for most of the day (after about 11am) and that cuts our production to only a couple hundred watts on a sunny day. The funny thing is that if there’s just the right amount of haze (not too much!) then the panels can collect more ambient light, and aren’t as effected by the shading. So, the best days for generation are sunny in the morning, and hazy in the afternoon. On days like that, we produce about 4.5kWh, or about 1/4 of our daily electricity usage.
On the other hand, the worst possible day is hazy in the morning and sunny in the afternoon, and thats a fairly common weather pattern for us here in the Bay Area. Thats almost exactly what happened today, and we had our lowest output ever, at a measly 2.27kWh. Thats hardly enough electricity to power one TiVo for the day!
Thankfully, we’re approaching the winter solstice on December 21st, and that’s when the shadows start moving back in the other direction, giving us more and more energy. But, that also means that January will be just as bad as November, so it will be another 60 days or more until we see a significant increase in production.
