I’m not sure why, but my 100 Watt solar panel is only generating, a maximum of, 55W during these sunniest of days…
There have been times when a tree branch moved, and caused a small amount of shade, but a large drop in Watts. Also its very hot in direct sun, so maybe that is affecting performance of the solar panel.
I think its time to wash down the panel. There’s definitely some bird poop, and dust. Input pre wash is 53 W…
There were THREE small bird poops on the solar panel! I washed them all off. Then, as I was returning to my office to check if there was any improvement in output – I tripped on the cables, and broke a connection. Suddenly the panel is generating zero watts, eep, but is nice and clean! I fiddled around with the connections, and now am generating 56W! This suggests that each bird poop was decreasing my power generation by 1W each.
Power generation has previously been in the high sixties. Maybe its the angle of the panel, and the sun. But I’m happy with 56W. All of my lithium ion batteries are 100% charged. I’m running a laptop, and a fan; these are drawing 61W. I will try to do some work on paper, and unplug the laptop later this afternoon. To make sure that my lithium ion batteries are at 100 at end of day.
4:30 pm solar input is 10W. There isn’t a cloud in the sky, but the sun has dropped down behind the trees.
July 1: As the heat dome moves eastward, the temperature has decreased, the skies are overcast, and solar power generation is 10W at noon. An odd day, because at 4:22, power generation was up to 27W
In the past, moving my panel around the garden has caused cable connectivity issues. So I am a bit cautious about doing that, and as long as my batteries are almost always 100% full, I don’t think there’s any need to manage the angles more closely. If I was generating more power; without increasing my storage capacity, my batteries would be continuously maxed out at 100%. Monitoring solar panel output is fun, but my office usage does not warrant more batteries, or more effort to track the angle of the sun.
I have never run out of solar power, for my office, in any season. Solar powered office is working well!