Solar charging with some shade
I'm facing west today, so I'm getting a pretty good shadow on one of six series-connected panels. Panels are all around 135w @ 12v. Shade is on the far-left panel - about half of it: No...
Forum Discussion
Sun moves around at 15 degrees per hour, so you have ? two hours before and after noon (when sun is South directly on) with shaded panel?
You could do some math and see how that four hours reduced input wattage (and so output charging amps) mid-day affects the daily AH haul. Knowing your AH usage, you can then see if any action is "worth it"
It is possible that you are getting more from having 6 in the shoulder hours than you are losing from shading mid-day, so going to 5 all day would be a mistake. However, it needs the math to know.
As the sun gets higher each day from now on, the shading will change too. If it gets over half way to the top now, but later only gets almost half way, then that changes from two to one diode in play, so that would be a "marker" for taking a new set of readings and more AH use/haul calculations.
Or if you are getting bags of AH now, as is, relax and forget the whole business! :)
You could do some math and see how that four hours reduced input wattage (and so output charging amps) mid-day affects the daily AH haul. Knowing your AH usage, you can then see if any action is "worth it"
It is possible that you are getting more from having 6 in the shoulder hours than you are losing from shading mid-day, so going to 5 all day would be a mistake. However, it needs the math to know.
As the sun gets higher each day from now on, the shading will change too. If it gets over half way to the top now, but later only gets almost half way, then that changes from two to one diode in play, so that would be a "marker" for taking a new set of readings and more AH use/haul calculations.
Or if you are getting bags of AH now, as is, relax and forget the whole business! :)
