Anotherpower.com Forum
The Corner Tavern. => Weather => Topic started by: Norm on November 25, 2014, 10:29:43 pm
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2.....3....4days of mother nature removing few inches of snow ....now some sun ...some clouds ....due for some cold bad weather .....lets face it Winter isn't even officially here ...Yet !
I've seen a couple of winters with hardly any snow and for me thats not nice
My sister in California thinks winter without snow is terrifficc without snow
........Me thinks ugh ! how dreary the seasons would be without variety
Norm :)
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Yeah, last year we had a couple of super cold weeks, a small break, and then another couple weeks where we had insane ( even for here ) temps. Ran us through all of last years wood way before it should have, into this years. So had to replenish that, and then some. This year is already promising to take a lot of wood as well.
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When snow comes this early for us, that usually means a hard long winter. I still don't mine. It is nice to have 4 seasons. Maybe that will keep the 100 degree days to a minimum.
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cooled off here in the +20s....snowed yesterday and today...must be a whole 1/8 " out their !!
rained just up the road [palmer] still in the 35-40s ???????
HAVE A-----happy TURKEY LURKEY DAY........................
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-13F (-26.7 C) as I type this tonight.
Supposed to have gotten 2-4 inches of snow, 3 times in a row, and tomorrow its predicted again.
Never happened. hope it doesn't happen tomorrow.
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So far so good .....hardly any snow yet ....had enough to cover the windshield
this morning ....had to run the windshield wipers for 3 swipes ;D supposed to get some by Christmas.
got a flat front tire when we left the hospital after therapy 30F and 15mph
gust.....and I wasn't sure the doughnut spare was worth getting out from that tucked away place under the car as it might have been flat after 5 years .
Oh well Daughter came from her lunch hour and took us home ....youngest
son came out afterwards an fixed the tire .
Oh gee fun fun ....Not ! ::)
Norm
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We got down to -31.2C on the 29th, and a dump of almost 2 feet. As I type this, it is +3.2C
and most of the snow is gone.
I have stopped looking at weather predictions that are for more than the next 12 hours.
No offense meant to the people who do that task, I think the task is just getting more
difficult.
So far, it has not been boring anyway.
Glad your young 'uns were there to help you our Norm.
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How on earth do you folks live in those temps.... totally baffled how society actually works in those conditions.
off topic,... did you ever build your solar panels? all mine are still working perfectly, and thee is no deterioration thus far... just wondering, as I think you had a fair bit of soldering to do last I recall.... do they survive those temps fine?
....oztules
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Oz commercial panels here, don't seem to have any difficulties in the cold.
In fact many times because of the cold I'll see well over what I do in the summer, just not in view long enough to get the desired kwh.
I cant imagine how it can get as hot as it does down RossW's way and they not shatter at a hint of rain.
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I cant imagine how it can get as hot as it does down RossW's way and they not shatter at a hint of rain.
Hot? I haven't gone out to measure (I should!) but I would be very surprised if they get over about 70-75 degrees C (about 160-170F)
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It is interesting. I don't mppt my panels, as it is so cheap to just buy more and have no pesky electronics in the way.
Because of this preference, I buy low voltage panels.. ie only 66 cells instead of 72 cells. This makes the mppt less of an interest, as the differential between the SOC and Voc is not that big.... so mppt would not yield the normal 20-30% on a sunny day... add to that the marine environment, and clouds are normal... so trackers are of little value either.
Because of this lassitude and indifference, I have not noticed the voltage drop associated with temp. I make no attempt to have air beneath the panels either... complete heathen.... so temp is very high in summer.... even through the thin cloud.
Given the above, I have only noticed better and worse operation from photon activity, and the space charge width differentials have not been noticed at all.... ie the built in voltage has made no difference to me, as I have used the cell as a current source X battv, not a VA source persay.... where mppt would make a real difference.
Can't work out how to tell if the power drop ( if I can see it) with temp, is because the forcing volts are down, and so synchronous impedance is damaged, or the forcing voltage plays no part, as the cells are current sources not voltage..... must ponder this further.....
I have been wondering at that particular effect, but have not been able to discern it at this stage.... guess that is what happens when you don't log.... and with batteries filled by 9-10am, I guess I struggle to get serious about it, but I would like to test for this sometime.
Maybe I should just measure Isc under hot and cold conditions (hot then run the hose over it), and see if that materially changes....hmmm..
................oztules
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I have rather different set of circumstances here than you Oz.
By cold I am talking -40 at times.
Then because the sun in the winter is VERY low in the sky and very short lived you have to tilt to face pretty low.
Tracking the sun in the summer presents a new challenge as well.
The sun can "rise" to the north east behind a stationary panel, and "set" on the north west behind them as well.
So those trackers have to be pretty limber to follow that sun for a few weeks during the summer, and stationary panels would miss out on actually quite a bit.
::)
Different challenges in different parts of this big ol planet.
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We have kind of stolen Norm's thread, so Oz, I will post my answer in a new thread.
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We have kind of stolen Norm's thread, so Oz, I will post my answer in a new thread.
BJ;
I doubt Norm will mind. Pretty sure he likes to chew the fat a bit on most subjects.
;) 8)
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Quite a few of us fall in that category Tom. No disrespect meant, if fact quite the opposite.
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BJ, Never worry about crossing me up on that.
In fact I was wondering about if I could get a hold of a bunch of solar cells
like scavenged from those little garden solar cells for instance with the electronics .....each one would completely charge one NiCad C size cell 1.3
amp/hr ....a little overkill so even on a gray winter day it would work.
.....well maybe not.
anyway at the present time I have a few of these push button top lights that
run full brilliance for +8 hrs.using 3 of these aforementioned NiCads
these PB lights have three LED s that seem to work in series.
For the present I just charge these NiCads PetGen, V W panels
etc. V W panels will practically charge 1 NiCad in moonlight ::)
Well anyway I'll post pics of my present setups
Now see what you started ! I got on this about 10 min before 8PM
intending to get off at about 8. :D
Norm.
back to the LED PB s , PetGen and 50 or so NiCad s !
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...and now it's 9:00PM
Norm.
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Well Norm, we started out the New Year with a beautiful day, +2C.
Now the bad news---going down to -25C by tomorrow, and lots of snow.
Which is normal for here, but if I read the pattern correctly, I think it is headed
your way in a bit.
Sorry in advance
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BJ its about to hit here now. First a lot of snow, then bitter cold.
Guess the nicer weather ( for Mn winter) could not hold out forever.
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It hit as they predicted here. Snowfall--not so bad.
It has been a good winter so far, but all over the map.
I attached a clip of the way temps have been so far.
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Yep couple inches real fine snow but continual Pierpont ....a town about 15 miles south of here got 5 inches just thru the day we get lake effect snow
here ......
So gotta go
Norm.
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Hope Norm does not mind but I would like to throw my two bobs worth in here about solar and weather from an OZ point of view, not that a couple of my southern mates have not.
Some of this I have posted before but!
When I "retired" and moved to Far North Queensland Australia I did a bit of research, fortunately I had quite a good knowledge from previous experience or I may have been put off.
http://www.daintree-holidays.com.au/daintree-pollution.htm Is a link to an artical with IMHO great bias, but if you have 10 min to spare scroll down to the video and enjoy. Now the first speaker is my southern neighbor but one, Cow Bay Bob.
Highlights;
0.08 min.. pub's old generator
0.28 lead recycling Bob's way
2.2 exploded batteries, OK but I have no knowledge of a battery explosion causing a fire.
3.39 Daintree river which we all live to the north of.
Now Bob recycles batteries, ie melts down the lead, I do not know how he disposes of the acid, what I do know is that the creek that runs across the front of my of my place runs at the back of Bob, and the seasonal creek in front of his place joins the main creek at my southern boundary. Now do not get me wrong I am not saying Bob disposes of the acid in an irresponsible manner, I just don't know.
He shows his generator together with his lead washing equipment, his generator runs on bio diesel not diesel!
I moved here in mid May 2011 and had a new solar system installed two weeks later, yes it was per-arranged.
10KW of solar, adequate batteries and an OZ inverter, with 3 MPPT's, now to date I have recorded DC input of 15932 Kwh, AC input of 1803 Kwh's OK I am a little anal about my batteries and could get away with less AC input. So much for not being able to use solar in a rain forest, oh and did I say I have an air conditioned house, yea makes me a bit of a freak here, you have what?
OH and snow, yes some places in OZ experience snow, me I avoid it like the plague, never experienced it never want to, give me the tropics any day.
Allan