Recent content by plympton

And now I'm regretting not running water to my solar panels when I had that trench open. Oops. I wanted passive solar hot water at some point, too. Daaaaaang.

Well, running the calcs it totally makes sense now. Power Loss=(−0.36%/°C)×((68°C)−(25°C))×(400 Watts) = -62 w/panel loss -62*6 (panels) = 371 w loss. Nameplate: 2400w, corrected to be about 2048w. 🤣 I love me some ChatGPT. I've heard it's particularly bad at math! You think!?!? 🤦‍♂️

For $hits and giggles, and being a man of science in cargo shorts, I just hoisted a ladder up to the panels and gave them a good spray. Works! Not a ton of water, just a spritz for a minute or so. Looks like it has about a 10 minute effect. Before Spraying After Spraying Roof Temp...

Not yet, but could be in my future. I do have an irradiance meter I can break out to get some manually collected data. Helps I can work from home on the nice days!

They're awesome devices. And great cat toys. 😀 I was curious if anyone employed active cooling, but of course, it's been discussed. I was thinking a thermostatic valve attached to line pressure water and a simple mister, but sounds like more hassle than it's worth. Wasn't prepared for the...

Small, but noticeable. All this solar stuff is mostly a hands-on exploration to learn the nuance of it all - so pouring over the data is really interesting to me. Seeing the effect of shade, heat, etc. I'll start tracking temp vs. output on these really nice days and see what the difference...

Measuring as simple as using a handheld device like this?

TL;DR: Is this reduction in peak power a result of my panels getting hotter? I didn't check voltages, so don't know if there was clipping going on at the inverter level. We have another glorious day today, hotter than yesterday, and my production curve is already just-slightly-lower than the...

The 20% discount looks like a good-faith effort to make you happy, without having to process and take the expense of a return. The other stuff is perhaps them proactively wanting to see if your experience is a one-off or not - perhaps to help them decide whether to continue selling the product...

I decided to pull the trigger on another rack mount one, from Amazon this time. I filled my batteries by 3:30 today after days and days of meager production, and we only had 4 hours of full-sun today (clouds from 8a-11a). The extra 5% off pushed me over the line. 😀 Hopefully this one is as good...

Awesome! I went with the Vatrer because of the Lithium Solar teardown. With it, I gain a nice LCD, but lose communications. Since I can't really use the comms with my setup, it's not a huge loss. Congrats on getting 2 good ones!

I'm still happy with mine - blissfully boring, actually. Tempted to get another on Amazon - $1044, and 5% back through Amazon card = ~$945 --> $185/kWh. That ain't bad, but since I avoided (will-powah!!) getting those $50 100w panels, not sure I can use the extra storage consistently.

Actually, if you read the product page, Mixing valve info page, that's exactly the scenario they describe (even the temp!). The problem is that you'll have to feed it fresh cold water to get it to the 35c, so if you're concerned about bugs in the fresh water line, you're just re-introducing...

When I gutted my bathroom, I put in a bidet. Being an overachiever, I wanted warm water. Reducing complication, I put in one of these mixing valves to at least have the max temp be < scalding. Seems to work reasonably well, isn't hard to install and set, and is easy to adjust...

I've always believed captured data >> model output.