growing soler pannels

[adelaide]

Considering  putting a sprinkler on solar panels, so they grow. hahah joking.  noticed that i got 80+ amps charging after cold day and clouds just went (coool pannels). i usually see 60 amps charging on hotter days, so looking for the ins and outs and if any 1 done before / results / dangers on.

plan to not have a sudden temp change on panels by starting before panels are hot or starting with warmer water, but would cost me around 2 amps to pump / spray water on top or under panels to try / test cooler panels more amps?

what scares me is cracking panels and the magnifying effects of rain drops? i suppose they see this naturaly sometimes.

 tracker is on my flatish roof and i store alot of rain water already so gutter would recycle most of it excluding evaporation and  spraying would cool the water and lose some ,has a chance of cooling below hot operating temp so as long as water usage (rain water)and pump 2 a  is off sett by a hoped 5 +a  coool?.  

[terry5732]

The difference may be due to atmospheric conditions rather than panel temp. Cooler air is generally less humid and allows more sunlight through whereas warm often equals somewhat hazy. Heat in your wiring will increase resistance there but heavier gauge wire would be the answer rather than water.

[scottsAI]

Hello adelaide,

The efficiency increases with lower temperatures.

Check the data sheet for a panel, should be listed.

80 / 60 = 1.3333 Nice improvement.

Temperature delta is large. Panels at 90-100 in the summer,

Winter 20-30 deg?

To get the winter benefit in the summer would need the same temp.

You can get down to 50-60 with ground water? Don't go below dew point, panels will fog up!

Even going down to 70 deg should get 10% better.

Think of cooling from the back, spray or metal tubing epoxy...

Closed loop should be lower power for the same effect.

Most find the cost/benefit not worth doing. Same kind of cost/benefit for tracking and MPPT. If you can do it yourself... then better benefit ratio.

Very interesting picture, your missing hydro in it:-)

Scott.

[Jerry]

Hi adelaide,

Are those F&P wind gens I see in your picture?

                       JK TAS Jerry

[adelaide]

ty for comments. so far got so many  parralell wires must be close to 10mm x 10mm conductor on each wire of solar cells cos 12 v have a shunted amp meeter to see those improvements up there. yes 12 v needs it.

yes they are fps not made for looks though hahah. got 6 mills at present (lo wind zone). 4 are fps not decogged but i found shaping the hub root area with plastic prospects or tin (think cos root area not installed at start up where fp definitely needs it. would throw the fps away without them,glued and screwed on leading edge dramaticaly overcome the cogging issue for around 3 years now. u can see them on mills if u look close,its clear triangle bits at root area.

12 volt system-yes thick wire sp delta 2.2m diameter, 80 p star 2.2m, 60 p star 2.2 and sp star 3m diameter,also a 1.5 hp tape drive 180v dc 3m and 2 foot, 48v. i think tape drive had some double fps and a clutched 2 to 1 ratio fps,but new business neighbour complained about hum from alt so they retired.were 3.6 m  100 p 1 side 80sp other and 3.6 m diameter 100p direct,think was 80p on 2 to 1 ratio with car aircon clutch had massive root area extentions but could start all fps at once.think the added bits on that,1 were tin with guide wires,800 mm sided triangle. i use 2 relays to short 3 phases together before diodes to stop.

few experiment on the roof back ground is tracking in winter, air heater basically scrap prospect and air gap with black in it, prob 1 x 5m total colllector area and tracker for pannels is not 1 axis,it has an arm up top up and arm down to bottom 2 way bearing and a pivot that scews through the middle,so 1 axis tracks sun in a ark not straight line.

it works before,i put the jack screw / coldless drill on cos of storm.it moved too

much.it could go over 180 degress with conveyor motor up, top now uses 2 motors so more stable in storms. has an A frame at 1 end for summer winter. would be different if it had the room but works lot better than old tracker.

can anyone post a temperature diagram for panels to give me an idea of gains potentially. thank you..

Aaron

[DanG]

Remember ALL panels ratings are obtained at 25°C; and most man'f expect their panels to run at least double that while producing, but 25°C is the baseline.

Looking at various panel specs I found Matrix brand was middle-of-the-road for losses/gains concerning temperature with +/- "four-tenths of one percent" per degree centigrade.

If you could keep the silicon 5° cooler than that 25°C you would gain 2.15% over those panels normal 25°C output. But if all you are doing is lowering from 50°C to 25°C you will simply be producing the panels original rated output...

What would be really slick is find a way to super-chill PV's to, say, -40°C for a 29% output boost..

[Ungrounded Lightning Rod]

What would be really slick is find a way to super-chill PV's to, say, -40°C for a 29% output boost..

Since the bulk of the solar input on your panel turns into heat, you'd burn more than your savings in refrigeration.

If you had such a low-temperature heat-dump available without feeding it power, you'd do better to use it as the cold end of a heat engine and generate more power that way.  B-)