warm solar panels

[thirteen]

I looked and asked but some said yes some said no. Do solar panels give better power when they are warmer? Has anyone ever warmed their panels during the winter months to get better power output? If this can be done how would the panels take the cooling and heating. Just a question.

[kurt]

colder the better the warmer they are the less they produce that is why you have to have a nominal open voltage of 21 volts for a 12v panel it is so they can still charge a battery when sitting in 100 deg f sun.

[thirteen]

thanks the tempature then a person could cool them dureing the heat of the summer. Sounds good but since my temp doen't normally get above 85/90 I have no reason to cool them. Thanks for the answer.

[TAH]

The solar panels will be a lot higher than air temperature when they are in the sun. Snow melts on them pretty fast when the air temp is close to 0F.

[DanG]

Heat moves via convection, conduction, and radiance - convection is warm air rising off panels, conduction is through frame mounts and radiance of infrared light off the front and back of panels. Of the three the majority of heat is shed via radiance so make sure your panels are up in the air off any hard surface enough so the IR wont bounce back and bake the source or adjoining panels....

[Ungrounded Lightning Rod]

mounting them with a few inches of clearance above a sloped surface also causes convection behind the panels, which greatly improves panel cooling.

It also helps keep the roof or whatever cool:  The panels block the incoming sunlight.  Combined with the convectionand-wind-driven air circulation the roof tends to be near the air temperature rather than the shingles-in-sunlight temperature.  (A similar hack is done with tents (especially dome tents) - an extra layer of cloth supported just above the tent roof makes a LOT of difference in the tent's internal temperature.)

[snowcrow]

  Any increase in output you see from your panels in winter is do to sunlight reflecting off the snow and ice, and not do to the cold temps.  I've seen the output current on my 80 watt panel double on sunny winter days, with lots of snow on the trees and ground!!

Blessings, Snow Crow

[imsmooth]

Solar panels will perform better in colder weather.  This is defined as the temperature coefficient and is about a 0.5% increase/decrease in efficiency with a 1 deg C decrease/increase in temperature.  Cold air temperature or wind moving the heated air off of the panels will improve efficiency.  See this link and this link .  The power rating of the panels varies depending on the environmental conditions; hence, there are STC (standar temperature conditions) and PVUSA test conditions.



I have solar panels and see slightly higher power generation when the day is colder for similarly sunny days during the same time of year.  Also, colder weather usually means there is less humidity so there is less absorbtion of UV rays by water vapor.