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Topic: How is everyone surviving the cold and snow? (Read 242 times) previous topic - next topic

How is everyone surviving the cold and snow?

Second morning of -20f, thankfully the wind died down so the house is warmer! Yesterday's high temp was -9f!

Seems like more normal weather patterns are back, Minnesota usually sees a week or two of deep cold in January/early February then spring starts to creep in...

 

Re: How is everyone surviving the cold and snow?

Reply #1 –
When the Germans "went solar", they soon encountered the winter doldrums which get cold and dark, and then sometimes even the wind stops...  ...so they came up with a word for it:  Dunkelflaute

There's always a long Dunkelflaute here, where we get virtually no sun or wind for about a week.  Solar panels covered in snow makes it worse, but there's not even any point brushing them off.  Last December, about Christmas-time, the temps were -20C for a week.

In early January both the weather and I perked up, and I got in a lot of skiing.  Since then, it warmed up, melted the good snow, and turned the rest into ice. So much for skiing around the house.
6.5 kW PV solar array + 12k Sol-Ark Inverter
10ft (3m) diameter custom-built wind turbine

Re: How is everyone surviving the cold and snow?

Reply #2 –
I am fortunate to live where I live. The coldest I’ve seen this winter is -3C. We get a lot of rain here through the winter but to me that’s better than the cold and freezing weather. I hope those living in the southeast US make it through OK. That looks like a really nasty storm.

Spar, for those that have panels close to the ground, it should not be too difficult to build a rack that would pivot, then use an actuator to flip the panels down 30 or 35 degrees. They could be flipped when there is a lot of snow in the way, then moved back after the storm. BigRock and kitestrings have used actuators successfully with their wind turbines.

Stay warm guys.

Ed

Re: How is everyone surviving the cold and snow?

Reply #3 –
The short days cut my solar output, but I get gain from snow reflection... not enough to cancel the short days but it helps. Dec thru Feb I see a reduction in output. With my panels at 45 degrees snow tends to slide off. Yep I am at 44.5 north!
 

Re: How is everyone surviving the cold and snow?

Reply #4 –
Late to the party I see.
Well, the snow came along with unusually frigid here in St. Louis. Of course the people trying to just stay warm cause a 4-alarm fire, ( no one harmed and warming buses called in once it hit 3-alarm kept most from suffering).
Big talk was the extreme cold and freezing hose links.
Snow pretty with sunshine bouncing off it. Panels are almost completely cleaned off.
Got to try out the diesel heater to keep early start veggies warm. I'm liking the ability to tweak the fuel to just keep things warm enough to not get frost stress. Peppers and Sage do not like cold at all.
Consumption is pretty good to 3-day amount tested before I left for work this morning was just a hair over 10 liters. Any lower and the inside temps got too low for my liking. I use a mix of diesel /veggie/& Unleaded total cost? ~$5USD Being able to pick peppers while snow is falling and covering over old Jack Russell terrier ? Priceless  :)) 
Almost forgot. Growing area is a 10'Wx14'Lx9'H