How a SMALL SHADOW can drop Solar Power Output by 20%!

[@morantaylor]

You should share your findings with the installer they may look at antenna location in future installs and may recommend it to be relocated.

[@torstenb5248]

That‘s nothing new. Every solar installer should know this.

[@power-max]

the "difussness" of the shadow might not matter because the same total amount of light is blocked on the panel. The total amount of flux that is blocked is conserved regardless of how diffuse the shaddow gets, or so I would think.

[@lesto12321]

is not about how much energy is loss because of the lack of sun, is that those cell block the other illuminated cells too

[@power-max]

@@lesto12321 Yes of course I know that. When a cell has partial shading the increased series resistance of that cell will limit the performance of the whole series array. A large negative potential develops across it and it acts like a parasitic load rather than a source. When doing solar car team at the University, I described it like if you got less than 0% on an midterm exam and got something like -250% and how much that affects your final grade lol.

[@billjohnson3344]

Would love to see an update if you can enable the OptiTrac Global Peak feature on your SunnyBoy inverter (now called ShadeFix). See if the reduction is much improved to more of what would be expected with just the partial loss of the shaded panels - not 20% of the array. I believe the default is off on these older inverters. May also need a firmware update for the feature if your inverter is a certain vintage.

[@Gt4kill3r]

Got an idea of a drinking game. You drink a shot every time Dave says "SHADOW" xD

[@RealJohnnyDingo]

chug the whole bottle when he says "Beauty!"

[@roygrafton6322]

@@RealJohnnyDingo get completely smashed every time he says "LIKE"

[@MrJef06]

I counted 20 times :)

[@deanwatt]

Sooooo what your saying is, solar roadways may not be the best idea possibly?? I find that hard to believe good sir!!

[@Voyajer.]

SOLAR FREAKIN ROADWAYS

[@Valenorious]

I think he means to not put solar roadways on rooftops. Shadows of light poles and trees along the road reduce the output of the solar roadways.

[@veronicathecow]

Shorter version much better, thank you.

[@iainwalker8701]

Wow. I would never have believed that from almost anyone but Dave. Top job.

[@technoman9000]

I cut down all trees on my property to get my solar power efficiency maximized. Of course, my air conditioner has to run much more frequently as a result...

[@tedfisk1211]

this all makes sense. I have had issues when camping and the sun gets behind leaves and the voltage in the battery goes down. It goes down anyway due to load, but I was surprised that a few leaves made a huge difference.

[@WacKEDmaN]

i gotta admit..i didnt watch the longer vid... coz i heard about it on The Amp Hour!

[@landspide]

Can you paint the coax with some transparent paint? ;P

[@analoghardwaretops3976]

On a co-ax transparent paint...does that make the co-ax transparent/invisible???... hi tech stuff of Stealth Bomber type available everywhere in Ozzie country???😘😘😘 Beware....The chinese are coming...The Russians are coming...the Americans are coming..the POMMIES are coming...the terrorist are coming... 🤣🤣🤣 Quick dunk yourself with some .....

[@TonyHamlyn]

Interesting impact from such a minor shadow, really drives it home that any kind of inconsistency between panels should consider microinverters. When you showed your logging package and the name you gave your place in the logger, it opened up a whole world of 2000s Dave I hadn't seen before when I googled Boondaburra .

[@uwezimmermann5427]

I still have to get used to the fact that the shadows move in the wrong direction for you downunder... ;-)

[@stargazer7644]

I'm pretty sure they still point away from the sun down there.

[@uwezimmermann5427]

@@stargazer7644 they do, but up here they move from left to right during the day, not from right to left as in the video 🙃

[@stargazer7644]

@@uwezimmermann5427 Do the clocks run the other way down there too?

[@uwezimmermann5427]

@@stargazer7644 I assume that sundials actually do!

[@ridemfast7625]

Those panels are not split cell with multiple diodes which are common in all panels now and have ben for several years. What panels are they?

[@bertblankenstein3738]

I wouldn't have guessed at that. I guess a new antenna is going up in a new location.

[@lesto12321]

i wonder if a Fresnel lens panel would help diffuse the shadow to the point is not an issue without impacting the power production

[@xponen]

or frosted-glass panel?

[@namenotshown9277]

could you put bypass diodes in parallel with every cell? I know physically very difficult, but if your building a panel would that solve the shading issue?

[@Mr.Leeroy]

Shorter version video is best suited for main channel linking to aux channel for extra.

[@TripleJ85]

It is wild how many installations you see about with stink pipe or antennas or whatever shading them 🤦

[@mm-wo7rv]

did you take into account the change in the angle of the sunlight?

[@m00wn]

Take a look with your FLIR at the panels while partially shaded by the coax -- and you'll be surprised.

[@wobblysauce]

Oh before you move the areal, do you have any slack in the Coax? could do a few tests with different thicknesses and see where the drop triggers.

[@WilliamDye-willdye]

Have you looked into using a lenticular lens to smooth out the incoming sunlight? Hyperstealth just got a patent on it in Canada, but I dunno if that affects Australia.

[@ROVA00]

Buy WHY does a small shade kill so much of the output?

[@Valenorious]

Video cut short?

[@Valenorious]

Nevermind, I didn't notice the link in the description for the full length one.

[@davidkettell5726]

WHY ARE ALL THESE PANELS IN SERIES ?

[@nukularpictures]

No caps needed. It is standard to do it that way. As Mike said smaller conductor but also for the inverter. The inverters I have installed can not handle such a high current on the input side. Also if you split it you would need one more string. In Daves case I think it would mean another inverter. So the way its installed is the most logical, cost efficient way.

[@video99couk]

Modern systems aren't. This is an older string inverter wired system. Today they generally use Load Balancers or Microinverters.

[@jam99]

It is cheapest at time of install. The old story; invest for later or pay less now. At a time when public awareness was low and it was about an installer beating someone else on price then cheapest wins. Most people were not even sure if solar panels were just a fad 10yrs ago. Individual trackers/inverters on each panel were not readily available back then and, anyway, significantly increase price. Parallel or multi string also increases cabling and electronics (price up) and connectors (possibly increasing the chance of a fault, too). The usual compromise is a bit of series and a bit of parallel. For domestic uptake with lots of competition, the industry had to aim near the lowest price.

[@MrKillswitch88]

This is one of those shittier things about monocrystaline panels while everything else continues to perform with very little to no effect.

[@edinfific2576]

I see you are a fellow roof climber as well. 😀 God knows how many times I got on my own roof while installing and testing solar panels.

[@MattyEngland]

Yep, by the time you factor in the cost of medical care, wheelchairs, and someone to wipe your butt for the rest of your life, solar isn't worth it. 👍

[@nukularpictures]

Yes. Solar systems can be a pain in the ass. I have one array that gets quite a bit of shading caused by a tree. Its just a few single branches but it completely destroys the systems output. Sadly I can not cut it down.

[@billigerfusel]

If YOU can't cut it, find other ways to destroy it. Until it's necessary to be cut 😉

[@davegeorge7094]

Just add the panels MPPT plated voltage, say 12 panels x 34v =408vdc goal. I know when it's lower the current and light input should be lower and when volts are higher the MPPT is not drawing enough current to see MPPT voltage. You need have a sun/power/volt/current graph and go figure your target MPPT controller tracking performance. And look out for current reversal into shaded parallel panels.

[@stevenspmd]

Sneaky shadow bastards :-)

[@Tresvigint]

Thank you so much for video

[@Valenorious]

So, hack the panel and solder dio-dees across each cell? Or you know, just move the antenna to the other end of the roof. No more shadows by the looks of it.

[@3dlabs99]

I want active face-the-sun animatronics

[@SirHackaL0t.]

Thank you :)

[@MattyEngland]

Simple solution, get rid of the antenna, stop watching fake news 👍

[@Bob_Adkins]

If you think a small shadow blocks a lot of light, you should test how much a light coat of dust robs from your output.

[@EEVblog2]

Not much actually, I've done a video looking at that. I'm sure at some poin it's a major problem, but in the last 8 years I haven't seen any loss in output due to dirty panels.

[@autarchprinceps]

But what do you even do with an antenna? Does Australia still use them for television? Do you still watch television linearly? No for both for me/where I live.

[@richard8181]

Yeh we have free to air DIGITAL TV

[@RyanStone143]

Guy Cramer solved the shadow problem a few years ago: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rpC4fIl7d92MfK8

[@MattyEngland]

LETS GO MANGEL!

[@LawrenceTimme]

So if a bird lands on your roof that's all you power gone for the day

[@Valenorious]

More like if it nests over the panel cells. Depends on how long it stays there. If you scare it away then the output recovers.

[@LawrenceTimme]

@@Valenorious I meant more if it pooped

[@Valenorious]

@@LawrenceTimme If the bird has diarrhea then I guess so. Needs to cover a substantial area of a cell or more than one I guess.

[@mikropower01]

This would be an easy and interesting Test ! He can cover one of the Solar-elements and look at the Power-value and he can cover one solar-module completely. I think this solar-cell-elements inside of the module are 6 parallel and 10 in line? Or all 60 in line? If all 60 are connected in line, then the power would drop to zero if one of this solar-cell-elements is covered.

Geee!...Still hard to believe.

[@sokolum]

This is the vault of the installer…. i would say.

[@renierjoubert6177]

My comment is on the other video

[@torstenb5248]

That ended prematurely 😂

[@Land-of-reason]

Sounds like bad design.

[@stargazer7644]

That's how it works.