It was accidental. We had a strong wind storm one night, next morning the telemetry indicated one set of panels only putting out about half power. Then we got a snow storm and the next day that one set was still putting out half power but the formerly good set was putting out almost nothing.
So jumped in the 210 and took a flight down to that particular mountain top. Clouds obscured the tower but there were holes now and then. I circled a bunch of times and shot a bunch of photos. Got the film processed and one of the prints told the tale. The set of panels that were producing half power had been blown forward (these were all mounted on a tower). They were facing the ground and the sunlight bouncing off the snow up into them kept them running at about half power. I always figured that if I had a site where I needed super high availability like if the power went out nuclear missiles would launch or somebodies iron lung would shut down I would put up an array like that and I would cover the ground with white gravel or white panels of some sort. From: Bill Prince Sent: Friday, January 08, 2016 7:32 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Expanding foam or styrofoam glued to rear of solarpanels Chuck, Didn't you try mounting the panels upside down one time? bp <part15sbs{at}gmail{dot}com> On 1/8/2016 3:20 PM, Chuck McCown wrote: 20 years. Styrofoam glued did not last long. Maybe a year or two. But the frothpak foam has been there for years and years. From: Eric Kuhnke Sent: Friday, January 08, 2016 3:43 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [AFMUG] Expanding foam or styrofoam glued to rear of solar panels Those of you who have done this for snow/ice buildup reasons, how are your panel temperatures in mid summer, and how are the panels holding up? How many years has the insulation been in place?
