Almost horizontal facing down.
From: Eric Kuhnke
Sent: Friday, January 08, 2016 10:24 PM
To: af@afmug.com
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Expanding foam or styrofoam glued to rear of solarpanels
How much do you estimate they were tilted towards the ground, beyond vertical?
100 degree? 115-120?
On Fri, Jan 8, 2016 at 8:50 PM, Chuck McCown <ch...@wbmfg.com> wrote:
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: af@afmug.com
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: af@afmug.com
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?
