Wow Bob I take it back--that was really cool!
I am trying to help out some of our local weather forecasters that have a small 50 watt module mounted on top of one of our peaks that runs a weather station. So, unfortunately this may be a little on the small side of one of your classics, but none the less, if it works. . . Do you have any idea on how much power it takes in order to accomplish this? Would doubling or tripling the system capacity cut it? Also, how will the classic determine if there is in fact snow or ice on the module? Best regards, Mark Dickson, NABCEP Certified Solar PV Installer T Oasis Montana Inc. _____ From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of [email protected] Sent: Monday, January 16, 2012 2:15 PM To: RE-wrenches Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Shedding ice On 1/16/2012 11:39 AM, David Katz wrote: Mark, I believe the Midnite Classic has this feature built in. Check with them. David Katz It just snowed up here in Arlington, Washington A.C. and we were just starting to melt some snow on a couple of modules on our roof just now with one of our charge controllers here in the lab. This feature is not yet in the Classic, BUT, check out this experiment that I did about 3 years ago in my front yard with an animated gif time lapse. One module is being powered and the other is not powered, just sitting there for comparison. These are KC125s. The time involved here was about 3 hours and took about 1 kW-hour of energy but gives you an idea of what may be done with this idea. One thing not in our favor here is that the module that is being powered is resting on the ground, in the snow, which would significantly hinder snow melting I would think rather than being properly mounted. Oh what fun it is to melt some PV snow tonight ! http://fusion.midnitesolar.com/PVsnowMelt3.gif boB From: Mark Dickson [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Monday, January 16, 2012 10:00 AM To: 'RE-wrenches' <mailto:[email protected]> <[email protected]> Subject: [RE-wrenches] Shedding ice I recall a conversation a while back about the possibility of "reversing" the current in a solar module to increase the cell temp enough to shed ice/rime. To follow-up, has anybody been successful at this? I am guessing, if so, it would entail, removal of diodes, increasing PV and battery capacity and some way to sense the ice at the very least. . . It sounds good in theory, but I am skeptical as to whether it will work in reality. . . Best regards, Mark Dickson, NABCEP Certified Solar PV Installer T Oasis Montana Inc.
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