Quote:
Originally Posted by dyna mo
I understand that. My point was the amount of power produced drops significantly in those conditions, you know that.
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Yes, but as long as the system is properly designed then you will get through the low power producing times. My solar doesn't always get back to 100% every day for example but I don't need to be at 100% to get through a night.
If I'm at 100% charge when the sun goes down, I usually wake up at anywhere from 93% to 85% in the morning depending on how much power I used over night. Like did I need to charge my laptop or if I watched a lot of TV, did my fridge run a lot, ect..ect..
When you figure that even in worse case situation I'm going to at least maintain the charge I woke up with in the daylight hours. Meaning at worst case I can maintain current battery levels during the day.
Due to this, with a properly built system, you can easily coast by for several days in low sun situations before you hit the 50% charge range that you don't really want to cross.
Meaning long as you are in a area that has a decent amount of sunshine, you can easily get through the bad times with a properly built system. Can you do it in the PNW? Not likely, but can you do it in the south west, mid west, south east or anywhere on the east coast? Sure, you just have to build a proper system that can generate enough wattage to keep your energy needs stored for a few days.
It's not however just the solar system, it's also the things you run off it, that you have to take into account,