Tools: Module-Level Monitoring & IR Cameras

摘要

My family installed our 1,700-watt PV system late in the summer of 2006 (see "Creating a Brighter Future" in HP118). We were immediately impressed with our system's performance and continued to check actual output versus our projected production each season. The result of our data-gathering revealed that our annual kWh production was about 10% less than projected. We attributed the energy loss to array shading. In the summer, an overhang partially shades the easternmost modules until 10 a.m., and a willow tree on the west starts to shade the westernmost modules as early as 3 p.m.