Random Renewables Thread

Works for me at least..but mainly if the panels are at a low angle like ~10deg or less. (a steeper angle may not need them at all) Beforehand the water would pool in 1 or both corners and after it evaporated it would leave a dirty residue which quickly built up and made the corner cell less effective. Since installation I have not seen the build-up.

On my panels there is a bit of a lip between the glass and the frame...maybe newer ones have a minuscule lip.

I presume the micro flow of water also brings the tiny particulaes along in the flow. I was scepticle beforehand but risking the €5 for 10 pcs wasnt a big deal. I placed 1 unit in each of the 2 lower corners, although typically the water would only pool in one of the corners unless 100% level which mine are not. Clearly, this does not negate the need for normal panel cleaning....only if you get a grimy build up in one or both lower corners, which kills 1 cell. If 1 cell is partially impaired you can get a disproprtionate degradation across the full or section of panel akin to shade.

It just tells you what size the fuse is in your meter box and hence how much current you can pull at any instant without blowing that fuse.

Not much you can do with the info as such unless you want to change things in your house, like adding an EV charge point.

Ireland is actually better than many EU countries for solar PV!

The dog looks like a good heat source😂

They're a pretty nifty gadget, have one myself 😁

I hope you sent that picture to your other half with the title "proof that I'm hot" 😁

I'm not even going to comment 🤣

Mine was done mid-December on a calm baltic night. Waiting for the same conditions to do it again. 20 degree difference is ideal (between indoor and outdoor) so will have a wait a while.

Your place looks fairly toasty there @graememk

May I suggest an experiment, turn the engine off when idling for longer than 30 seconds?

Tractor engines tend to be high capacity and are probably horrible from an idle consumption viewpoint

Weird thing is that a tonne of extra weight in a work vehicle can actually be helpful

I remember Fully Charged had an electric skid steer loader thing that Robert was using to clear his garden

The version with the larger battery could lift more because the battery acted as a counterweight

I suspect for a tractor, there's a lot of efficiency gains possible which they didn't bother with before

It might make sense to have the front wheels powered as well for extra torque at some times, and you can switch the motors off when they aren't needed. Basically the same as an AWD EV