Whoa! Snow!

December 8th, in the middle of Texas, and we have snow on the ground! It never even occurred to me that it might be in the forecast, despite the last two dreary days. I was caught unawares because I hadn't been listening to the radio regularly (how 20th Century is that sentence?!?)

Of course I wanted to see what the panels looked like:

Yep. Snow-covered. How would that affect the electricity generation?



Right on schedule (these days, around 8 am), the panels started ekeing out a presence on the app.

Before 8 a.m.

8:10 a.m.

The app doesn't allow us to compare output hour-by-hour from day to day, but it'll be interesting to see what the output is tomorrow at 8-ish (assuming clear skies and snow-free panels).

We turned on the heat inside to get the temps up to 60. I still don't know if the heat is driven by 110V or 220V. That'll be an experiment for later this winter, one needing a day with clear sun and freezing temperatures. (Our experience with running the air conditioning is fodder for another post.)

12/10 Update:

Snow morning (Friday), 8:10 a.m.

Clear morning (Sunday), 8:10 a.m.

The snow didn't seem to affect the amount of initial sun coming in. Where the difference lay was how quickly the sun's full potential could be used by the panels. There was a much steeper climb in solar panel generated by 9am between Friday morning and Saturday morning. (You'll have to take my word for that--I didn't take screen shots.) If we lived in a snow-prone area, I'd figure out a way to get that snow cleared off the panels, pronto! As it was, it didn't take long for the snow to melt and fall off on its own.