Jim Baber

Tony Wesley wrote:

wrote:


Windsun wrote:

.. Basically, 100% uptime will cost you a lot more than 99% uptime.


If cloudy days were coinflips, storing enough energy for 1 day would
make 50% uptime possible, 2 would make 75%, with 3 for 88%, 4 for 94%,
5 for 97%, 6 for 98%, and 7 for 99%... 100% would be impossible.


Just an FYI, in the Detroit area, we just went from Dec 20 through Jan
5 (inclusive) with 14 minutes total sunshine.


Another FYI, 'Total sunshine' is not required to generate appreciable
power.

Today it has been cloudy for the 9 hours (so far) of daylight. My 10 kW
system has been far from it's most productive for this time of year
today. It has only produced 21 kWh today Feb. 4, 2006. On on the other
side of the coin, on Feb. 1, 2006 it made 44 kWh on a beautiful Fresno
winter day. So far this year the least I have produced was 0.568 kWh
(truly terrible) on one cold rainy dark day in January. (Which is why
I'm on the grid.) :-)