Winter is the best time of year to monitor your off-grid solar system’s output closely.
In an off-the-grid solar house, a row of days with complete cloud cover can occasionally mean a drop in the available power from your battery storage due to fewer hours of sunlight hitting the solar panels.
Of course, as most solar households are also connected to the electricity grid, energy is always available even though the sun might be hidden. But it’s important to understand what happens to your solar production during winter and learn the best way to monitor your solar system.
What happens to your solar production during winter?
To understand that, let’s first look at how solar panels work.
It’s a common misconception that solar panels need heat to produce power. Still, they need light, incredibly ultraviolet light (UV), which is the most effective at creating a direct current. But, when sunlight hits your solar panels, direct electricity (DC) is produced; this is converted to alternating current (AC) by your inverter, and it’s the AC we use in our homes. Read More
