Lousy Weather 2011

September 1: After ranting previously about how bad the rain has been and how it's putting a crimp on power production in my PV system, the month of August comes through and produces a new record for that month, 135 kilowatt hours. This makes up a teeny-tiny bit for all the dreary weather in the spring, but just a little. Overall, the output of the array in 2011 is much less than average. It'll take some clear, sunny Fall days to catch the total up to where it would be normally.

October 6: Well, September ended up being more like "normal" (for this year, that is: crappy) than August. 97KWh total. The month started off pretty well, some high-rolling days of 6KWh each, but the end of the month was gray and ultimately rainy. The first days of October aren't any better.

November 1: A new record! Record low, that is. The month of October brought only 62% of that month's average production. Just glancing at the yearly totals, I believe that production is down by at least 25% this year. Someone with better calculating skills than I would probably be able to pinpoint the time and magnitude of the drop in solar production, but suffice it to say, I see a definite loss of production over the last 14 months or so, and it's not just a figment of my imagination.

December 1: Not a new low record, just another month of well-below-average power production (or nonproduction, as it is). I'll have to crunch some numbers and come up with some percentages at the end of the month and see just how bad it really is.

January 2, 2012 Just to prove that nothing is normal, a new high record for December. The first three weeks of last month were sunny, albeit cold overnight, with freezing temperatures that thawed to pleasantly cool during the day. I got a lot of winter gardening maintenance done, working in the sun. As if to compensate for her error in the early days of the month, Mother Nature ended the year with 9¼ inches of rain in 48 hours, prompting another flood of the creek.

Continuing to monitor and hope...