Winter close up

wellbuilt

 Hi all 
  It’s time to winterize my cabin for the winter . 

  Last year I would just charge up with my generator  before I left and turned every thing off . 

  I was up there every week or so . 

    This year I’m not getting up there much , chances are I’ll be snowed out soon .
  I have 5 strings of 3 295watt panels , could I just leave one string on with my out back fm80 controller ?
  It says it uses 1 watt when dormant so 700 watts a month plus discharge ? 1000 watts ? 

  2 months 2000 watts if the sun never comes out and the panels stay frozen . 
   I have 1 string of panels that melts off regularly with me helping a little . 

    In the summer months I get 750 watts +- out of a string   winter time 4/500watts max in good sun facing south @ 42o pitch 
   The temps do get into the low 30 every few week and the snow slides off most of the time . 

 Or should I leave all the panel on line  ? Most of it will be snow covered 95% of the time .
   I’ve been leaving one string on about 1/3 of the time when I’m not there , the battery Seam to stay charged better that way . My SG has been good all summer . 

  Absorb 2 hours 59 v summer 59.5 winter float 54 volts .
             What is the best way to go    Thanks for the reply’s in advance John 

Dave Angelini

I would leave all of the solar on and shut down everything else. That is what I do for clients up in the national park high country. There are no guarantees but a bank like yours is not going to break the bank to replace. A vertical array is an option but too much work for the cost of the bank. Try and get up there in the early spring and get charge and EQ in.

 Others do vertical solar but they do not have to pay my labor cost. If they fly me in, it is just to fix a charge source and battery cost is down the list. Make sure everything is surge protected and that the disco's do not disconnect the SPD. Major rookie mistake! Good Luck!

706jim

I've left my system connected to the batteries with everything shut off and have no had problems with discharge for many years. I figure the panels are snow covered for about 3 months of the winter before things start to melt off. My first set of 12 GC's went through 18 winters.

wellbuilt

Thank for the reply’s Dave and Jim I’ll see how it go’s this winter . John 

ramloui

This is my setup: 2 of 6 panels are tiltable. Batteries are 100% when I open the cabin in May.

Cheers!
Louis R.

wellbuilt

Looking good I may try that next year when I have some panels ground mounted