Not going to write about my mental health, while hasn't been a great year so far. Just talking about the sun.
I did have the feeling that they sun didn't shine too much so far this year. Last Saturday I was really fed up with the rainy days. It did feel like it was raining constantly for weeks. which isn't the case. We are used to lots of rainy days in Belgium. For sure in March and April. The same goes probably for October and November, but in those months we still have the energy from the better summer months. In March and April, we are thirsty for spring and summer and those rainy days/periods are draining out the last energy.
So, I did look at the energy production of our solar panels, which could give a more objective view. Our solar panels are first generation panels and are 12 years old or older. So compared to the new panels these are almost pre-historical. We had to replace our inverter in 2018, so I do have a history back to Feb 2018.
And I was right, the sun wasn't always present in March.
Our panels did produce 186kWh during the complete month of March, which is below average (248 kWh) and almost half compared to March 2022. So far all three months of this year are below the average production of our small solar plant. On average they should have produced 466kWh, but so far they only did produce 385kWh. That around 18% less of normal years.
So, objective results do say that we had a lot less sunshine so far this year compared to other years.
On average we do produce around 2900kWh per year. And they government is kind enough to pay us for this production. On average a family of 4 does consume between 3000 and 3250 kWh per year, so we are almost climate neutral.
Funny enough, April did have a record breaking day. Last Monday we did produce 17.2kWh, which is pretty close to the max of our solar system. Cold but lots of sun, is a perfect combination for the solar panels. How warmer they do get, the less productive they are.
Cheers,
Peter
