Aric Dyson wrote on May 2^nd, 2013 at 10:42pm:
Here's what I tell people...

When it's cloudy outside is it dark as night?

They say "No". And that's why you still get power on cloudy days!

It depends on how dark the clouds are but on most cloudy days look at the light outside and how bright it is, on days like that I get about 50% power from my panels, which isn't bad.

In light "thin" clouds it gets better, almost as much as a good day because the scattered light gets picked up by the panels from all directions all day long.

A lot of times the clouds go away part of the day or there are gaps and it gets a lot of power then too.

It also depends on where you live and if you get a lot of cloudy days.

One reason for that is that voltage output drops as the panels heat up. It’s not really a problem, just a natural phenomenon.

I got more total power today when there were these scattered clouds. They reflect the sun and the panels make more amps.

Sometimes they block the sun but in this case they mostly stayed around the sun, creating a sort of mirror in the sky.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMgY4HSEnsQ