Does Solar Panel Work at Night and Cloudy Days?
Over the course of this post, we are going to help answer some of your questions about how solar panels perform in less than optimal conditions. Have you been asking, “Do solar panels work at night, and do solar panels work on cloudy days?” These are crucial points to consider if you are planning to make the flip to solar energy but live in an area that is known for less than ideal weather.
It is important that you are able to determine whether or not your hard-earned money is going to be wasted once you have made a purchase, so we are going to provide you with a completely honest overview of the genuine functionality of panels under these daylight and weather conditions. Do not make a solar purchase until you have read through to the end. We may just save you thousands of dollars.
Do Solar Panels Work at Night?
There is a great deal of confusion about this particular aspect of solar functionality because what people see when they witness solar arrays in action at nighttime and what is actually going on are two very different things. In a nutshell, solar panels do not work at night. There is absolutely no possible way that a solar panel at night can absorb the photon rays it needs in order to be able to continue soaking up and redistributing energy for use within your home or workplace.
When you see solar power at night being used in a residence or other building, you are actually witnessing stored energy in action that has been called upon to power your utilities once the sun goes down. However, actually absorbing energy and harnessing it is something that is purely resigned to daylight hours. This is one of the drawbacks of solar technology and one of the reasons why you may wish to opt for another source of power. Although solar power is constantly renewable and green, that availability is limited depending on your area.
In areas of the world that receive enough daylight hours to store the necessary amount of power in a battery to allow your daily household items to run, then the fact that the panels cannot continue to work at night is not an issue. However, if you are in a location with severely limited daylight hours and your 24-hour electrical load is greater than what is possible to generate during the daylight hours in your area, this is where things start to get complicated.
It all comes down to calculations and good planning. You should invest your time into calculating your energy needs vs your daylight hours instead of searching, “Does solar panel work at night?”. If you are able to meet your energy requirements with the amount of sunlight you get throughout the day, then it goes without saying that regardless of the fact that panels cannot function at night, you have no reason to be concerned about switching to solar.
Do Solar Panels Work on Cloudy Days?
If you are worried because the area you live in experiences cloudy weather regularly, then you should not be concerned because this is nowhere near as big an issue as having too little daylight hours. The short answer to the above question is that solar panels absolutely can function on cloudy days. It is also important that you understand the reduced capacity at which they will operate under such conditions if you want to ensure that you can meet your power needs effectively.
As a general rule of thumb, the functionality of solar panels can be reduced to anywhere between 20% and 25% of their normal operational capacity when their access to the sun is restricted by clouds. Again, it is safe to say that no matter where you are in the world, you are going to encounter the occasional spell of cloudy weather. But if you are in an area where this is a regular feature of the weather, then it is an absolute must that you calculate this reduced efficiency into your energy harnessing potential.
Try to be as honest as possible when figuring out your solar output, and if you know that cloudy weather is more common than not (for example, 50% of the weather you normally experience), then base your calculations around a 50% output capacity figure. If you experience irregular spells of cloudy weather, then there is no need to be overly concerned as you might be when considering solar panels at night. Infrequent cloudy days certainly are not going to be an enormous factor in your general energy harnessing capabilities.
How Homes with Solar Have Energy at Nighttime
We have answered the question, “Does solar panel work at night?” We already know that their active functionality is completely diminished due to no longer being able to draw energy directly from the sun, but this does not mean that they cannot still provide power. Although this may seem like a contradictory statement, it actually makes a lot more sense than you might think thanks to the ingenious design of solar panel technology and how it can continue to serve us after dark.
The best solar arrays are capable of storing energy as it collects during the daylight hours before then redistributing it at night so that you are never without a vital energy supply to power everything from your lighting to utilities. Lithium-ion battery technology has advanced greatly in recent years.
Although many of the most premium models are able to do this by default, there is another means of storing energy via something known as net metering. This hugely beneficial form of energy harnessing is as practical and useful as it is beneficial to your wallet. This method relies on your panels being directly tied into the main grid so that they can feed any excess energy back into it throughout the day as they work hard to absorb, store, and use photon rays from the sun for practical use.
This means that the excess energy then comes directly back into your circuit at night so that you are never without power. Your grid electricity bill will come down in cost considerably because the energy you are using from the grid has actually come directly from you.
All in all, this means that it is still absolutely possible to make direct use of your solar panels at night despite the sun not being available. In this instance their role simply switches from an active one to a passive one as they are using energy that has already been harnessed.
Conclusion
We hope that after reading today’s post you now feel confident about the functionality of solar panels both at night and on cloudy days. The information we have provided you with today should allow you to determine the potential viability of solar in your area.
Just remember that it is all about planning and calculations. You need to do your homework first in relation to your electrical load and the output of your solar panels based on your active daylight hours in order to determine how much real energy you will have access to throughout the year. Provided you do this, then solar is the way forward.
