please empty your brain below
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I am wondering what DG doesn't know about, or at least what he'll not research?
| 07.12.18 - 7:11 a.m. | #
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I know people criticise the over commercialism of Christmas but imagine what December would feel like if we didn’t have that to focus on at the end of this gloomy month
Brian | 07.12.18 - 7:12 a.m. | #
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Love these weather/calendar insights. It certainly has been cloudy - of the 17 potentially visible passes of the International Space Station over London in the past fortnight, there have only been two when it hasn't been too cloudy to see it (it's passing overhead tonight at 5.31pm).
On the ahem bright side, the evenings will only draw in by one more minute from now on.
GJ | 07.12.18 - 7:23 a.m. | #
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@Brian - as you suggest, I imagined.. and it was still gloomy but significantly more relaxed, less wasteful and barely stressful.
Frank F | 07.12.18 - 8:00 a.m. | #
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Greetings from the southern hemisphere, where the days will soon start drawing in - and where Christmas at the start of the summer holidays is a strange beast, hard to get used to.
Betterbee | 07.12.18 - 8:31 a.m. | #
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Very interesting article.
I've lived in Sydney and mid-California. I missed the coat-snuggled days of winter, and Christmas lights are rubbish there.
London's hardly ever really cold or too hot, the varying seasons keep you in touch with the world, and the weather gives us something to talk about!
peter | 07.12.18 - 8:58 a.m. | #
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So it's not just because it's so bloody miserable outside that I've given up waiting for it to brighten up and turned all the lights on in the house then!
I get used to the darker evenings so much more easily than I do the gloomy mornings!
On the plus side, when you can see them, winter sunsets are amazing!
Cornish Cockney | 07.12.18 - 9:34 a.m. | #
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Another factor is the rain. In summer we tend not to get days of wall-to-wall rain. The solar panels deliver far more electricity and hot water than we know what to do with (and we don't have very many). In winter, like today, the rain can mean we have generated no electricity whatsoever.
Pedantic of Purley | 07.12.18 - 10:08 a.m. | #
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While total insolation figures are interesting; for certain purposes at least, the spectrum of the energy that reaches us is also critical. 1 kWh/m²/day of blue light, for instance, will have a quite different effect (on solar panels and on our mood etc) from 1 kWh/m²/day of infra-red "radiant heat".
Malcolm | 07.12.18 - 10:48 a.m. | #
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@Brian @Frank F: The focus would just shift to New Year.
Jonathan Wadman | 07.12.18 - 10:54 a.m. | #
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So we have to appreciate every bit of sunshine that happens after the rain and before sunset... like right now!
Greg | 07.12.18 - 2:54 p.m. | #
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Your square meters are presumably horizontal, but solar panels are normally at a slant. There must be an ideal slant, varying through the year and depend on seasonal insolation, length of day and some function of the altitude of the sun at noon. Domestic panels are no doubt constrained to the slope (and orientation) of the roof, but I presume that solar panel fields (eg those visible from the ECML) are built to optimise these factors.
Peter | 07.12.18 - 7:14 p.m. | #
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Peter - absolutely true, and I've even one the experiment to prove it. Ideally panels would move to maintain optimal angles as the sun moves in the sky, but there's obviously a trade off with the energy to move it and the extra you get back.
Solar roadways are just stupid as flat is a terrible angle for efficiency, whereas the angle of roofs isn't bad (and the panels can tilt more than the roof itself). Far more a problem with them is that the UK sees relatively low insolation compared to elsewhere due to latitude. The difference between Newquay and Nice is rather high.
There's only limited production of optical-grade silicon, and the UK would have been better subsidising wind turbines than solar panels for domestic micro-generation.
Si | 07.12.18 - 9:06 p.m. | #
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