I live about 12 miles from the Gulf of Mexico about 50 miles south of Houston, Texas.

We have had nothing but cloudy rainy days for the past two months. A solar system here would die of starvation. We are experiencing one of our wet winters. My yard is flooded and I think it's rising and falling with the tide

Summer is a completely different story, lots of sun and hot as h@##. I have seen 145 degrees F in my attic (and it has ridge vents).

2X here in the northeast. I am running the battery charger every third day for the last 30-40 days.

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My solar setup:
http://home.comcast.net/~n3qik
Updated 6-7-2009

Home Automation: http://68.81.42.56:5800/ Password = guest
Software/hardware 80% complete.

It has been my observation that the clouds is the main decrease for winter solar production. The lower sun angle and reduced hours of sun is mostly offset by the much cooler PV cell temp.

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My SDHW system has come on once (2hr) in last 3 wks. Air panels a few more times, but only an hr. or so at a time. - foggy, hazy, cloudy or snowing & rain. Even @ -40, it's usually clear, but not so far this winter.

maybe its time you switched to tidal power as an energy source since you seem to be getting more of that now