Why is measuring power so difficult?

Friday night I did some minor things after I got home from work.  I hung up the two spice racks.  They are both now in operation.  The one on the right of the microwave though brought another issue to the forefront though: this is as far as the cabinet opens now.  I had wanted to change it to open the other way anyways (so it opens towards the kitchen), but now it is a more pressing issue.  I might do that tonight


I also finagled the wires for the solar and got connectors on them.  Everything now has proper blade connectors on them.  This also apparently "fixed" the wire that had high resistance (bad solder job is now gone I would guess).


Saturday however proved to be less than productive.  Mostly because of this.


It snowed all day, though by the afternoon it was melting faster than it was falling.  It was only supposed to be a dusting, but even now after it being 55 and sunny today, it still hasn't all melted.

So instead I worked on sorting through the various boxes of clothes that I had.  I only have one suitcase left to go into the shed, I tossed a whole bag of them, and the rest are now back in service.  I didn't realize how many pairs of pants I had in there...

This


Now looks like this.  I don't particularly like the hanging organizer next to the window, so I think I might put it on the free table. 


Otherwise I didn't really do much yesterday.  Today was a really nice day, albeit windy.  The first order of business was to get the solar testing setup.  It is a much nicer setup now that everything has connectors on it. 


Even with the morning sun, I got 78W when I rigged it up.  I also checked its Voc (open circuit voltage) and its Isc (short circuit current) and both were close to the spec.  It is hard to read without blowing it up, I couldn't figure out how to change the exposure on the phone camera.  The instructions from Matt and the internet didn't work. 


It was a clear day, with only the occasional cloud.  Even with just the white fluffy cirrus clouds in the way though, the power from the panel would drop down into the 30-50W range though.  There was only one cumulus (thick lower cloud) that passed by that I paid attention to, and the power dropped down into the 20W range. 


As the day wore on I did get full power out of the panel.  At least I know the panel works.  I saw a max of 97W, and the panel is rated for 100, and I am more than happy to think the last 3W is either the resistance not being perfect or the panel not being at the perfect angle. 


That said, I observed the power resetting several times throughout the day, and eventually it just did this and never came back. 


This is two different power meters now that have failed.  I don't understand how this is so difficult to measure.  I might pull this one apart and poke at it, but one of the manufacturer recommended uses is solar, so it is annoying that it clearly doesn't work for it.  Either that or I will just build one, it isn't a difficult thing to make.

So instead I went and switched over to painting.  I got the whole frame done except for the front, which isn't needed before I start laying down the decking.  The whole thing has two coats of primer on it, and you are supposed to wait a day before putting paint down on the primer. 


So apparently not quite the whole thing.  Not sure how I missed this spot.  I had so little primer leftover when I was done that I just put another coat on the upright supports which were the worst spots for rusting, so I will have to do this later when I do the underside.  Ugh.


Up above I noted that it was a blustery day.  I got coated.  This is after trying to wash it off and getting a lot of it.


According to the current forecast, it won't be warm enough to put the paint on until next weekend, so I will need something to work on during the week.  Perhaps I should look at the power meter.