When I was researching solar, every Ohio skeptic had the same response: “But you live in Columbus. It’s cloudy all the time.” I heard this from neighbors, coworkers, and most annoyingly, from my own brother-in-law who lives in Phoenix and apparently thinks he’s the only person allowed to have solar panels.
So here’s what my system actually produced, month by month, for 14 months. Real numbers. No marketing estimates.
My System Specs and Location
10.4 kW system, REC Alpha panels, Enphase microinverters. Roof is south-facing at roughly 30 degrees pitch. Installed in January of last year. Columbus, Ohio — latitude 39.96°N.
My installer estimated 12,800 kWh of annual production using PVWatts modeling with a Columbus weather dataset. That was the number I used for my ROI calculations — and I tracked how those played out in detail in my actual solar ROI numbers after 14 months of ownership.
Actual Monthly Production
Here’s what Enphase Enlighten reported, month by month:
- January (partial month, 18 days): 412 kWh
- February: 689 kWh
- March: 1,041 kWh
- April: 1,287 kWh
- May: 1,398 kWh
- June: 1,456 kWh
- July: 1,489 kWh
- August: 1,412 kWh
- September: 1,198 kWh
- October: 921 kWh
- November: 573 kWh
- December: 448 kWh
- January (year 2): 501 kWh
Total for the first full 12 months (February through January): 12,413 kWh. My installer’s estimate was 12,800 kWh. I came in about 3% below estimate, which is well within normal variation. For reference, that’s basically a rounding error in solar production modeling.
What Winter Actually Looks Like
December was my worst month at 448 kWh. My household used about 1,150 kWh in December (electric heat pump plus normal usage). So solar covered about 39% of my December consumption — not zero, not irrelevant. Thirty-nine percent of a winter month’s electricity bill is still meaningful money.
January was better than I expected at 501 kWh. January is actually not Columbus’s cloudiest month — we often get clear cold days that produce well. February is typically worse for clouds. My February numbers back that up: 689 kWh versus 501 for January, but February is a shorter month and I had some significant snowfall events.
The thing about cloudy weather that surprised me: overcast days aren’t zero. My Enphase app shows production on overcast days typically at 15-30% of a clear-sky day. A full overcast December day might produce 8-15 kWh on my 10.4 kW system versus 40-50 kWh on a clear July day. That’s not nothing — over a full month of winter days, those partial-production days add up.
Snow: The Real Winter Variable
Snow is actually more disruptive than clouds. When my panels are covered in snow, production is genuinely zero. I had a stretch of 4 days in January where I produced essentially nothing because 6 inches sat on the panels and temperatures stayed below freezing.
Here’s what I learned about snow: you don’t need to clean it off. At least not usually. The panels are slick and slightly warm (even in winter, they absorb heat), and snow slides off within a day or two of temperatures hitting the mid-30s. My installer told me not to go on the roof to brush panels, and I followed that advice — this is consistent with everything I found when I researched what solar panel maintenance actually requires — the couple of extra days of lost production aren’t worth a fall.
That said, I did use a soft roof rake to clear panels once during an extended cold snap when I knew a week of below-freezing temps was coming. No roof contact, just clearing from the ground. Gained back about 3 days of production. Was it worth it? Marginally. Probably $4-6 in electricity value. Make your own judgment.
The Seasonal Production Reality
The production curve is more dramatic than I expected. My June production (1,456 kWh) was 3.25x my December production (448 kWh). That’s a huge swing. The annual economics work because summer massively overproduces — I’m exporting power to the grid at 11-13 cents per kWh in summer — and net metering credits offset what I draw in winter.
For Ohio homeowners specifically: the net metering math is what makes the year-round economics work. AEP Ohio and Columbus Southern Power (now AES Ohio) do true net metering — my summer surplus credits run at the retail rate and offset winter consumption. Without net metering, the winter production numbers would be a bigger problem. I’ll cover net metering in detail in another post, but if you’re in a state without good net metering policy, cloudy-climate solar economics genuinely are harder to make work.
How Ohio Compares to “Solar States”
Using PVWatts data: Columbus averages about 4.2 peak sun hours per day annually. Phoenix averages 6.5. Los Angeles averages 5.5.
That means a 10 kW system in Phoenix produces roughly 55% more annually than an identical system in Columbus. Does that make Columbus a bad place for solar? Not necessarily — it depends on your electricity rates, incentives, and system cost. Ohio electricity rates are moderate, and the federal ITC makes the same percentage dent regardless of location. I ran the numbers and concluded that Columbus solar makes economic sense at current prices and incentives. It makes more sense in Phoenix, but Phoenix doesn’t have AEP Ohio electricity bills either.
The Honest Assessment for Ohio Homeowners
If you’re waiting for someone to tell you that solar doesn’t work in Ohio, I can’t help you. My 14 months of real data show a system performing within 3% of modeling estimates, covering 86% of my annual electricity needs (I still buy some from the grid in winter), and generating enough summer surplus to bank substantial credits.
Winter months are real — December and January produce significantly less than summer. The system still produces something meaningful every month. Snow is an occasional disruption, not a dealbreaker. And the annual numbers work out.
My brother-in-law in Phoenix has 30% more production, but he also pays to run his AC 8 months a year. I’ll call it even.