Residential Solar Power |
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| Written by Adrian Fletcher | ||||||
| Sunday, 16 November 2008 | ||||||
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Solar power for homes has truly come a very long way since the early, boxy design of solar panels that most of us have seen. Great advances have been made with respect to solar cell construction which allow a variety of building materials be made with the solar cells incorporated into the design, thus effectively making them almost undetectable. Solar power for homes can be generated using one of two methods. An off the grid system is not connected to your utility company electricity supply and has to meet all of your home's needs. It usually has another backup system and will store current in a battery bank for use at night. The other form is on the grid or net metering. It is still connected to the utility company and can either be used as a supplemental system or if you create enough electricity it can be sold back to the utility company. Standalone solar power systems and supplemental systems for the generation of solar power for homes contain the same fundamental parts. At the outset are the photovoltaic panels, generally referred to as PV or solar panels, which are equipped with a solar cell or semiconductor that transforms the sun's rays into electricity. The electricity then is routed to a regulator/controller which maintains the electric current at the voltage/amperage level the system is made for. Electricity then is routed into your home's electrical system or else into a battery array or a storage system which will keep the solar power ready for when the sun sets. As long as your house is hooked up to the power company's grid, you won't need to set up a separate storage system. However, setting up your own storage is more advantageous as your monthly utility bill be reduced further and you'll still have power even during an outage. Augmenting or altogether replacing your power requirements with solar power for homes has never been simpler or more cost-effective than it is right now. There are new building materials include roofing material, car port roofing, awnings, and even the edges of your window-panes that contain solar cells. These types of solar panels are known as Building Integrated Photovoltaics. The application of the roofing materials not only serves as solar panels, they also provide for the same degree of protection as regular asphalt shingles. One of the largest setbacks to adding or converting your home to solar power has always been the initial cost, there are however a growing number of ways to combat that cost. There are grants available on both the state and federal level to help offset a large portion of using solar power for homes. While the federal rebate may change from year to year, individual state rebates vary from state to state, with some states offering special low interest financing as an added green incentive to rebates. Any green project will reduce the environmental impact your home has on our world. However, the greatest pay off will be a reduced or even eliminated utility bill each month. Quite a few utility companies have a metering program under which you can sell excess power generated from your home solar power system to the local utility company, in effect making your meter run backwards. This helps more than just you. The excess electricity can be used by other customers of the power company and can reduce the reliance on fossil fuels that power companies currently use.
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| Last Updated ( Thursday, 20 August 2009 ) | ||||||
