The Basics of Residential Solar Power Energy

Many people want to find ways to lessen their dependence on fuels, cut back on carbon emissions and lower monthly energy bills. One solution is switching to residential solar power since it offers a lot of functional benefits. But before making the decision to set up solar panels, it is helpful to study the basic information about solar panels and the different ways to connect it to your existing system.

The sunlight will be converted to electric current as they pass through the photovoltaic systems. These cells do not use the heat of the sun to generate electricity but will produce some energy every time the sun shines. More energy is produced if the rays of the sun are directly hitting the solar panels.

Electric current is created when there is an interaction of the semiconductor materials found in solar cells and the sunlight. Generation of residential solar power is made possible by the material called semiconductor, which has two general types --- the negative electrical charge and the positive charge. If these two are put together, energy is produced which is almost the same with a battery having negative and positive poles. PV cell is the device which will grasp these semiconductors together. Solar cells generate power by the method called photoelectric effect. Rays of the sun absorbed in the cell will be transferred to the electrons found in the atoms of the cells.

PV cells in a residential solar power unit normally give between 0.5 and 2 watts thus they are attached in parallel strings or series to build modules to generate up to 300 watts. The voltage will increase as the series and parallel connections in the system boost the flowing current. The modules will be connected together into bigger formation called as arrays. With this in mind, you will be able to produce more energy if you have larger array with more modules.

Reasons Why You Must Consider Investing in Residential Solar Power

Getting solar power at home has a lot of benefits to offer. In this regard, the environmental benefit is just one among them. Opting to use residential solar power will surely offer tons of functional and useful benefits to its users. It is over a million year tested technology that really works. The first benefit you can get from solar power is the cost and tremendous electric power savings. Once you have solar power set up in your home, you will no longer need to pay for expensive electric bills every month. This is a great advantage and people like the idea of harnessing sufficient electric power that does not eat up a big percentage of their monthly budget, hence why many decide to invest in this efficient alternative source of energy.

Another benefit offered by a residential solar power unit is that you can have power wherever you are as long as the sun shines. Moreover, some states and countries offer great incentives to people who use solar power. The outcome is that you don’t need to spend much money in getting this incredible means of generating power to satisfy your residential electricity needs. Some agencies of the government can assist you in installing the solar panels that your home needs, while at the same time enjoying the incentives given to you.

Residential solar power can also provide you the benefit of earning extra income. Numerous places all over the world have created standards to a great extent of the green energy they would like to produce. Thus, many power companies normally purchase this green energy from people who have micro power station. Residential solar power units will not only provide you free electricity but can give money back as well through the excess energy that your solar panels generate.

With the benefits mentioned earlier, there is no reason for you not to install solar power in your own home. Think of the many benefits that you will get to enjoy when you decide to invest in one, use this as an assurance that installing solar power at home would be one of your most sound decisions. So setup one now and enjoy a green energy that is sustainable, environment friendly and very much renewable.

Knowing The Different Wind Mill Designs

Windmills are environment-friendly and clean sources of renewable energy that can generate electricity, which can save you thousands of dollars in utility bills. There are many different windmill designs to choose from but you need to know which one will best suit your energy demands at home.

The two principal types of windmill design are vertical and horizontal. Vertical windmill design can stand up to very high winds and a breeze to maintain. They don’t even need to be facing the direction where the wind is coming from.

Horizontal windmills, however, are more efficient and work a lot more quietly. The downside is, unlike vertical windmills, if the wind direction shifts, it can significantly affect its performance.

The area where you live and the size of the surroundings will determine the type of windmill design that will best suit your requirements. A windmill is made up of a tower, wind-activated blades, a shaft that connects the blades to the rotor, and a generator that stores and produces renewable energy.

The wind speed in your location will determine the height of your tower. In areas with low wind, you will require a taller tower in order for the blades to capture the wind and rotate the blades. You should also be aware of any trees or structures that can obstruct and affect the wind strength. There are usually three blades on a windmill but this is dependent on the various types of windmill designs available.

Before settling down on the type of windmill design you are going to build, you need to understand wind speed as well as wind direction that will work well with these renewable energy sources. You can use an anemometer to achieve this. Take readings everyday at the same time over a period of two weeks or more. Plot the readings on a graph where you can determine the average wind speed. This is a very crucial step that you must perform and not overlook to ensure that you will be able to come up with a functional wind mill that is capable of supplying you with sufficient electrical energy that you need.

Sanyo Panasonic hotovoltaic Modules Prices, Higher Efficiency

Sanyo-Panasonic, together with Sharp and Mitsubishi, is considered one of the best brands manufacturers of pv panels for residential solar power. Based in Osaka (Japan) it was acquired by Panasonic Corp in 2009 and now continues to work with the right specialization in the renewable energy sector, particularly in solar energy.

Sanyo Photovoltaic modules prices are more expensive than competitors but are considered the best with Sun Power because they have the highest efficiency that guarantees higher returns (10-15 percent more compared to other competitors in terms of electricity production).

Sanyo has invented Hit (Heterojunction with instrinsic Thin layer) technology, solar cells based on a thin silicon wafer surrounded by ultra-thin amorphous silicon films. In this case panels take advantages of both technologies to increase energy efficiency.

The graph on this side shows the results of a test conducted by SANYO in Garching (Germany) during 1 year. The test starts the first January 2009 and stops 31th. Sanyo engineers used HIT-240/235 HDE4 photovoltaic modules near others competitors in the same condition: the roof facing south, 30 degrees of slope, SMA Inverter AC 1700. The diagram shows that the Sanyo HIT modules have an efficiency significantly higher than the other (from Sanyo webiste).

Sanyo photovoltaic modules prices:

-Sanyo HIT-H250E01; H245E01-HIT: 250 watts, it has an efficiency of 18%, from 245 watts to 17.7%. Price about 450 Usd each module.
-Sanyo HIP-214NKHE5, N235/240SE10 HIT, HIT-210DNKHE1, 205DNKHE1-HIT, HIT-200DNKHE1 (from 400 to 500 Us dollars).
HIT-N220/215 (price around 450 Usd)

Sanyo also has in its catalog Hit Double solar panels that increase yields even further thanks to the double irradiation. How they work: the sun's rays strike the panel, but also the area where they are installed (for example the roof), that must be reflective. Thanks to "bounce effect" there will be more sunlight that guarantees a return of 20 percent plus of efficiency.

The Practical Uses of Solar Power in Homes

People nowadays are becoming more and more concerned about the environment. We are now aware of the harmful effects of fossil fuel on the environment. And for more than a decade now, research and new developments with what is called “green energy” has been underway. One of those is solar power, and specifically, residential solar power.

Contrary to popular belief that solar power is not available to homeowners and is only used by large plants and industrial establishments, there are in fact quite a lot of ways that solar power has penetrated the residential world. Truth of the matter is that there are various ways that this type of power can be utilized in homes. Here are just some of the many uses of residential solar power.

As you know, solar energy can replace almost all the electricity needs in a home. It is just a case of using solar panels to collect the sun’s heat and converting it to electricity. Now, when these panels are already installed in the home, it is just a matter of what items to use.

One of the most popular uses for residential solar power is for pool heating. In areas when the cold weather can interfere with the homeowners’ enjoyment of the pool, heating its water to a comfortable temperature can use up a lot of energy and will make your electricity bills sky rocket. This is where the use of solar power comes in the picture and saves the day. You can look for a pool heating system that can accommodate batteries from your solar power system. Or you can have it designed to connect directly to your solar power system.

Another practical use for residential solar power is water heating. Water heating can take up a lot of your utility bills, sometimes this may need an entirely different type of power (usually gas power) to keep your home’s water heated when you use the shower. You can, instead, opt for solar powered water heating systems to get more savings in the long run while still being assured that you will be able to effectively heat the water you use at home but minus the expensive energy cost, of course.

More About The Different Types of Solar Panels

As solar power has recently become more popular in a larger range of uses, the basic part which is the solar panel has had many different alterations, or in other terms has been produced in many variations. These modifications have lead to the three different types of solar panels. And these are definitely usable in residential solar power systems.

The first type and probably the most efficient among the existing optionsis the monocrystalline solar panel, or more commonly called as the mono panel. This type is named so because it utilizes a single large sheet of crystalline silicon (single crystal, the crystal lattice of the entire sample is continuous and unbroken to the edges of the sample, with no grain boundaries.). This sheet is then cut out to fit the size of the panel, making one large single cell. The conductors that catch the electrons are metal strips that are laid over the entire cell. This type of panel is used in most residential solar power systems because of their efficiency, not to mention that fact that they are not really that expensive.

The next type is the polycrystalline panel, or the poly panel. This, on the other hand, uses a lot of small crystalline silicone cells instead of the large sheet of the mono panel. There are also two types of poly panels, the cast polysilicon and the string ribbon silicon.

Another type of panel used in residential solar power systems is the thin film panel. This type of panel is very different from the other two discussed earlier as it does not use any type of crystalline silicon. Instead, the silicon it uses is not in any crystalline form but rather it is applied directly on the panels, which allow it to use different types of semi-conductors. This is the cheapest among the various types of solar panels available because the manufacturing process is easier and costs less. Flexible panels are also possible to create. But this type of solar panel is known to be less effective than the crystalline silicon based ones because it has higher levels of impurity.

The Three Popular Kinds of Residential Solar Power

If you are looking for ways to install a residential solar power system in your home, there are different types that you can actually choose from. These different types have their own advantages and drawbacks that you can use to determine which type is suitable for your home and which one will be able to satisfy your energy demands.

The grid inter-tied residential solar power system is one of the most common types used in residential houses today. Here, the solar power system is directly attached to both the home and the conventional electric utility grid. This type of power system gives the homeowner the freedom to easily switch from solar power to the electric utility system and vice versa whenever they need to. What makes this advantageous is that when the home needs more energy than what the solar power system is producing, it can easily draw the power from the electric utility. It also has fewer required components, so it costs lower than most of the other power systems sold in the market nowadays.

The next type is the grid inter-tied residential solar power system with battery back up. This generally works like the grid inter-tied system, except that there is an additional slot installed for the batteries. The batteries act as back-up power in times of power outages. And when there is excess solar energy collected by the panels, this can be stored in the batteries. In cases when there is more energy needed than what the solar power system can provide, the batteries can automatically be used before it draws energy from the electric utility. But this type of solar power system is more complicated to design and install, not to mention the fact that it is more expensive to purchase.

The last type is the off grid residential solar power system. As the name suggests, it is not directly connected to the home and the conventional electric utility system. It, instead, makes use of batteries and an electric generator. The solar panels collect energy and then store them in the batteries. After that the batteries become the main source of energy. But in the event that the home’s energy consumption is more than what is stored in the batteries, there is a need to use an electric generator to compensate for the increase in energy demand.