If you are thinking of slashing your home electricity consumption, the best option is to examine your living style and your energy usage habits before you actually think of installing solar electrical system in your home. You will be amazed to know that the amount saved on power bills would be huge if you simply adopt eco-friendly power usage habits.

Obviously, you will have to make some changes in your household so that your dependency on grid power and fossil fuels gets reduced. It is a known fact that solar power is clean energy and is gaining much popularity. Before you invest on a home Photovoltaic (PV) system, it is important to calculate your home power needs as it will determine if you should require a small, medium or large solar installation.

If you don’t feel that you have the necessary skills, by all means, seek professional help in getting the solar power system installed. However, if you are confident on your own skill to handle the job, the following are the 6components needed for the PV system.

1) Mounting.

Photovoltaic solar panel mounting is a very important part of the entire system. This is because the panels have to be mounted on a safe and secure manner as you will have to protect your investment from damage cause by strong wind.

To get the maximum benefit of using solar, you need to install the PV modules properly so that the panels are in the right direction and are facing the path of the sun for optimum exposure.

It is very important to finalize the location for installation of the solar panels on your property e.g. roof of your house, wall, on the ground or even on a pole as it will determine the accessibility for servicing.

2) Wiring and collector boxes.

The complexity of this component depends upon the number of solar panels. If you are using multiple panels system, you will have to connect all the panels in a safe and secure manner and then all the wiring connection will be linked to the multi-contact connection or the collector box.

Here’s a tip, be sure to use high quality wiring which is of correct type and size otherwise your solar system may lose power in the wiring before it even reaches your battery storage system which can significantly reduce power supply.

3) Collector and fuses.

When all of the PV panels are wired to the collector box, from there the wires are to be connected to the charge controller. Along the way, the wires will pass through switches and fuses.

Switches and fuses are used for safety purposes. They are generally circuit breakers in case there is a malfunction in the system. Fuse protection is used to prevent over heating of the cables in case of overloading. Power overload on cables is dangerous because it can cause fire on your property.

4) Charge controller.

The next component on your residential solar system is to enable you to control the power output for the PV modules and then directs it to a battery storage unit. This is where the electrical charge controller comes into play.

The complexity of the charge controller unit will depend on the amount of money you are willing to spend. An expensive controller will give you multiple options of settings and configuration in order to extract power from the panels to charge a series of deep cycle batteries.

5) Deep cycle batteries.

The function of the deep cycle batteries is generally to hold the charge from the solar panel and release them when you needed it. The size of your battery storage will depend on the amount of power you’ll need for your household. Now you know why you need to calculate the amount of power needed by your household before you install the PV system.

6) Power inverter.

The final component of your solar system would be the power inverter. The inverter is to convert Direct Current (DC) output from the battery storage to Alternating Current (AC) power. Almost all of your home electrical devices run on AC. The size of the inverter has to match the amounts of power or watts used by your home at a given time.

There you have it, 6 general components of a home solar power system. The components above are not really difficult to find. The challenge is to make the calculation and then purchase the right component unit to meet your needs. If you don’t think this is something you can do, by all means, employ the service of a profession solar contractor.

Do you want to go green with your home, how about using a solar heating system? If that sound somewhat interesting, you have a lot of options to consider. One such option is to choosing either an active or passive solar heating system.

Now what is active solar heating system? This system is that which involves storing and harnessing solar energy in the form of heat. Fans and other similar mechanical devices are used to dispense heat that is harness and collected from the sun.

Silicon is the most common type of solar heat collectors for constructing Photovoltaic (PV) cells. The cells are typically contains or placed on solar panels which are located in the roof of the house.

Now, what are the types of solar collectors? There are two primary types. The main difference between these two types lies in the material that captures and helps to move the heat that is located in the solar collector.

The material usually consists of a gas or a liquid. For instance, an air-based system contains transpired air collectors or an air room heater. But on liquid-based systems usually contains water or an antifreeze element to capture and move heat around your house.

Generally the goal of such a system is to heat up to three-fourths of a home’s interior. When there is more than normal solar energy than a house needs is produced, the homeowner could then sell excessive power back to his or her local utility company.

It is always advisable to heat the air and water in your home so that the solar heating system can function throughout the entire year. This system is a low-technology method of capturing and harnessing solar energy.

It functions by the method of directly capturing the sun’s heat, and then retaining it within the house for the function of heating. This is mainly achieved through methods such as quality insulation and windows. This kind of system can tremendously lower your current heating cost or even replace your home’s current system.

How about passive solar heating? What are its components? One of the primary components of passive systems is windows.

The goal of the component is to maximize the amount of sunlight and heat that one can be collected during the daytime. Generally the common windows consist of a special kind of glass that absorbs as much heat as possible and then keeps it inside the house for a maximum amount of time.

Besides windows, there is another common component of passive solar heating systems which are trombes, a special type of wall. There is a pane of glass in front of the wall. This method is used to collect heat provided the space between the glass and wall.

Another common method is to paint the concrete walls black so they will absorb heat more rapidly and instantly. What are the benefits? This is generally an ideal option when you are looking for a solar heating system for a new home.

The reason is that passive solar heating systems are restricted due to many factors such as the location of the windows in the home, the location of the building itself, the amount of insulation in the building, and so on. These types of problems can be much challenging to make a change within existing homes, especially the location of the home.

Learning the basics of active and passive solar heating systems, it is now possible to determine which the best is for you and your family.

Even though residential wiring is considered to be safe, with many options of residential wiring which you may chose as per the age of your house. Wiring which gives the complete electric solution to your home was started with Knob & Tube wire. It was used somewhere around 1920 to 1930’s and was working well, but now it is considered to be unsafe.

Many insurance companies decline to insure your house, if they find that you still use Knob & Tube wires. It was in 1930’s that steel conduit gained popularity and was normally used in the wiring homes. This method was based o fuse box and was normally used to travel from outbox to out box, from wall outlet to light outlet and to switch outlet.

The wire was laid in such a manner so as to reach the desired locations such as switches, lights and receptacles; this method is applicable even today. During 1940’s & 1950’s many houses used spiral steel jacketed cable known as BX, which consisted of jacket with two or three conductors or wires, which were made of either copper or steel.

Steel was commonly used in WW2. The introduction BX stage of wiring was introduced by Romex; presently Romex is available as plastic jacketed cable with two or three conductors which are similar to BX.

Romex and BX have similar function so that jacket is stripped where it enters the outer box so that the conductors are connected to the switch, light fixture or receptacle from inside the outlet box. Romex is easier and faster to strip which can be done with a simple knife whereas BX requires a special tool that cuts through the steel jacket.

Romex which was available in 1940’s had an outer covering of cloth and had oil based substance, it got transformed to various types of outer coverings till 1970, when plastic covering was used which we use even today. I always would consider the type of residential wire which is protected best from critters, nails to be the safest.

As per Knob & Tube is considered it no longer is safe. Earlier Romex used a method of stapling of studs and attic joists, this system had great potential danger of short circuit which is the most common cause of electric fire. This is a lesson for those who still have older homes to once again get their wiring rechecked by a professional electrician.

It has been seen that in older houses, the kitchen light fixture has burned up the wires. Still in some old kitchens sealed drum type light fixture is used. The maximum load taken by a sealed drum fixture is 60 watts, whereas people use 100 watt bulbs to make kitchen brighter, this makes the fixture hot and the wires start burning.

For the safety of your homes, you must check the wiring especially when your house is old, it would be better to seek the services of a professional and licensed electrician to have a complete relook of the entire wiring of your home. Sometimes these electricians give you a report free of charge, but in any case you should not ignore the safety even if you have to spend some dollars for inspection, this will ensure peace of mind and safety for the entire family and your home.

Now that you understand the science behind your home wiring, you can now determine if it is possible to hook up a DIY solar power system to supplement your home energy usage.

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