Residential Photovoltaic System – Getting To Know The Basic Components




If you have any thoughts of having a solar electrical system in your house, it will always be better to have a look at the changes that you could make in your living habits and energy consumption, that could suit the new system. You can save a considerable amount of money by employing eco-friendly power systems.

Along with saving money, you are doing something good for the nature also. First thing you should do before installing a solar electrical system in your house is, to make the necessary changes to cut down the dependency on grid power and fuels. Solar power is the future power source and before installing a solar electrical system, you should know how much power you require.

Irrespective of whether your system is small or big, it will require certain equipments for its panel operation and to harvest power.

PV Panel Mounting

Mounting has to be done in a proper manner and has to be done in a secure place, to protect it from winds and other hazards. It should be installed in such a way that it gets maximum exposure to solar rays and the location should be decided by taking all these factors into account.

Wiring and Collector Boxes

If multiple panels are used, there arises a need for a safe and secure way to connect all these panels and you can use the Collector Box for this purpose. The wiring should be of the required type and size, otherwise you may lose significant amount of power due to wire resistance.

Collector and Fuses

Wires from the panels run to the collector box and from there to the solar charge controller. Here we use combiner box, which is basically used to collect wiring from multiple solar panels and from the combiner box, a set of wires run to the solar charge controller.

For protection from overheating and overload, a breaker switch (fuse) has to be employed on each solar array. Electrical controllers are used to control the electricity generated and then the electricity will be fed to the battery.

The solar charge controller wiring should be in accordance with the panel size. Along with this an over current protection system has to be employed to protect personal hazards and to protect the major components of the system.

Inverter converts the DC power generated into AC and the wattage of the inverter should be in accordance with the total watts of power required at one time.

Deep Cycle Battery Bank

Without using deep cycle batteries, you can only use the power in real time, i.e. you can use the power only when the sun is out. Deep cycle batteries are very different from car batteries as they can survive the frequent charging and discharging cycles, typical of renewable energy systems.

Battery storage capacity is expressed in amp hours and the number of batteries should match your energy requirements. More and more people are now turning to solar systems for their energy requirements and we recommend you to get a comprehensive home solar guide that will help you in each and every step of your solar installation.

Installing a solar electrical system is not a tough job at all and all you should do is to have enough knowledge about an efficient and safe installation.

Hitachi KTL718C 7 Piece Power Tool Kit – Covering All The Bases




Many people find that they have plenty of different types of tools and yet, find it difficult to complete the job on hand satisfactorily because of disparity in these power tools. The Hitachi KTL718C tool kit is the best option for these people if they want to buy a comprehensive multipurpose tool kit.

Those who purchase the Hitachi seven-piece tool kit will soon realize that it is worth the money spent. They need not struggle any longer with assortment of tools of varied sizes and different types of battery chargers stored in a number of boxes. Instead they will have all the essential tools in a nice Hitachi bag manufactured exclusively for the Hitachi KTL718C power tools.

All the tools are in standard sizes and each tool is meant for a specific job. The user no longer has to worry about coping up with large number of tools in various sizes, makes and ages all cluttered in different boxes.

The Hitachi KTL 718 C tools are cordless power tools and all the tools put together weigh only twenty-two kilograms. This makes it very comfortable to shift from one job to another. The KTL718C tools in the kit are so versatile that they can be used for wide variety of jobs like plumbing, electrical works, carpentry and maintenance jobs.

The power tools in the Hitachi kit are useful for drilling, grinding, cutting and finishing works. It is comparatively cheaper to purchase the high-quality seven-piece power tool kit online rather than buying in the shops.

In addition to the Hitachi tools, the kit includes three batteries for the tools. The batteries provide power to the seven tools set much longer period than any other tools in similar tool kits. Added to this, the tools these batteries power are even more amazing.

The DV19 DSL hammer drill-driver provides lot of twisting or rotary force (torque). It can be adjusted in any of the three available modes such as hammer, drill and impact drill. The Hitachi KTL718C tool kit also contains an ‘impact wrench’, which can be set at different speeds.

There is also a provision for a reverse setting and it will drive M14 bolts as well as screws ranging from 4 mm to 10 mm. The switch on the impact wrench facilitates the user to control forward or reverse speed with his thumb.

Although the KTL718C kit contains only seven tools they are useful for different types of jobs. Those having several jobs on hand and would like to have a tool to cover every job, then the Hitachi KTL718C is the right tool kit for them.

It will work out costly if someone buys these tools individually and moreover, he cannot be sure that he has the entire set of tools required for various jobs. KTL718C tools are manufactured keeping in view all the recent ‘ergonomic’ pressures. In nutshell, everyone who uses power tools regularly should buy this unique Hitachi KTL718 C seven-piece tool kit.



To Meet Energy Demand, We Need To Start Utilizing Alternative Power Source




As everyone is aware, electricity was invented in the early 1900s. In the beginning, many people could not use it as most of them at that time did not have electrical connections for supply of electric power to their residences. Even when it was used, it was only for lighting electric bulbs. Subsequently, heaters and stoves were introduced.

Cotton mills and other factories that run on electricity were soon established. Currently, with ever growing demand for electric power, researchers and industrialists began to look for alternative sources of power.

Many people may not be aware that Canada occupies number one position in power generation in the world, The United States of America purchases electric power from Canada because of heavy demand in that country. In fact, California is among the states in the US that purchases maximum electricity from Canada.

Canada built a hydroelectric power plant in the northern province of Quebec to generate electricity. They were under the impression this power generation plant would produce sufficient power to meet the requirements of future generations as well.

With rapid growth of population, Canada constructed three more hydroelectric plants. Hydroelectric power plants convert the potential energy from water into electrical energy. Such plants are suitable where plenty of water is available.

Dams are constructed over rivers to stop the flow of water and form a reservoir. The reservoir stores the water flowing down the river. This water at a height is rerouted to turn turbines to generate electricity.

When power plants are built the entire area is submerged as the level of water has to be raised. While people in some parts of the world have not even heard of electricity, some others have surplus power.

There are also several countries that are facing acute shortage of electric power. Apart from hydro-power, there are several other alternative sources of electricity, such as solar energy harnessed from radiant light and heat from the sun, wind energy and electric power from waves.

Solar power electric generation depends on solar cells or Photovoltaic (PV) cells. Photovoltaic cells are normally silicon-based units that absorb sunlight. A number of solar cells are assembled to build solar panels.

Several solar panels are combined and interconnected as one piece of equipment for higher power generation. Energy from the sun stimulates the electrons in solar cells to generate electricity.

The solar power produced is in the form of Direct Current (DC). However, Direct Current is not useful in that form for all common purposes such as lighting, heating and operating various equipment and therefore, it is converted into Alternating Current (AC) with the help of an inventor. Alternating current is normally at 120V.

Most appliances can be operated at this voltage. Solar energy can also be utilized for heating at home or for swimming pool using ‘Solar Thermal Technologies’, also called Active Solar Systems.

In solar thermal technology, solar radiation is converted into heat and it involves the usage of pumps or fans for active transfer of heat either for storage or distribution directly for use. The most important part of an active solar system is the ‘solar collector’.

The purpose of a solar collector is to absorb the radiant energy from the sun and convert it into compatible heat. Different varieties of collectors are available for conversion of solar radiation, classified based on the type of application and temperature requirements.

Unpolished metal or plastic flat plate collectors are employed where high temperatures are not required, as for instance for heating swimming pools at residences and for heating air for ventilation in commercial and industrial buildings.

Polished flat plates and vacuum tube collectors are utilized for medium range temperature needs, such as for hot water at residences, space heating and cooling the premises.

‘Concentrating collector’ is another type that centers the sunlight on a much smaller area. These collectors are used for applications where higher temperatures are required, as for example, in industrial process heating, absorption cooling and comprehensive solar thermal applications to produce steam for power generation.

One way of effecting savings in day-to-day life is to install a solar panel system at home. This will not only reduce expenses on electricity but also contribute to the environment by generating pollution-free solar energy.