6 General Components Of A Home Photovoltaic (PV) Power System




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.

Howard Leight R-01526 Earmuff – Peace And Quiet At Last




All of us have experienced the need for earmuffs. When you are working in your garage, you may not need them, but your wife or your children will wish they have them.

Your family may need good quality earmuffs because the noise level can get too unbearable. Sometimes you just feel the urge to drown out the noise so that you can have some peace.

It has been my constant endeavour to find good earmuffs. I have used earmuffs in the past and have seen some pretty good ones in my time. But I had never tried the new Howard Leight R-01526 earmuffs and it seems like a good time to try them out.

The R-01526 seemed a decent pair and I was very tempted to buy a set. There were some negative comments on blogs and forum about these new earmuffs and that made me hesitate.

However, despite my slight concern I decided to go ahead and purchase a pair for my wife. Anyway they were really for my wife and not for me. So that should not hurt! Of course she would be quick to realize that.

My wife is a very discerning kind of woman when it comes to evaluating the quality of earmuffs. She has an inbuilt sixth sense which allows her to perceive those minute differences which we ordinary mortals do not seem to possess.

Most women have an inbuilt sixth sense anyway. It is just that we men folk refuse to see it until it is too late. She tried out the Howard Leight R-01526 earmuffs I bought for her when I was busy working in my garage. She did not notice all the sawing, drilling and knocking sound I made.

And I must admit she was quick to allay any fears I might have had about the quality of the new earmuffs I had taken the trouble to purchase for her.

Although she did point out that she had difficulty in adjusting her glasses as these earmuffs were a little too tight around the ears. The Howard Leight R-01526 are a compact fit and do a grand job of lowering and blocking out the decibel of unwanted sound.

The price of these newfangled earmuffs is a bit on the higher side. But for this price they do offer good quality.

The brand name of Howard Leight says it all. The best part is that these earmuffs allow you to carry on a normal conversation and do not drown out sound completely. Only when the decibel level goes too high do they cut out the sound and that is great as it happens automatically and offers great protection.

However the one drawback I noticed is the recovery time. It takes a little too long to allow normal sound to flow through again and that can be a little irritating. My wife found that a bit bothersome. But we all tend to get used to that sort of thing quickly. It even takes a bit longer to turn on the power.

There is no power indicator to let you know whether they are switched on or not. The user manual is not worth reading. These earmuffs serve the purpose they are meant for. They provide automatic protection and that is very good indeed. But it would do you no harm to check out other brands as well.

If you are keen to get the Howard Leight R-01526 Impact Sport Electronic Earmuff, click on the button on the right to make your order from Amazon.com and have it delivered to your doorstep.

Solar Tax Benefit – How US Government Can Encourage Solar Usage


There are many (mostly environment-related) reasons why you should consider “going green” as far as energy is concerned. Well, guess what? The United States government hopes to tip the scale in favor of green energy, adding a new incentive for prospective customers.

Two words: “tax benefits”.

So far, one of the most widely used types of green power is solar power, which relies on solar panels, consisting of Photovoltaic solar cells. Once the switch is made from classical grid and battery power and once the solar panels are in place, the energy costs of any average household are expected to drop considerably.

So why don’t most American homes rely on solar energy already? To begin with, the installation costs are quite prohibitive. Solar power requires the installation of so-called solar kits. The kits themselves are quite expensive, and the installation costs are also non-negligible.

A good way of estimating the cost/revenue rate for solar kit installation is to look at how many dollars are required to generate a single watt of power. In 2005, this dollar/watt rate was, at best, $3 – $4 per watt. As an estimation, you should reckon on costs of about $900 (with installation charges) for a system generating about 75 watts.

The average household would require as much as 5 kilowatts, however, meaning an average cost of $30,000 – $40,000, including installation costs. For those who wish to make a good long-term investment, however, and switch over to a hybrid of classical and solar power, the government has lately introduced appealing incentives that make installation more attractive.

These benefits are not automatically translated to switches to full-time solar power, although some states provide incentives for fully off-grid systems, too. The state of Massachusetts, for example, offers tax reductions ranging up to 20 years of tax exemption for home owners relying on solar and wind power.

Home owners who use renewable energy devices may receive up to $1000 tax credit. In Arizona, rebate systems allow home owners to get a rebate of $4 per watt, up to $7,000, whereas going completely off-grid will get you $2 rebate per watt and $700 rebate for solar water heating.

Solar cell manufacturers are also supporting this effort by increasing their output. It is expected that the prices for solar panels in the United States will drop by as much as $0.20 per watt in 2011, making the total price drop by 12.5% below current prices.

The conclusion?

What with the attractive government benefits and the drop in installation costs, 2011 may just be the year you will want to switch over from classical to hybrid power. That’s what the government hopes you’ll do, anyway.