I’ve written this simple blog post to explain solar power how it works for homes. I have long had an interest in alternative and renewable power source. Living in a country where we have 7 out of 7 days of sun light every year, solar power seems like a practical solution.

In actual fact, solar energy is free and abundant and last nearly forever…well until the sun burns out in a couple billion years.

To understand how solar power works for residential homes, we must first understand the basic science. Solar technology works when sun light hits a solar cell. This solar cell is also commonly known a Photovoltaic (PV) which is a semi-conductive material.

When PV is exposed to sunlight, the electrons go from one side of the cell to the other through a more circuitous and indirect rote than they have to in the shade.

Imagine, the electrons are little people trying to get from front to back of the cell, but they can’t because the middle layer changes when sunlight hits it. If you give them a route through a wire to go from the front to the back, they will charge happily through the wire.

If along the way they go through a motor or a battery, you can get some useful work out of them. It’s all that simple. Just make the electrons’ route do something for you, and you have entered the realm of solar-electric technology.

All photovoltaic solar panels work on this basic principle. They may have dozens of little silicon-based cells in them, or a thin sheet of material stretched across them. Individual silicon-based cells typically only produce about 1/2 Volt of electricity.

To generate enough electricity to power the electrical appliances in a home, you need a bunch of them.

When the solar cells are in the shade, they are not as efficient as compared when they are under direct sun light. Therefore, you probably need a few extra cells to produce their full 1/2 volt if some are shaded. The same also applies when the sun isn’t perpendicular to the panel, or if it’s an overcast day.

Most of the time, we will not be using the power generated from solar panels immediately. For the renewable energy system to be practical, the electricity has to be stored in a battery bank. I will write about that in another blog post.

Home Solar And Wind Power Videos

Do you want to know how you can use solar modules or wind generator to reduce your home energy consumption? If you do, check out the 30 solar and wind power for home videos e-book we’ve compiled. It’s free to download.

==> Click here to download the free e-book now!

Related web sites:
1) Earth 4 Energy E-book Review – A review on the top selling renewable energy guide form Clickbank.

2) Power 4 Home Review – A Complete Review of John Russel Power4Home

3) Power 4 Home Scam – Is Power4Home Just Another Scam?

4) A Different Kind of Solar Power

5) Good candidate for solar power? L.A. County map shows hot spots

How To Generate Solar Electricity For Homes

If you are planning to use solar electricity for home power consumption, here are a few important points to designing the system.
1) Find out what is the load in energy for a 24-hour period for your home. Make sure you get the watt-hours, not the watts.

2) Decide what is the the size of the solar array to be used. This will involve some calculation which will determine your DIY home improvement budget.

3) Decide on the battery size.

Basic Design For Home Solar Panels

If you are outsourcing the building of the solar array, the following is a rough estimate that you can take to the system designer to discuss cost and objectives of your renewable energy system. The designer will then fine tune the system based on actual components such as cable size, cable distance, measuring meters etc.

It may be a good idea to start the design based on the worst case scenario, meaning power generation during the least amount of sun coverage but with a rising power demand.

You can use this example. Determine the power load for a continuous 24 x 7 x 365 of a 250 watt light bulb. So the worst case is the month of December and January when the Solar Insolation is at its lowest point.

In some instance, the worst case for the power load is the summer and worst case for the resource is the winter. This will require you to perform two designs and then to select the one system that will carry the load through both summer and winter time.

Using a Fudge Factor

The Fudge Factor is to take into account the inefficiency of your home solar electric system. When you have determined the power load for a 24 hour period, you may want to multiple it by 1.5.

This in effect will increase the power demand by half, hence you will have to design a bigger solar system. Wouldn’t that increase your cost? The answer is, Yes is will. But you will have a system that will truly fulfill your home power requirement.

Why would you want to build a solar array that won’t generate enough electric power for your household?

If you do that, there won’t be enough power during cloudy days which will lead you to use power from the grid. That would have defeated the purpose of using solar electricity for homes.

Home Solar And Wind Power Videos

Do you want to know how you can use solar modules or wind generator to reduce your home energy consumption? If you do, check out the 30 solar and wind power for home videos e-book we’ve compiled. It’s free to download.

==> Click here to download the free e-book now!

Related web sites:
1) Power 4 Home Review – A Complete Review of John Russel Power4Home

2) Michael Harvey Earth 4 Energy Review

3) Top Ten Components Of A Home Solar Power System

Ten Essential Components Of A Residential Solar Power System

A home solar power system involves multiple components to make it work. Here is a list of the Top Ten Components of a Home Solar Power System:
1) Polar Panels – Otherwise known as PV panels. They are the solar-electric system’s defining component. PV panels capture the sunlight and create direct current (DC) electricity.

PV panels are rated in watts based on the maximum power they can produce when performing under ideal sun and temperature conditions. You will need to use the rated output of your PV panels to determine how many panels you will need to meet your electrical needs. You can then combine the PV panels in a series, which is called a solar array.

2) Array DC Disconnect – The DC disconnect is an important part of a system for maintenance. Using a DC disconnect makes shutting off the power much easier.

3) Charge Controller – A charge controller will drastically increase the life of your battery. This unit will protect the batter from being overcharged. When the battery bank is fully charged, the charge controller will interrupt the charging process. Some charge controllers also stop the battery from discharging at night time.

4) Deep Cycle Battery – This is the type of battery you should use in your system. This is what will store all of the energy produced by your PV panels. A great place to source free deep cycle batteries from is old golf carts of forklifts.

5) System Meter – A system meter is used to monitor how full your battery bank is. You can also see how much power is being used at any time. This is a great unit that can monitor your whole solar electric system.

6) Main DC Disconnect – This unit is placed between the battery bank and the inverter. A main DC disconnect will allow you to disconnect the inverter for maintenance.

7) Inverter – The inverter is what turns the direct current (DC) into alternating current (AC). AC is what most of your household appliances use. I.e Refrigerator, TV, Radio, Microwave, Computer etc. If you do not wish to use any appliances that need AC then you can simply use a DC input. A DC input costs around $10 from any car parts store.

You can also purchase inverters that plug into your homes power socket. These inverters will actually feed electricity back into your home through a normal power socket.

8) Generator – If you are setting up a solar electric system for off-grid living you will need to use a generator. A generator is used to produce electricity for times of cloudy weather or for when you are performing maintenance on the solar electric system.

9) AC Breaker Panel – This is the point where all of the homes electrical wiring meets with the provider of the electricity, whether it is the grid, a solar electric system or a wind electric system. This unit is usually found in a utility room a garage or mounted in a metal box on the outside of the building.

Each state / country has different standards for the way solar energy is connected to the AC breaker panel. For a grid inter-tied solar electric system you have to realize that in most countries it is illegal to hook up your solar energy system to the AC breaker panel unless you are a qualified electrician. It is recommend for you to call your local power company or an electrician.

If you do not wish to go as far as connecting your system to the breaker panel you can simply run your appliances straight from your AC inverter. Running your appliances straight from the inverter is easy and a very cheap option.

10) Kilowatt Per Hour (KWH) Meter – If your home is grid-tied, you will have a kilowatt per hour meter. This will monitor both the electricity coming from the grid and to the grid from your solar electricity system.

If you are producing more electricity then you are using, you will notice you are actually turning this meter backwards!

Home Solar And Wind Power Videos

Do you want to know how you can use solar modules or wind generator to reduce your home energy consumption? If you do, check out the 30 solar and wind power for home videos e-book we’ve compiled. It’s free to download.

==> Click here to download the free e-book now!

Related web sites:
1) Michael Harvey Earth 4 Energy Review

2) Make Your Own Home Solar Power

3) Power 4 Home Review – A Complete Review of John Russel Power4Home

4) Breakthrough System for Home Solar Power

5) Calculating Your Solar Power Requirements