Solar Power Lessons

To my three favorite children and guests, welcome to my lens. Since you asked or are interested in solar power and it's not a growing up soapbox kind of speech that you hardly seemed to listen to back then, I'll try my best to piece together the best information I can about solar energy and green living.

I'm proud that you are encouraged to take on (upgrade) your homes with solar technology and desire to tackle it as a Do-It-Yourself (DIY) project. My intent is to talk about solar energy in a sort of article/lesson plan format from A-Z.

Going Green is a great idea and I support this 150%. As your father and to my guests a mentor as well, I want you to know this is a rather large effort in time. Depending upon the sophistication of your efforts - it could be a big investment as well because there is more to capitalizing upon solar energy then just hooking a solar panel array into the home. We'll go over things such as parts, kits, safety, antitheft, components, emerging technologies, grid, off-grid, tax incentives, energy savings and energy saving appliances and all kinds of other things associated with green living.

So, bear with me on the lens, keep checking back because as I complete various areas of research and eventually whittle it down into bite sized bits and pieces - I'll post these semi-formal articles into the lens. I'm not sure I'll always be good about Emailing notifications out so, I'll try to find some time to do an RSS Feed you can subscribe to okay?

Right now Ginny and I are saving for a home here in Durango and despite in some areas of the country - you can buy two and a half homes for what property and market values are here; we still love the area. Anyway if I were to win the lottery and buy the home we are currently renting before I even consider solar energy - I'd change out all the appliances to energy efficient ones first and foremost. The ones here are far from modern which becomes apparent when you turn anything on in here; at night the power surge and consumption will make the streetlight on the corner go dim! I swear it seems that way.

So rambling done - hope you enjoy my guidance and to my friends and guests I'd like to say - Don't be afraid to Email me and suggest topics I may have overlooked all right?

You have probably heard a lot in the media about the increasing popularity of solar panels being retro-fitted to houses and new houses being designed and built with solar technology in mind. There are a lot of reasons people are turning to solar power, both for environmental reasons and economic ones. Why do people use solar power? There are a lot of great reasons.

One of the main reasons solar power is becoming so popular is that it is environmentally friendly. Generating electricity from home solar power systems does not emit pollutants like carbon dioxide. Increasing reliance on solar power means less reliance on fossil fuels as a nation, and less reliance on traditional electrical utilities for individuals.

A second great reason to use solar power is to provide your home with electricity that will drastically lower your bill from your local electrical utility company. In fact some people are able to eliminate their electric bill altogether, at least some of the time. Many people who fit their house with solar panels use financing to pay for it. But they are investing in their home rather than the local electric company.

While the solar loan payment is fixed, utility rates continue to increase. In fact, many people who finance solar home power systems have a net positive gain right from the beginning. In other words, their electricity bill goes down by more than the cost of the monthly payment for the solar power system. Some people save up to 80% on their monthly electricity bill. Additionally, in the U.S. there are tax credits for installing solar panels, and some states have their own tax rebates on top of it. Solar power systems pay for themselves within a few years.

Perhaps solar's biggest advantage is one that isn't talked about as much. Solar panels are more efficient than power from other sources. It comes from your roof and goes right into your house rather than from a coal-fired power plant or hydroelectric plant through an electrical grid. Energy made during the day can be stored for use during the night, so you'll have no lifestyle changes due to fluctuating home power levels.

When new neighborhoods are planned using solar powered homes, each house has its own "power plant" right on the roof, so there is no need to overbuild the electrical grid in anticipation of the building of a lot of houses. Solar panels can be placed wherever they will receive the most sun, and once they're up, they require little to no maintenance and have a 40 year lifespan. Most have a 25 year warranty as well.

People who learn about the great advantages of solar power and make the decision to convert their house to run on solar energy have several ways of doing this. There are so-called turnkey systems where contractors come in and take care of everything. Installation takes on average two days and only rarely requires access to inside your home.

Some who choose to go solar purchase solar panels and then either install them or hire contractors to do so. There are even people who make their own solar panels and install them, and this is the most cost efficient (and labor intensive) way to go about it. There are ways to convert your house to run on solar power where you can be involved in the process as little or as much as you want to be.

Today's thin film solar panels are bringing the cost of going solar into a more reasonable territory for most people. With factories in Europe having ramped up production to meet incentive programs there, thin film solar panels are more readily available than ever as well as being more cost-effective than ever. They can be easily incorporated into plans for new houses. Thin film solar panels have been featured on national news stories, and Time magazine even declared them "Invention of the Year."

With every year that goes by, the reasons for using solar power increase which makes the reasons for sticking with conventional electricity generation decrease. With federal and sometimes state-level tax credits and other incentives, there is more reason than ever before to start using solar generated power.

More people than ever are turning to home made solar energy to reduce their dependence on their local electric utility district. Energy rates have been going up in recent years and don't show much sign of falling any time soon. A complete residential solar power system is expensive, to the tune of $40,000. The return on investment can be as long as 20 years, but there are ways to bring the costs down, mainly by turning to home made solar technology using solar power kits.

1. Damaged or cracked solar panels are usually still usable. If you invest in a multi-meter (They start at around $20.) and take the time to test the individual cells, you'll know if a damaged solar panel is still serviceable. A damaged solar panel can be had at a steep discount.

2. This may sound insignificant, but it isn't. When you handle your home made solar cells, make sure your hands are clean. Dirty or oily fingers on a solar cell will keep it from generating power optimally. Add gloves to your solar power kits.

3. Check out eBay. There are a lot of people selling off their excess solar panels and components for home made solar panels.

4. The parts to make your own home made solar panels from solar panel kits are available at most home improvement and hardware stores.

5. Invest in an ultraviolet ray-proof cover for solar panels. Use Plexiglas that is UV-proof. Plastic that is not UV-proof will turn yellow after being in the sun for too long, and yellowed plastic will cut down on the sunlight reaching the solar cells, cutting their efficiency.

6. Your solar panel's angle is calculated at your latitude plus 15 degrees in the winter and your latitude minus 15 degrees in the summer.

7. Calculating how many home made solar panels you need will help you get your work cut out for you. There are a number of sites on the internet that will help you do this.

8. Snow doesn't necessarily slide right off solar panels, so be prepared either to use the grid as backup or get on your roof and sweep snow off in the winter. There are, however, surface coatings that are said to make the covering of your panels more slippery to help with this problem. They may not come with typical solar power kits, however.

9. U.S. tax incentives apply to home made solar panels too: up to 30% of the total construction costs.

10. Solar panels should be mounted so they are elevated three to six inches off the roof. Airflow underneath helps them work better.

11. Mounts should be placed 48 inches apart and on rafters. Don't affix them to the plywood underneath the shingles. Follow the mounting directions that come with solar power kits.

12. Trim trees that block sun from your home made solar panels.

13. Five 100-watt home made solar panels can run a microwave, computer, lights, refrigerator, air conditioner, and television.

14. Never use automobile batteries when you make your own solar panels. They will run out and have to be recharged a lot. Use deep cycle batteries instead.

15. For warmer climates, thin film silicon solar cells work well, where as in cool conditions with bright sunlight, mono-crystalline and multi-crystalline panels work better. Choose solar power kits accordingly.

16. Solar panels - including well-made home made solar panels, increase your property value.

17. Silicon thin film home made solar panels need to be given a non-reflective coating to improve efficiency. Left untreated, they're quite shiny. This may or may not come with your solar power kits.

18. The correct size DC cabling coming from your home made solar panels is critical. If it's too small, you'll lose efficiency and generate excess heat that can burn the cable out. There are online cable sizing tools just for solar panels.

19. When designing your home made solar panel system, design for the darkest winter month rather than the sunniest summer month to make sure you're covered, particularly if you want to go totally off-grid.

20. "Shade-tolerant" solar panel kits often are not very shade tolerant. If just 25% of your solar panel is shaded, its electricity production will be next to nothing.

There are so many good reasons to outfit your house with solar panels. In the U.S. you can get a tax credit for 30% of the cost of your system, whether it's a turn-key system, panels you purchase and install yourself, or home made solar panels you make and install yourself. There's never been a better time to turn to this proven clean technology to power your home.

When the sun is shining, it sends about 1,000 watts of energy onto every square meter of the earth's surface. If we could gather it all, we could power offices, homes, signs, lights, and who knows what else? - for free. We already use solar energy to some extent to power pool heaters, homes, offices, street signs, and small items like solar powered calculators, but there is far more we could do with solar energy.

When you hear the phrase "solar cell," what the speaker is talking about is actually a photovoltaic (PV) cell. These are the tiny cells that power your calculator and the enormous cells that are deployed in space to power satellites. Photovoltaic cells, sometimes called solar PV cells, take light from the sun and convert it into electricity.

Solar PV cells are made of semiconductors - silicon is a common semiconductor material. When light hits the solar cell, part of the light is absorbed into the semiconductor, and this is a straight transfer of energy. This process allows electrons that used to be bound to flow. A solar PV cell will also have electric fields that force the electrons to flow in a certain direction. When you have flowing electrons, you have an electric current. Once you put metal contacts on the top and the bottom of the cell, you can draw that current off and use it to power things.

Pure silicon doesn't conduct electricity very well because its electrons aren't free to move about, and no flowing electrons equals no electric current. Therefore, silicon in solar PV cells have to have other atoms mixed in. In fact, silicon won't conduct electricity without those other atoms added. If phosphorous is added in small quantities, it can partially bond with silicon, but it has an extra electron that is not allowed to "escape" the phosphorous because of the positive charge in the phosphorous nucleus. Remember, electrons are negatively charged.

Silicon with phosphorous mixed in conducts electricity much better than pure silicon, and is called N-type (N standing for "negative") because the electrons are much easier to make flow. This is only half the story, though. Though a solar cell is partly N-type silicon, the other silicon is mixed with boron. When boron bonds with silicon, it has leftover "holes" that want nothing more than to be filled by an electron. The silicon with the boron added is called P-type silicon

If you put N-type and P-type silicon together, you have free electrons on the N side of the cell and holes for those free electrons on the P side. The electrons rush from the N side to the P side. At the exact place where the N-type and P-type silicon mix, electrons form a barrier that makes it more difficult for electrons from the N side to go to the P side. This eventually reaches a point of equilibrium in which an electric field separates the N side from the P side.

The electric field pushes electrons from the P side to the N side, but that's the only direction electrons flow. When light hits the solar PV cell, it frees up these electron/hole combinations. When this happens close to the electric field between the N side and the P side, then electrons will go to the N side and the "holes" will go to the P side. All you have to do is provide an external path for the electrical current - the flowing electrons - to be able to reach all the "holes," and they'll do just that. The solar cell's electric field causes voltage (which is the difference in charge between the N side and the P side) and the flowing electrons make electrical current. If you have voltage and current, you have power, measured in watts, which is the same as voltage multiplied by current.

If you take enough of these solar PV cells and put them together to produce usable levels of voltage and current, put them in a frame, and then cover the frame with glass in front (to protect the solar cells from weather) and positive and negative terminals on the back, you have a basic solar panel.

Solar PV cells require full sunlight to work properly. If you have a PV module of, say, 36 solar cells, its power production can be drastically reduced even if one of those cells is in the shade. This means that if you're designing solar panels for your house, you design it for the worst (darkest) weather. If your solar panels can make enough electricity on the darkest day in February, then they will make plenty of electricity on a sunny day in June.

When it comes to going green and you decide you'd like to have a solar power enhanced home, there are a number of options available to think about;

1. You can seek out a home specifically built already equipped with solar power incorporated into its design and situated within an entire community of solar powered homes. You will find or have the option to purchase (if not included with the sale) energy efficient appliances.

2. You can look at your existing home and have many aspects (solar power array, solar powered heater, spa, hot water tank, wind turbine, etc.) incorporated into the home by hiring an independent company or contractor.

3. You can choose the aspect of solar power or wind power and opt to do most of the work yourself. If you are somewhat handy you would save literally thousands of dollars depending upon how sophisticated your envisioned remodel project is going to be. I would however check local codes and see if the final step i.e. home (grid or off grid) systems require a certified inspection prior to powering up you work.

If you exercise option three above and are not sure of all aspects (tools, equipment, materials, suppliers, your skill level, etc.) there are tons of DIY Solar Power Kits available to guide you through the process with written and video guidance as well as picture diagrams. Just bear in mind that not all products are created equal. Kits are out there that range from shoddy to highly professional.

I've not looked at every kit available on the market but I've seen enough (tons of them) to know the difference between complete and incomplete. The following module will tell you the DIY Solar Power Kit that is my number one recommendation and why I stand behind it!

First Because of the Site Information...

The owner of the site and his solar energy kit is listed with the Better Business Bureau and has no negative comments waged or pending about the product or its quality.

Second, there is a complete address and phone number included on the contact page.

There are multiple ways to order the solar energy kit whether it is via secure and encrypted Internet purchase or via landline with instructions on how to protect your identity and credit card information.

The man who produces and markets the kit (like any product) hopes to realize a profit however, he also puts a portion of his profits into Research and Development thereby providing you with additional written instructions, videos or market innovations that are beneficial for your Go Green efforts.

There is a 100% (no questions asked) refund policy that you have 60 days to decide if you would want to exercise this option.

Last but not least, there is a technical support line available if the kit (or some portion of the kits') written or video instructions are just not quite comprehensible or completely clear to you after purchase and review of all the massive instructional materials.

Most Importantly, The Wealth of Information.....

This complete "Do It Yourself" Solar Guide has three parts...

#1 DIY Guide
Solar Panel Systems

This is where you will learn how solar energy is produced and about the solar panel system that you will create. This guide includes both the basic solar system layout as well as detailed plans for creating your own solar energy.

Step-by-Step Process of Creating Solar Energy
How to Find "Free" Solar Panels
How to Maintain Your Solar Panel System
Learn how to take the power your solar panels create and run your household energy needs (controller, batteries, inverter, disconnects, etc).

#2 DIY Guide
The "$98 Solar Panel" Guide

Here is where it gets fun. This is a completely step-by-step explanation of how to build a solar panel from scratch. Everything from building the solar panel box to connecting solar cells is explained here with color pictures and detailed plans.

Detailed Solar Plans
Step-by-Step Photos Showing You Exactly What To Do

#3 DIY Guide ( Solar Energy Bundle)
Includes Several Resources
That Will Help You Along The Way...

Electrical Wiring Plans for Solar Panels
Learn how to hook up multiple solar panels and how to store your energy using multiple batteries at one time.

Installing and Mounting Solar Panels Guide
Learn the basics of PV solar panel installation with this helpful guide that shows the process of obtaining city permits to installation of the solar panels to then hooking up to the electrical panel.

Energy Consumer Guide
This helpful guide discusses solar basics and how to calculate how much money solar energy can save your household.

Solar Tax Credits and Rebates
USA Federal and State information on renewable energy tax incentives. Learn how much you qualify for! He has recently included Canada tax info incentives as well!

Bonus Material!

# 1 - "Video Library"
Over 1 Hour of "Step-By-Step Videos" showing you the exact process in building your first solar panel. However, because of questions and the efforts of ongoing Research and Development - He Just Added 6 additional New Videos. This is definitelya must have and appreciated additionto your Solar Panel Education!

# 2 -Build Your Own Wind Turbine
Here is how you can create massive amounts of energy for your home. Use the wind's energy to power your home! This beginner's guide gives you a complete understanding of how wind energy is produced and how you can capture it for your own use.

Explanation of How Wind Energy Is Produced
Learn the Different Parts That Make a Wind Generator
How to Buy or Build Your Own Wind Turbine
Learn how to take the power your solar panels create and run your household energy needs (controller, batteries, inverter, disconnects, etc).

The $140 Wind Turbine
If you have ever wanted to see the exact step by step process involved in building a homemade wind turbine? Here it is as well!

- Step-by-Step plans show you how to build a wind turbine
- Packed full of pictures and diagrams

No fluff here either! You will see exactly how to create your own wind turbine that will produce energy for years.

To Learn More About this solar power kit

Click Here!

When the sun is shining, it sends about 1,000 watts of energy onto every square meter of the earth's surface. If we could gather it all, we could power offices, homes, signs, lights, and who knows what else? - for free. We already use solar energy to some extent to power pool heaters, homes, offices, street signs, and small items like solar powered calculators, but there is far more we could do with solar energy.

When you hear the phrase "solar cell," what the speaker is talking about is actually a photovoltaic (PV) cell. These are the tiny cells that power your calculator and the enormous cells that are deployed in space to power satellites. Photovoltaic cells, sometimes called solar PV cells, take light from the sun and convert it into electricity.

Solar PV cells are made of semiconductors - silicon is a common semiconductor material. When light hits the solar cell, part of the light is absorbed into the semiconductor, and this is a straight transfer of energy. This process allows electrons that used to be bound to flow. A solar PV cell will also have electric fields that force the electrons to flow in a certain direction. When you have flowing electrons, you have an electric current. Once you put metal contacts on the top and the bottom of the cell, you can draw that current off and use it to power things.

Pure silicon doesn't conduct electricity very well because its electrons aren't free to move about, and no flowing electrons equals no electric current. Therefore, silicon in solar PV cells have to have other atoms mixed in. In fact, silicon won't conduct electricity without those other atoms added. If phosphorous is added in small quantities, it can partially bond with silicon, but it has an extra electron that is not allowed to "escape" the phosphorous because of the positive charge in the phosphorous nucleus. Remember, electrons are negatively charged.

Silicon with phosphorous mixed in conducts electricity much better than pure silicon, and is called N-type (N standing for "negative") because the electrons are much easier to make flow. This is only half the story, though. Though a solar cell is partly N-type silicon, the other silicon is mixed with boron. When boron bonds with silicon, it has leftover "holes" that want nothing more than to be filled by an electron. The silicon with the boron added is called P-type silicon

If you put N-type and P-type silicon together, you have free electrons on the N side of the cell and holes for those free electrons on the P side. The electrons rush from the N side to the P side. At the exact place where the N-type and P-type silicon mix, electrons form a barrier that makes it more difficult for electrons from the N side to go to the P side. This eventually reaches a point of equilibrium in which an electric field separates the N side from the P side.

The electric field pushes electrons from the P side to the N side, but that's the only direction electrons flow. When light hits the solar PV cell, it frees up these electron/hole combinations. When this happens close to the electric field between the N side and the P side, then electrons will go to the N side and the "holes" will go to the P side. All you have to do is provide an external path for the electrical current - the flowing electrons - to be able to reach all the "holes," and they'll do just that. The solar cell's electric field causes voltage (which is the difference in charge between the N side and the P side) and the flowing electrons make electrical current. If you have voltage and current, you have power, measured in watts, which is the same as voltage multiplied by current.

If you take enough of these solar PV cells and put them together to produce usable levels of voltage and current, put them in a frame, and then cover the frame with glass in front (to protect the solar cells from weather) and positive and negative terminals on the back, you have a basic solar panel.

Solar PV cells require full sunlight to work properly. If you have a PV module of, say, 36 solar cells, its power production can be drastically reduced even if one of those cells is in the shade. This means that if you're designing solar panels for your house, you design it for the worst (darkest) weather. If your solar panels can make enough electricity on the darkest day in February, then they will make plenty of electricity on a sunny day in June.

Deciding to purchase a residential solar power system is a great one. While the initial cost can be fairly expensive, your money will be earned back in a matter of a couple years after you begin realizing the cost savings from not having to purchase any more electricity.

You must consider all of the components of the solar power kits before you make the purchase. You will have to do some research in advance to know how large of a kit you will have to purchase. If the goal is to be able to operate your home in the same fashion you could when you were paying the higher prices for electric then you want to be sure the system you put in place can produce that much electricity.

You can do that by studying your electric meter daily for a few days. See how much electricity you are using daily and get an average. This is the amount of usage you use on a typical day. You will need to do additional calculations to determine how much electricity can be generated in the time that you will have full sun exposure. Five hours of full sun exposure is typical in most places. Divide the total usage by that number and that is how many kilowatts you will need in your system. If cost is a concern and you need to start out with a smaller system it is all right. The cost savings will be slightly less but - you can expand in the future.

There are four main parts of a home solar power system. They are the batteries, the controller, the photovoltaic panels, and the inverter. It will take several photovoltaic panels to meet the energy needs of the average home so multiple panels will be wired together and ultimately a very large photovoltaic array will be made. Each additional panel will help to maintain a low voltage output and will increase the energy that is produced.

The panels can be very heavy so be sure that your roof, if that is where you decide to put them, can handle the weight. You may need to opt with a large number of small panels instead of one very heavy slab so the weight can be disbursed over an area and the weight will not be concentrated in one place.

The controller, or voltage regulator, is wired into the panels and connects them with a few large capacity batteries. The controller will determine when to disconnect the panels by constantly monitoring the voltage levels. There is a predetermined limit that is set so that the controller knows exactly when to make a disconnect. The batteries should never drain back through the panels at night and the panels should never be able to overcharge the batteries during the full sunlight if the controller is working right.

The home switchboard is connected to the batteries using an inverter. This will cause an increase in the low battery voltage and allows the current to change between direct and alternating current. Basically, the total functionality of the system is controlled through the home switchboard.

You will need to check with your local authorities before installing a residential solar power system because there may be regulations in place that require licensed installers to do the installation. You should also check with your local electric company to see if they can provide net metering for you. Solar panel kits can be great for other reasons as well. If the electric company can accommodate your request for net metering then you could feed the excess electricity that is produced directly back into the main electricity grid. This will make your meter work in reverse instead of getting higher.
Another important aspect to consider before spending the money to put the residential solar power system in place is how long the warranty is good for. If the warranty runs out before the date you will have earned your money back then you could find yourself using the system for a short amount of time and then reverting back to using regular electricity and paying the price again.

Solar panel kits are great for making your home more energy efficient. You will find that this system will pay for its self in just a matter of a couple years and that you are very pleased with the outcome. Do your part to lower your monthly utility bills and to decrease the dependency on the electric company. You will not be sorry.

You might have wondered how people with home solar photovoltaic (PV) power systems have electricity at night, or when it's cloudy. The answer is batteries or a back-up connection to the local power grid. The solar panels on the roof, or mounted on a pole or on the ground collect energy from the sun and convert them to electricity. If you want a home solar power system that is completely independent of the local utility grid (or if you're out where there isn't a local utility grid) you'll need to store the excess energy you get during sunny days in batteries.

Batteries may seem like a big expense, and nobody's saying they're cheap. But it is possible for them to pay for themselves in what you'd save by not being hooked up to the local power grid. Some people have both batteries and a local grid hook-up. Anyone with solar powered electricity who is hooked up to the grid has to have an automatic cut-off from the grid in case of a power failure. The reason is safety. If your PV system is cranking out power but the local wires aren't, it could accidentally feed electricity into a line that a line worker thinks is dead.

When you have batteries to store energy from your solar power system, the energy is sent to a bank of batteries or a power inverter to convert the direct current (DC) electricity into alternating current (AC) electricity. Some solar panels have an inverter already built in, which simplifies the wiring considerably and makes it unnecessary to have a large central inverter.

In addition to a power inverter, you'll need a charge controller. That's because your batteries will have the longest possible life if they're not overcharged or overdrained. When the batteries are charged fully, the controller doesn't let any more current flow into them. When the batteries have been drained to a certain set level, the charge controllers won't allow more current to be drained from them until they've undergone a recharging.

You'll need to calculate your amp-hour requirements so you'll know how many batteries you need. Suppose you have a 24 volt battery and standard 120 volt AC in the house. You're powering a 3 amp load with a duty cycle of 4 hours each day. That's a 12 amp-hour load because 3 amps x 4 hours = 12 amp-hours.

However, with a 120 volt system, you'll need 5 of those 24 volt batteries. Multiply this by your amp-hours: 5 x 12 amp-hours = 60 amp-hours. That's how much will be drained from your batteries. The storage capacity of a battery is usually expressed in terms of amp-hours. It is also a good idea to add about 20% to your amp-hour estimate to store power for your longest estimated period of extremely cloudy conditions.

It is important if you buy batteries that you buy deep-cycle batteries. This is a different kind of battery from your car battery, which is a shallow-cycle battery. Your car battery discharges a large amount of current in a short amount of time to start your car, and then is recharged while you drive. But batteries for a home PV array have to discharge a smaller amount of current over a longer period of time, like at night, and they're then recharged during the day. Deep cycle batteries are the right batteries for this situation.

The deep-cycle batteries that are used most are lead-acid batteries and nickel-cadmium (Ni-Cad) batteries. The Ni-Cad batteries cost more, but last longer, and can be discharged more without being harmed. Deep-cycle lead-acid batteries cannot be discharged 100% without being damaged. Fortunately, home solar power systems are designed so that they don't discharge the lead-acid batteries more than 40 to 50%. Sealed deep-cycle lead-acid batteries don't require maintenance. They don't need watering, and they don't need an equalization charge. They do need to be recharged after each cycle. They are more expensive than non-sealed lead-acid batteries.

Battery technology is rapidly evolving, so by the time you have to replace your batteries a couple of times, you're likely to be able to buy much better, safer, longer-lasting batteries. For example, Ceramatec, a company in Utah, is making a prototype deep-storage battery about the size of a dormitory refrigerator that operates at room temperature and outputs household power at $0.025 per kilowatt hour.

The University of Maryland is researching batteries based on nano-technology, and scientists at Harvard are working on bacteria-powered "green" batteries. This is a very hot area of research right now, and even if you have to buy expensive and not-very-efficient batteries for now, your options should improve considerably over the life of your PV array.

If you have already decided that installing and using solar panels will reduce your energy bills over the years within your locality then you may have heard about how much power they can produce by merely capturing the sun rays and converting them into power. So, how much power can a solar panel provide you?

Well, the answer is simple. If you want your investment in solar panels to pay off, you must start with the inside of your home as well. You can obtain a much higher return on your investment if you are operating your daily household chores with energy efficient appliances.

You could use a big part of the energy that you produce with your solar panels simply to operate an older model refrigerator. If you are serious about going green and taking advantage of the energy that the sun provides, purchasing a refrigerator that requires a lower amount of energy to operate should be a big priority as well. This goes with all older electric appliances like your washer and dryer or dishwasher.

Manufacturers of all lines of appliances have realized that the attention of the world has gone to preserving energy. You can find energy efficient forms of most any electric appliance now. When you are totaling up how much energy can be produced by using the solar panels, consider how much will be wasted with inefficient appliances.

The solar panel kits that you can purchase will tell you that you can get up to 170 watts of power from the panels. This is only true if you are operating at maximum efficiency in your home. It would be a safer bet to count on that unit producing around 150 watts from each panel. This way you do not risk running out of power in the middle of the night when you need it the most.

After you have made the energy saving adjustments that are necessary to reduce waste in your home, do some studying. Record your electric usage on a daily basis and then get an average per day that you will be using. This will tell you how many panels you have to install in order to completely cut your reliance on the electric company for your needs.
There is an idea that each square meter of the solar panels will produce about a thousand watts of energy. There are some studies that say that this is well overstated and that you should count of around 200 watts of energy per square meter. There is a drastic difference in the two so how can you tell how many panels you will need to begin your transition into a greener life?

Well, we can thank the state of California for providing some answers for us. They have put together a chart that will provide us with more realistic ideas of what to expect from out solar panels. It has listings for particular manufacturers, model numbers, and the specific types of panels that are available. While this information is very useful, it too has some variances to keep in mind.

If your panels are hot, they will produce less energy than a cooler one. If you live in an area where the temperatures are typically fairly hot, you will not generate as much energy as someone that lives in an area that is cold most of the time. The chart also does not consider at which angel you will place your panels on your building. If you point them in a direction that will receive the fullest sunlight hours then you will, obviously, generate more power. If you place them in an area that does not have full sun exposure for the majority of the day then your power generation will be less.

These are all things that can contribute to the answer to the question, how much power can I generate with a solar panel system? You should defiantly take some time prior to purchasing the solar panel kit and evaluate your needs completely. Make changes in your appliances and light bulbs that will result in a lower electricity usage prior to deciding how much energy you will need.

The average person would be amazed at how much they could save on their electricity usage by simply living more green indoors. Once the changes have been made in side and the solar panels have been purchased and installed in a strategic place, your energy needs will be reduced drastically and you can feel good that you are making a difference.

Once upon a time, people who were interested in running their homes on solar power had to buy expensive batteries, learn to ration their electricity use, and do a lot of maintenance. This can make getting your home off the grid pretty daunting. That's why grid tied solar systems have become a lot more popular. These systems allow you to have a more normal life, and aren't as disruptive or expensive. They also still allow you to power as much of your home on solar energy as your solar cells and available sunlight will allow. Let's take a look at grid tied solar and what it could do for you.

Grid connected systems are attached to a large independent power grid - usually the local public electricity grid. They feed into the grid when you're not actively using electricity. They can vary significantly in size, and are used for solar power stations. This kind of decentralized power generation can be very useful. Every building with a grid tied system has its electric demand met by its photovoltaic system, and excess power is fed into the grid. This requires a special inverter to perform the DC to AC transformation. When your PV panels aren't providing enough electricity, you can draw power from the grid.

To allow for maintenance, a circuit breaker is located on both the AC and DC side of the inverter. This lets you safely maintain and adjust your inverter. After going through the inverter, the now-AC electricity will run through a meter and into the grid. This can be a separate meter, or a household electricity meter. Power companies are permitted to credit home users at a cost equal to their cost to generate power. However, this requires an extra meter and is inconvenient. Many companies simply credit owners of grid tied systems at the same rate as the one their regular power is billed at. Essentially, if you have a grid tied system, your power meter just runs backwards.

Over the past few decades, grid tied systems have become more popular and viable. This is because of a number of rules and technological advances. For instance, the Public Utilities Regulatory Policies Act, or PURPA, requires utilities to buy power from independent producers. It was passed in 1976. In 1993, the first inverters that could both send and take power from the grid were developed. These were very crude, but many people realized they could have a grid tied system, rather than an off grid solar setup.

Net metering legislation has been passed since then, requiring utilities to credit customers for the excess power generated by their solar panels. Concerns about the Y2K bug caused many people to put together grid tied solar systems "just in case" and made this type of system a lot more popular. In addition, the California energy crisis was a big motivator for people in this sun rich state to start generating some of their own power. At this time, all grid tied systems had backup batteries. It wasn't until late 2001 that batteryless systems were available. These are even less expensive and make solar energy much more viable for a lot of people.

If you've been thinking about moving to cleaner energy generated at home, but have always felt like it was too much of a step, a grid tied system might be just what you need. Grid tied solar electric generation is clean, safe, and much easier and less costly than going off grid. It can be a big benefit for homeowners. You just have to make sure you live somewhere that solar power generation is a viable option. Take the time to find out what level of sun you get at different points of the year, and figure your potential costs. You might be surprised by the results. For a lot of us, grid tied solar systems are a great investment.

Don't make the mistake of believing that solar power is for other people. If you live in the right area, and conditions are good for solar generation, you could be the owner of a grid tied system relatively soon. You won't have to ration electricity, go all the way off grid, or completely replace your existing power with solar. That makes this a much more flexible and affordable system. Plan correctly, and you can add to your system as you go.

If you make your own solar panels, then the key to keeping them from being damaged by weather is making sure they are sealed well. There aren't any moving parts in a solar cell array, but if moisture gets in, it can ruin the cells. You can put silicone "frame" around each cell, and then add a bead around the outer edges of the grid of cells. That way if water gets into one cell, it is far less likely to damage the whole panel.

Pushing out the air in the panel when you put the backing on it seals out moisture. Some designs call for drilling a hole in the bottom of the panel for letting moisture out. The problem is it can let moisture in. If you get the air out of the panel, you won't need such a hole. Many people use Plexiglas for the panel face because though it scratches fairly easily, it can take a lot of hits without breaking. Hail, for instance, can crack solar panels faced with glass, but not those with Plexiglas. If you add J flashing when you install the panels, you'll add another defense against moisture getting into the panels.

Not everyone makes their own solar panels, but even if you have premade solar panels installed, there are things you can do to protect them from weather. Some people install solar panels on ground-level racks because they're easier to get to for cleaning than those mounted on a roof. Simple warm water and dishwashing soap work well for cleaning up solar panels. You want to keep grime, bird droppings, dust, and pollen off so that the maximum amount of sunlight can reach the semiconductors.

As for removing snow, the type of snow will determine what you use. Powdery snow will usually fall off on its own, but icier snow may stick. There are many approaches, including throwing a Nerf football at the panels to knock off enough snow to allow the sun to reach it, causing the rest of the snow to melt off quicker. Some solar panel owners swear by pressurized hose water. Even if you have a way to use warm water in a hose, you shouldn't because the temperature difference can break the glass fronts of the frames. You can also get long-handled roof rakes with squeegee blades that work for cleaning snow off solar panels from the ground.

Snow isn't the only weather phenomenon that can cause problems with your solar panels. Windstorms, heavy rain, and objects falling from the sky (such as hickory nuts) can damage panels. As far as hail goes, the glazed and tempered glass should resist small hail just fine. It's the golf ball size and larger hail that can damage panels.

Lightning is a leading cause of destruction of solar panel systems that are not properly grounded. Grounding your system drains off accumulated charge so that lightning isn't drawn to your solar panels. And if your grounded system is struck by lightning, the ground connection will provide a safe path for discharge into the ground rather than through your home's wiring. In the U.S., the National Electric Code requires grounding, and low voltage systems are not exempt from these requirements. Make sure that the metallic framework of your solar panel array is grounded, and that the negative side of your power system is grounded as well.

If you install solar panels on your home, one of the first people who should know about it is your homeowners insurance agent. Your local climate will partly determine how much it will cost to insure your solar panels. You might want to shop homeowner's insurance quotes online before calling your agent so you'll know if you would be better off buying a policy from another company. Make sure that your insurance will pay enough to fix or replace the panels if you do need to make a claim.

Unfortunately, in some parts of the world, theft and vandalism are threats to solar panels too. Panels mounted on the ground or on poles are more vulnerable to theft and vandalism. The good news is that there is not yet a big enough market in used solar panels for thieves to be that much of a problem, but that certainly doesn't help if you're one of the victims. It is important to know whether your homeowner's insurance policy covers theft and vandalism, so ask your agent about it specifically.

As the popularity of solar power for homes grows rapidly, unfortunately, theft of solar panels grows apace too. There is a big market for black market solar panels worldwide, and people have reported losing up to US $10,000 and more in single incidents of theft. California is the biggest market for solar power, with more than 33,000 home solar power systems installed by the end of 2008, and burglary statistics are highest there, too. Solar panels stolen from a Newport Beach toll road were offered for $100 apiece on eBay, even though they were worth $1,500. Police managed to "win" the auction and greeted the seller with an arrest warrant.

It is obvious that people steal them to turn a quick profit by reselling them. Wineries and schools in California have also been victims of solar panel theft. Thieves take 40 to 50 solar panels per heist. Two thieves working as a team can lift a roof's worth of panels in two hours. They sometimes sell them on eBay or Craigslist, sell them to unscrupulous solar PV cell installers, or drive them to Mexico to sell them. In other words, thieves get quite a return on a couple of hours worth of time investment. The biggest targets for solar panel theft are installations in remote areas or in office parks where there is little to no traffic on weekends. It would not be difficult for thieves to pass themselves off as installation technicians when in fact they were taking solar panels. Unfortunately, adequate security measures to protect the panels can cost almost as much as the panels themselves.

If you have solar panels, you certainly want to protect yourself against theft. Fortunately, there are plenty of things you can do that won't cost as much as a video security system.

One thing you should do anyway when you install solar panels is to inform your homeowner's insurance carrier. If they don't know you have them, they won't cover them in the event of a claim. If there is catastrophic damage to your house, such as a fire, the insurance policy will pay out only up to your predefined limit on the policy. If that limit won't cover your possible losses, then you need to adjust your policy so you won't be caught short. Though solar panels are designed to be used outdoors, severe weather such as hail, lightning, and high winds can damage the panels, so be sure your homeowner's policy covers those contingencies.

Some manufacturers of solar power kits sell customized odd-shaped bolts to lock down the panels. Ordinary wrenches and screwdrivers won't work on them because only the installer has the special key necessary to detach them properly. Companies that make secure bolts for things like voting machines and lottery kiosks are now making special bolts for solar panels. While determined thieves can cut through the bolts with a hacksaw, they are considered enough of a deterrent that the thieves will probably give up and look for an easier target. A company called CodeSource in Texas molds on a super-strong label that won't fade in the sunlight, and lasers can be used to etch a barcode and serial number onto the label.

Installing motion detector lights on the roof is a fairly inexpensive and ingenious way to deter theft of solar power panels and give neighbors a chance of getting a good look at any thieves. Some people use heavy chains to link the solar power panelstogether. Thieves would much rather pick off panels one by one and chains prevent that. Or you could secure the panels to your roof trusses with locked security cable. And because it's just a good idea: don't leave ladders leaned up against the house. There's no reason to make things convenient for thieves.

Some people do install security cameras onto their roof. You can buy alarms that are wired through each panel that makes a deafening siren noise if the panels are disturbed. These alarms also dial pre-programmed numbers such as the police and your cell phone number. They can be expensive: $2,000 or so, but if you stand to lose $100,000 in solar power panels, they may be a wise investment.

There is in some cases the prospect of karmic retribution. Someone hijacking solar panels who cuts the wrong wires stands to get a nasty electrical shock.