What is a Grid Tied Solar Powered Home

The Grid is the network of power lines that makeup your local utilities system that feeds your power needs. DIY Solar Powered Home Systems come in two types, OFF-GRID and GRID-TIED. I will not be discussing the OFF-GRID system in ths article but it is as the name suggests, it is not attached to the public utilities power grid. The GRID-TIED system is a combination of your solar powered home system and the public utilities power grid. Now to the question.

What is a Grid Tied Solar Powered Home System and how does it work? Well the solar powered home system will generate some or all of your homes electricity needs (depending on your system) while the public utilities grid is only drawn from during times that your power needs exceed your systems capability to generate. In an ideal situation, your DIY solar powered home system will generate an excess of electricity, sending this energy back to your public utilities power grid thus having the utility company paying you to produce energy for them. Wouldn't that be nice for a change. Lets breifly discuss the components of a GRID-TIED Solar Powered Home System next.

The basic component requirements for a GRID-TIED solar powered home system are Solar Panels, a Combiner Box, a DC Breaker Box, a Battery Storage Bank (optional), Inverter, Grid Disconnet Box and a Reversable Meter.

Solar Panels - Collect solar energy and convert it into DC power.

Combiner Box - The point in the system that brings all of the Solar Panel connections together.

DC Breaker Box - Designed to shut down your solar powered home system. Useful to perform system maintenance.

Battery Storage Bank - Stores excess generated solar electricity that can be used at a later time. This is not requried to operate a GRID-TIED system is an advantage during black outs.

Inverter - Converts the solar power Direct Current (DC) to the standard Alternating Current (AC) for your household.

Grid Disconnect - Disconnects the grid (stops flow of electricity). Useful to perform system maintenance.

Reversable Meter - Allows the flow of excess power back into the grid spinning the wheel BACKWARDS giving you a usage credit.

So to sum up. GRID-TIED is the combination of the public utilities power and a DIY solar powered home system to provide your power requriements. A well designed system can save you money on your electric bills and allows you to do your part to help save the planet at the same time. It is the most popular type of DIY Solar Powered Home System as it is cost effective and allows the owner to use the public utilities power grid as a backup.

Save Time, Money and Aggravation, Click Here to learn more from the Solar Power Professionals.