People usually associate solar power with solar panels. But you see, solar panels are not the only source of power. You can choose among the several components known today. Take a look at these solar components that you can use at home.

1. Solar cookers – this is already a common way of using solar power. Some people may find the cooker slow in terms of performance but if you’re not rushing, you can surely cook on time. You can use the solar cooker to roast, bake, and boil. This is best suited for a small family with a maximum of 5 members. You will no longer need fuel since you will be using only sunshine. There are also no emissions or smoke.
2. Solar thermal systems – this is an ambitious system but it’s simply an update of the oldest known consumer technology. In this system, you will need solar panels. From the panels, the sun’s heat is transferred to a water tank. The water in the tank is heated. Your home can also be heated by putting some pipes. This was already available back in the 80s but it was rather expensive. Today, the thermal systems are more affordable and efficient.
3. Solar generators – many homeowners are now utilizing solar generators for alternative power. The generator makes use of photovoltaic cells where the power inverter is hooked. You can use the solar generators for your lighting system at home. The electrical power is stored in the batteries and you can use it later. By using solar generators, it would be possible to run some electrical appliances. If you have $200, you can already create the generator.

A wealth of information can be found on the net if you simply do your homework and look for useful info. By purchasing the DIY kits, you can create your own solar power system. There are also instructional materials available online that provide step by step instructions on how to create solar panels or cells. It would help a lot if you conduct a search online and read the step by step instructions there; that way, you can determine if you can carry out the project or not.

Solar power systems are not that difficult to create especially if you already have a considerable knowledge about it. All you will need to do now is to establish a workable budget so that you can start with the right project that you can afford. You can start with very simple solar power systems for your home like the solar generators. The generators are much more affordable and easy to make. After some time, you can now make more complicated plans like the thermal systems. Solar power for homes is an excellent alternative to those who want to save on electricity and help save the earth.

Don’t think twice and if you have the money to purchase the materials to make solar power systems, go for it. In the coming months, you will surely benefit from it.

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Unfortunately, only a tiny portion of it is harnessed and the world still relies on power plants that burn fossil fuels. The good thing, though, is that there is a constant increase in demand for solar energy; and over the years of continuous development, solar panels are much cheaper today.

During peak hours, the maximum power density that the sun can give is about 1kW per square meter. In other words, one square meter of solar panel can produce as much as 100 GWh (gigawatt hours) of electricity in one year. That is enough to power 50,000 houses.

If a solar power plant is build on 1% of the total land area of the Sahara desert, it will satisfy the world’s energy requirement.

The efficiency of solar panels depends on several factors such as pollution, clouds, temperature and atmospheric humidity.

Solar power plants are very similar to other conventional power plants – with one significant difference: The majority of power plants draw their power from fossil fuels like oil, coal and gas.

When power plants burn fossil fuels, they produce greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming. Solar power plants or solar thermal power plants (or Concentrating Solar Power plants) utilize the power of the sun’s rays to generate electricity.

The process could not be any simpler. The solar panels receive heat from the sun, which will be reflected to the receiver. The receiver converts into steam the concentrated solar energy. The steam is stored on tanks which will be used to turn the turbines and generate electricity.

The whole process does not involve any burning of any fossil fuels. Thus, solar power plants do not contribute to global warming.

The increase in the use of solar energy will bring down the demand for oil.

Today, there are more than 10,000 households with solar energy systems and the number is constantly increasing. If the demand for solar energy as well as other forms of alternative energy, the demand for oil will drop and the cost fuel will likely to follow.

Residential solar energy system can turn your electric meter backwards. Given that you are connected on a power-grid, the excess energy that your solar energy system produces will go to the electric lines to be used by other homes. As a result, any excess energy you give will be reflected on your bills. Your electric supplier will even pay for the electricity you supplied.

Residential solar energy system can save you money.

While the initial cash out for installing solar energy system at home is big, the device will pay for itself in the long run. Not only you will save money on solar energy system, you also help the environment by not contributing to carbon emissions.

Solar energy systems are reliable and can last for a very long time.

PV cells are last from 25 to 40 years. Many manufacturers of solar panels give 25 years product warranty. This is the assurance that solar panels are very dependable.

In addition, solar panels require little or no maintenance and the can be installed on most places where there is sunlight throughout the year.

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1. The CSP Solar Power Plants
2. Pros and Cons of Residential Solar Energy System
3. Out of the Ordinary: Alternative Energy Sources

Unlike most of solar homes relying on the photovoltaic cell technology to create electricity, SEGS use concentrating solar power (CSP) technology to collect the sunlight and focus it to boil water which is then used to generate electricity. Other multi-megawatt photovoltaic plants also have been built in addition to the existing plants. The total area occupied by the solar plants is said to be more than 1,600 acres with 936,384 mirrors are set to automatically track the sun throughout the day.

All of these mirrors are directing the sunlight to a central tube filled with synthetic oil. The accumulated heat can reach over 750 degF. The synthetic oil then transfers its heat to water which boils and drives the steam turbine to generate electricity.

The CSP Advantages

One of the advantages of CSP systems is that CSP can be integrated fairly easily into today’s electric utility grid because they are relatively similar to most of the conventional power plants running on fossil fuels. Unlike the photovoltaic panels that don’t create electricity at night, CSP power plants can still produce electricity because the medium heated during the day can be stored in vessels to keep the turbines running at night.

The other advantage of the CSP is they produce no environmental contaminants or greenhouse gases and there is no cost spent on the energy source because we use free energy from the sun.

The CSP Disadvantages

Concentrating solar power plants occupy a large amount of land. The SEGS for example occupy more than 1,600 acres of land.

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1. Facts about Solar Energy and Solar Power Plants

Home Solar Panels

The electric solar panels output is rated in watt (W) which equals to the voltage (Volt) multiplied by the current (Ampere). The most common output is 12VDC which is the nominal voltage of the solar batteries. To charge a 12VDC battery you will need voltage higher than 12VDC so by default most of the solar panels are designed to produce an effective output up to 17VDC in a hot sunny day.

If you have a 12VDC 100 watt solar panels, the maximum current per hour produced in direct sunlight is: Current = Power / Voltage = 100W/17VDC = 5.9A.
Note that the actual voltage generated by the solar panels is 17V so we have to put this number into calculation instead of using the 12V rated voltage.
The next factor to put into calculation is the average hours of peak sun per day in your area. If you have 5 hours of peak sun the power generated by your electric solar system per day will be 100W X 5hr = 500 watt-hours.

Solar Batteries

Solar batteries are rated in Amp-hours and designed for deep cycle discharging. Ideally you should give 20% extra capacity to anticipate heavy discharging during cloudy or no sun condition.

What does it mean if you have a 12V 350Ah battery? Multiply the voltage by the amp and you will get 4200 Wh or 4.2 kWh power kept in the battery.
If you prefer a 24V system you can put two 12V batteries in series, similar to stacking up 2 X 1.5V batteries for your flash light. The current will remain the same but the voltage is doubled.

Connecting 2 X 12V batteries in parallel will double the current but the voltage will remain 12V.

Solar Inverter

Solar inverter is needed to convert DC voltage into AC. To power your 6 Amp 120VAC inverter with 5 hours duty cycle using a 12VDC battery you will need a 30 amp hour load (6 A X 5hrs). This is not the real drain value of the electric solar system. You should divide the load voltage by the battery voltage, in our example here is 120/12 = 10 and then multiply it by the inverter’s amp hours (30 Ah). Total current needed from the battery to power your inverter here is 300 Ah. If you add a 20% margin you will need to buy a 360 Ah 12VDC battery.

The SolarCost Admin

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1. Solar Kits
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A. Cost Calculation

What is Your Monthly Bill?

If you spend less than USD 100 then maybe solar panels electricity is not a right choice considering the initial cost you have to pay vs. the cost saving you will make with the panels. Solar homes may need around $20,000 to $60,000 – depends on the power needed – for the initial investment. Calculate how much energy you use every month and how much energy you actually need. If you can save money by reducing the power consumption such as turning off the TV sets or AC when you’re not home it will save you some bucks as well so you don’t need to go with the solar option. However if you are eager to do your DIY solar project there are some e-books that can explain better how to make cheap solar panels.

If every month you spend more than USD 100 you can get some solar companies to calculate how much you have to pay for the system.

The Dream of Going Green

People understand that fossil fuels are not renewable and therefore they are looking for solar electricity as an alternative energy source because sun energy is free and renewable. A lot of people take this as a perfect substitution to the fossil fuels and they want to switch to solar electricity completely. What they forget is going solar will cost them the initial investment which is quite expensive. You have to pay upfront in order to get the free energy and leaving the utility grid is not a wise decision. The best way is you have the solar electricity integrated with the grid electricity. By doing this you can store your solar electricity in the grid and get credit from the utility company. You can plan to substitute 15%, 25% – any value you can afford – of the fossil fueled electricity. Once the solar cost is more affordable you can gradually expand the home solar system to the amount you are comfortable with. Substituting 15% of the fossil electricity may look small but if all of us do that it will significantly reduce the fossil fuels consumption. The good news is solar cost is becoming less expensive and by 2010 according to some experts the price will be 40% to 50% cheaper than what we have to pay now. The government also gives 30% federal tax credit and local rebates that differs from one state to another. Both rebates can chop the price up to 50%. Renting solar panels is also possible now. The rental company will take care of the maintenance for you periodically.

B. The Area You are Living in

Solar cost may differ greatly between states. If you are living in a sunny area you will need fewer solar panels. Cloudy areas need more panels to generate the same amount of electricity means you have to spend more money.

The Southern Exposure

Since we are living in the northern hemisphere the best place to mount the panels is on the roof or yard facing to the south. This position will allow your panels to get full sun exposure which leads to more electricity produced. If this best place is not available you still can go with other orientation but again you may have to spend more money for more panels to compensate the power loss.

Shading

Even with the southern exposure sometimes you don’t get maximum electricity during a hot sunny day if the panels are under shade. Make sure there is no object that can block the sunbeams from reaching the solar panels.

C. Other Consideration

Some components such as solar inverter, solar charge controller and solar batteries (if you decide to have them installed) may need renewal after the first installation. It is always a good idea to put all of these components into cost calculation to predict how much money you can actually save with this system in a long term.

the Solar Cost Admin

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OK, what I write here in this SolarCost Blog is generic. You may find other parts that are not listed here but in general the solar kits described here should represent the parts found in common home solar system.

Electric Solar Panels

Sunbeams emitted to our earth consist of light and heat energy. We can use both of them in different application; the heat can be perfectly used to heat water or air while the light can be used to produce solar power electricity.

Electric solar panels capture light energy from the sun and convert it into DC current. Because the panels need the light energy only – not the heat – they still can work in winter although the performance is not as good as in the full sun season.

Any other solar kits besides the electric solar panels are grouped together into BOS (balance of system).

- Panels Mounting System

A Hardware / mounting device to secure the solar panels to the ground, roof or a pole. There are two types of mounting system, fixed and movable. The movable mounting device is more expensive because it’s equipped with a tracking technology that will self-adjust the hardware to follow the sun movement. This design allows more light energy captured resulting in more electricity created.

- Combiner Box

A combiner box is needed to combine some solar panels in parallel. It also has a built in circuit breakers / fuses. Normally its position is next to the solar panels.

- Charge Controller / Regulator

The main function of a solar charge controller is to regulate the current output from solar panels before fed to the storage battery. Without this regulator the battery can be overcharged by the solar panels. The regulator also has a battery current leakage preventer. It blocks current flowing back from the battery into the solar panels during no presence of sun.

- Solar Batteries

Solar batteries are needed to keep the electricity produced by solar panels. If you choose off-grid home solar system you need to have them included in the solar kits. Off-grid means the home solar system is not connected to the grid provided by the utility company.

- Inverters

Depending on what system you have in your house, a solar inverter is used to change the DC current from either the solar batteries or straight from the solar panels output into AC current that is needed for your household. If your system is on-grid no battery is needed, the inverter will take current from the PV panels but if you prefer off-grid solar kits you will need the battery to keep the PV panels output.

- Other Accessories

Any other parts including disconnects, brackets, connectors, conduit and cables needed to safely connect the whole solar kits together. All parts and the installation work should meet the US NEC (National Electric Code) Section 690.

Further detailed information will be posted in the future posts.

the SolarCost Admin

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On-Grid Solar Power Generator

On-grid system integrates the electricity from the electric solar panels into the power lines provided by the utility company. While you may think it is less effective actually this combination gives you a lot of benefits:

-    You are connected to two electricity sources; if one fails the other system can always back it up.

-    The on-grid (also known as grid-tied) system is more reliable than off-grid especially in the cloudy areas.

-    On-grid system without battery is less expensive than off-grid system. However if you choose to go on-grid without battery there will be a time when the grid goes down in a cloudy day or night and you are left alone without electricity despite of the huge solar array you have on the roof ….

-    On-grid system needs less maintenance compared to off-grid system.

-    In the states that enable net metering you can get some credits from the electricity produced by your solar array. How it works? The meter will spin backwards (you are getting credit here) if your solar system generates enough electricity in a hot sunny day. When there is lack of sunlight you will withdraw the electricity from the power lines, meaning you have to pay the utility company for the electricity. Withdrawing electricity will spin the meter forwards as usual. Note that you still have to pay a small amount of monthly cost to maintain the connection.

Off-Grid Solar Power Generator

Off-grid system is not connected to the power lines, maybe due to the owner prefer to have it that way or because there is no power lines available. If you live in a remote area where there is no electricity available you don’t have other choices. Here are some aspects to consider:

-    Initial cost will be higher than the on-grid system without battery. If you choose to go off-grid you have to provide battery to bank the electricity otherwise you have nothing during the nights. Battery can cost you thousands of dollars so it can be quite frightening for some people.

-    Solar batteries have shorter lifespan than the panels. Some batteries need certain maintenance as well.

-    While generating electricity from the sun is considered green, disposing of used batteries is another issue: it is highly toxic.

If you are living in the United States you will find that in most places solar power generator and wind turbine alone can’t supply enough electricity to power your home due to insufficient wind or sun during winter season. The best choice is still to combine the grid and solar power.

the SolarCost admin

green energy for better Earth

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