Solar Power Facts
Hello, welcome back to the SolarCost Blog. Today we are talking about some solar power facts that might be useful for you and help you design your energy saving plan better.
First off, many people think that solar panels electricity can work well for any home electric devices. While this is true you will find that it is not cost effective to use the electricity to power large electric devices that use heating element such as electric stove or clothes dryer due to the amount of wattage they consume. However clothes dryer that uses the electricity for ignition only is considered cost effective because there is no electric heating element involved in the heat generation. In the United States alone around 40% of the utility bill is spent on cooling and heating system. You may want to check your monthly utility payment to figure out the real number.
Any devices such as water heater or other home heating systems should use solar heating panels that convert the sun energy directly into heat. Solar heating panels have higher efficiency than electric solar panels so you’d better use the solar electricity for other purposes.
Up to now home solar system cannot fully replace the fossil fueled electricity due to its cost but you can plan to substitute the grid electricity by 15% or any value you can spend and you can still save some money by doing this. To help you save cost better an energy efficient window glass can really help preventing summer heat from penetrating your house through the windows, especially on the west side, but also allow winter sun energy to keep your house’s structure warmer.
For aesthetic reason some people prefer multi colored photovoltaic panels. These panels convert less electricity and cost more than standard panels.
How big the panels will be for 100 watts energy generated? It will depend on the photovoltaic cell’s dimension but typically they will occupy around 2 ft by 4 ft of your yard or roof area. For thin film solar panels you have to double the area occupation because they have lower efficiency.
To have a 1 KW home solar panels you will need an array of 10 to 12 photovoltaic panels, all will cost you around $10,000 to $15,000 before rebates. As previously stated in other post in this blog the price varies greatly depends on what system you are looking for, i.e. off or on grid option, with or without solar batteries, type of inverters, etc.
Your solar panels alone are warranted for at least 20 years but this does not represent the whole system warranty. Batteries and solar inverters for example have shorter lifespan so the warranty will definitely be shorter as well.
All of these solar power facts are not presented to discourage you from applying this green electricity but is more to address some issue that might be of your interest before purchasing the system.
the SolarCost Admin
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