Monday, January 3, 2011

WHY you need Solar Power Generator ???

You may be wondering why you need a solar power generator for your home. You hear about solar energy and 'green power' all the time but may think it doesn't really apply to you. This alternative power source applies to everyone that uses electricity, hot water, heat or cooling in their household. Anyone that even cooks their family's food at home needs clean, safe, environmentally sound power. If you own a swimming pool and want to heat the water, you need alternative power sources to make this affordable. As you can see, every home can benefit from the use of a solar power generator.



Solar Power Generator

 The Earth's limited supply of fossil fuels is running out at an alarming pace. We don't think much about it when we turn on a light switch or turn the thermostat to a comfortable temperature. It never crosses most people's minds when they step into a comfortably hot shower that valuable resources are being eaten away by their actions. It is, however, true that the rising cost of traditional power sources is not just a ploy by utility companies to get more money and earn more profits. The location and development of new sources of the fuels required to produce the utilities we think so little about requires more and more every year. The sources in use are running out and, unfortunately, these resources are non-renewable. Someday, there simply won't be any more for the power companies to obtain and use to generate energy for us to purchase.
Why should you decide to install a solar power generator system for your home now? There are many valid reasons besides saving resources. One of the most attractive reasons is that it can save you money over a period of time. After the initial investment in the solar powered energy generating system, which can range from only a couple of years to as many as ten or more depending on the solar power system you select, you get free power with almost no maintenance and effort for years to come. Solar generator systems have almost no moving parts and are not susceptible to frequent breakdowns, providing you with a lasting power source at no cost, or very little cost, to you. With the continual rise in fossil fuel prices, the pay off can happen even sooner as prices continue to sky rocket.

Another great reason to choose now as the time to install a solar power generator is the fact that you may be able to obtain a grant to pay for part of your system. A grant is a disbursement of funds for a specific purpose that, unlike a loan, does not have to be paid back. Often grants are available from the federal or state government to help you afford the cost of the solar power system.

Tax credits are available to people that use solar power generators. A break on federal income tax and, in some states, state income tax is available only to those that install and utilize alternative power systems to reduce their dependence on traditional power sources. To learn how installing a solar power system can help you with income taxes, contact the Internal Revenue Service, either online or by telephone, and contact your state income tax agency to learn what, if any, incentives are available in your state for alternative power installations. The savings in tax money can be substantial, helping defray the cost of installing the system.

The installation of a solar power generator can add to the resale value of your home. If you plan to sell your current home in order to move into a large home in the future, the addition of solar power raises the value of your property and makes it much more attractive to the potential buyers. 


Working of Solar Inventor


Now is the right time to act on obtaining a solar power generator. Reduce your dependence on fossil fuels and you'll find you and your family benefit in many ways. 

Source: http://www.facts-about-solar-energy.com/solar-power-generator.html

Thursday, December 30, 2010

How to Calculate Charging Current for a Solar Module

Solar Module gives you solar energy and you must know that how to calculate charging current for a Solar Module..

Ohm's Law Formula

This is the formula to calculate charging current for a Solar Module :
  • I=V/R - This is a formula we learned in high school, that still holds relevance today. Current is equal to voltage divided by resistance.
  • I=P/V - Current is equal to power (in watts) divided by voltage (in volts). If you have a 200 watt panel, with a Voc rating of 44v, you have a panel that is outputting 4.55 amps.
  • Series versus Parallel - If your panels are wired in parallel, the amperage will remain the same throughout the string. if your panels are wired in series, the amperage will compound throughout the string.
    • Let's say you have six 200 watt panels, with a Voc rating of 44v each (44*6 = 264). Your current will still be 4.55 amps, which will be your charging current.
    • Your charging current can be lower depending on your specific charge controller.

    Calculate your charging current of your solar panel Right now..!!

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

How to Choose The Best Solar Energy System !!!!

With the recent advances in technology in recent years, having the capacity to produce viable and clean energy to use to power your house is now an actuality. Alternative sources of power and energy is not going to assist you avoid burning fossil fuel to aid provide electricity on your home, but may also save lots of cash on the buying price of your utility. A kind of sustainable energy sources is solar energy.

Best Solar System SolarDelphia

There are actually a number of different solar energy systems which can be out there today. Since solar energy is becoming prevalent and even more viable from the the recent past, developers have begun to produce different solar energy systems you could select, according to your requirements and limitations.

Purchasing a solar energy system that would fit best for your home is definitely not an uncomplicated matter, which explains why it is important that you learn the easiest way the most beneficial one in order to get the correct form of solar energy system to your home. Here are a couple of hints.

Know Your Solar Energy System
Solar Panels in PA


Before anything else, one thing that you must do is you will need to make sure that you understand what different solar energy systems you can find that you can select. Basically, the two main a variety of solar energy systems, and the ones would be the photovoltaic (PV) panels and solar thermal systems.

Photovoltaic Panels

Photovoltaic panels are solar energy panels that convert solar energy and turn them into electricity that can be used to power up the vast majority of your appliances and household lighting, and may only be used for the people particular uses. Unfortunatley, on the list of solar energy systems which might be out there, photovoltaic panels are accepted as significant expensive ones, otherwise the more expensive while in the solar energy market today.

Solar Thermal Systems

Solar thermal systems, however, simply generate heat, and are well-suited for boilers, furnaces and water heaters, as this kind of system means that you can make heat using direct solar energy at a far lower cost in comparison with using conventional energy and electricity. However, if you would like retrofit your home basic solar thermal systems, you need to sacrifice a modest amount of space at your residence. Numerous about using this sort of solar energy system though is that you will save you as much as 80% of one’s total energy cost every year.

Calculate Your Cost

After getting a far greater understanding and grasp of what solar energy systems are to choose from, and how they work, you only need to learn how to calculate the money necessary for your current consumption. This may actually enable you to determine which type of solar energy system it is best to pick both the. When calculating the cost of your energy consumption, you should build a list of all the so-called stuff could need energy and electricity. Include appliances, lighting, water heating, space heating, space cooling and air con. If you possibly could, attempt to ascertain first if there are ways that you could eliminate electricity and energy consumption without resorting to retrofitting the house with solar energy system.

Source: http://ezine-articles-store.com/environment/how-to-choose-the-best-solar-energy-system/

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

How does solar power work?

Solar Cell
The sun — that power plant in the sky — bathes Earth in ample energy to fulfill all the world's power needs  many times over. It doesn't give off carbon dioxide emissions. It won't run out. And it's free.

So how on Earth can people turn this bounty of sunbeams into useful electricity?

The sun's light (and all light) contains energy. Usually, when light hits an object the energy turns into heat, like the warmth you feel while sitting in the sun. But when light hits certain materials the energy turns into an electrical current instead, which we can then harness for power.

Old-school solar technology uses large crystals made out of silicon, which produces an electrical current      
when struck by light. Silicon can do this because the electrons in the crystal get up and move when exposed to light instead of just jiggling in place to make heat. The silicon turns a good portion of light energy into electricity, but it is expensive because big crystals are hard to grow.

Newer materials use smaller, cheaper crystals, such as copper-indium-gallium-selenide, that can be shaped into flexible films. This "thin-film" solar technology, however, is not as good as silicon at turning light into electricity.

Right now, solar energy only accounts for a tiny portion of the U.S.'s total electricity generation, because it is more expensive than alternatives like cheap but highly polluting coal. Solar power is about five times as expensive as what people pay for the current that comes out of the outlets.

In order to have a hope of replacing fossil fuels, scientists need to develop materials that can be easily mass-produced and convert enough sunlight to electricity to be worth the investment.

They asked Paul Alivisatos, deputy laboratory director at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California and a leader of their Helios solar energy research project, to explain how people capture energy from sunlight and how we can do it better.

[An edited transcript of the interview follows.]

What is a solar cell?

A solar cell is a device people can make that takes the energy of sunlight and converts it into electricity.

How does a solar cell turn sunlight into electricity?

In a crystal, the bonds [between silicon atoms] are made of electrons that are shared between all of the atoms of the crystal. The light gets absorbed, and one of the electrons that's in one of the bonds gets excited up to a higher energy level and can move around more freely than when it was bound. That electron can then move around the crystal freely, and we can get a current.

Imagine that you have a ledge, like a shelf on the wall, and you take a ball and you throw it up on that ledge. That's like promoting an electron to a higher energy level, and it can't fall down. A photon [packet of light energy] comes in, and it bumps up the electron onto the ledge [representing the higher energy level] and it stays there until we can come and collect the energy [by using the electricity].

What's the biggest difference between how a plant captures light energy and how we do it with solar cells?

We wish we could do what plants do because plants absorb the light, and [they use] that electron to change a chemical bond inside the plant to actually make fuel.

Could you do artificial photosynthesis and emulate a plant?

We would love to be able to make a solar cell that instead of making electricity makes fuel. That would be a very big advance. It's a very active topic right now among researchers, but it's hard to predict when we will be able to use it.

One of the reasons we like to plant trees is because they take the CO2 out of the air. If we could do that [with a solar cell], then we could actually deal with global warming problems even more directly because we'd be pulling the CO2 out of the air to make our fuel.

How good are current solar cells at capturing light energy?

So we can talk about the power efficiency. The power efficiency of a typical crystalline silicon cell is in the 22 to 23 percent [range, meaning they convert as much as 23 percent of the light striking them into electricity]. The ones that you typically might be able to afford to put on your rooftop are lower than that, somewhere between 15 and 18 percent. The most efficient, like the ones that go on satellites, might have power efficiencies approaching 50 percent.

The power efficiency is one measure, but the other thing that we're very concerned about is the cost of making them and the scale of production.

In my opinion, the silicon technology doesn't scale [up] too well [because it's expensive to make]. We need to invent some new technology, [which] may not be as efficient, but you need to be able to make millions of acres of stuff if you want to get a lot of energy. People are trying to use new materials like plastics and nanoparticles.

The total solar production in 2004 was around one thousandth of the total power consumption of the U.S. It's just not enough. Something's gotta change. We're not there yet. There's a lot of discoveries still to be made.

Source: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-does-solar-power-work

Monday, December 27, 2010

Going Green With Renewable Solar Energy

Solar energy is a comprehensive and reliable alternative for electricity that comes from the continuing and renewable source of the sun. It is a form of natural energy generated by the solar panels which produce inexhaustible amount of solar electricity for your daily use. This natural form of energy is environment-friendly and does not pollute the environment, as it does not release any poisonous or contaminated pollutants to the atmosphere. Besides being environment-friendly, solar energy is also budget-friendly and saves you money on electricity bills every month. Going green with this natural and comprehensive source of energy is a worthwhile option for combating the energy crisis and saving the environment from global warming. Given below are a few advantages of solar energy that will definitely enable you to understand why using this alternative source of electricity is a sensible choice.


1. Saves on Electricity Expenditure - Economical

Installing solar electric system is slightly expensive and might require a huge investment at the initial level. But once you have installed a solar electric panel at your home, you will get an inexhaustible amount of energy for your daily expenditure. Solar panel will change your house into a power generator that can create electricity on its own. It will save you money on your monthly electricity bills, as it will provide you with more energy than you can use.

2. No Pollution - Environment-Friendly

Going green with solar energy also provides another incredible advantage that it does not cause global warming, smog or acid rain and protects your surroundings. Solar electric photovoltaic cells make no noise while converting sunlight into solar electricity and do not release any chemicals like (carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, mercury), certain poisonous substances or other pollutants into the atmosphere. This natural source of energy is reliable and more environment friendly as compared to other fossils fuel which release various green house gases, certain carcinogens like carbon dioxide and other poisonous substances.

3. Reliable Energy - Renewable & Inexhaustible

Solar electric panels are extremely reliable and create an inexhaustible and renewable form of solar energy that remains available for long-term daily usage. After installing a solar electric system in your home, you will get renewable and natural energy to cater to all your daily energy needs. As the sun is a constant source of energy that consistently provides sunlight, the solar photovoltaic cells can easily convert sunlight into solar electricity for every day use.

4. Solar Panels - Sustainable & Self-Sufficient

There is no need to worry about power outage as solar panels are self-sufficient and require no or low maintenance. Solar energy system does not require any connection to power grid and can easily be installed at any place. Using this reliable energy source will lower our reliance on fossils fuels and other renewable sources to fulfill our electricity requirements.

Going green with solar energy is really a prudent step towards saving money and protecting the environment. Although, at an initial level you might feel that the installation of solar electric system is very expensive, but after installation you will realize that this is a very viable option and it helps provide renewable energy for a considerable amount of time.

Source: EzineArticles - SolarDelphia

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Why Should You Hire Solar Installers?

                                                 Solar Panel Installer


Nowadays, Solar panels are gaining swift popularity as they provide renewable and environmentally friendly source of energy. Installing solar electric systems in your residence is a prudent endeavor. But when it comes to panel installation, selecting the right location, panel type, inverter, batteries or interconnection wiring is very critical in order to take full advantage of your the module. Hiring a solar panel installer will be a worthwhile decision in this regard, as your installer will give you professional advice and help you out in selecting the right kinds of the solar electric system at affordable rates. This article will focus on the significance of panel installers and describe how they can help you in installing solar electric systems.

1. Providing you an Efficient and Reliable System

A professional panel installer will help you to select an efficient, safe and reliable solar electric system for your residence. He will provide you with a variety of solar electric products including inverter, controller and other components of the modules that will surely fit with your energy needs as well as with your budget. He will determine an appropriate size of solar electric system by analyzing your monthly energy needs. After analyzing your energy needs he can better advice you on the right size and type of solar PV system that will certainly meet your needs.

2. Determining the Right Location

A solar installer can also help you in determining the right place for installing your solar photovoltaic unit, as it requires direct sun exposure for producing optimum electricity. He will also check your roof's support capability prior to installing the solar module, as your roof must be structurally sound to support the load of solar electric systems.

3. Protecting You From Workplace Hazards

Another basic reason behind hiring a professional solar installer is merely because solar panel installation is an intricate job that requires expertise for the accomplishment of this task. Installation of solar power system requires complicated electrical wiring process and high-quality solar products that you may not be able to find at affordable rates. Installing a solar module without the help of a professional installer can be extremely dangerous as it may cause workplace hazards. Solar installers will not only provide you affordable and quality solar products but will also ensure the panel is correctly installed for maximum efficiency.

4. Saving You Money & Time

Professional solar installers do numerous installations on a regular basis, so they have a good idea about the prices and quality of solar supplies. If you hire a professional and proficient solar installer, then surely he will save you time and money by providing you all the mounting supplies at a lower cost and in less time.

Professional solar installers know all about the latest mounting equipments and technologies which will certainly help ensure that your solar electric system will produce optimum efficiency for a considerable period of time.
Getting the help of a professional solar panel installer will provide you with safe and reliable solar PV system installation for your residence. With it you will be able to generate an inexhaustible amount of solar energy for the accomplishment of your electricity needs and save money on your monthly electricity bills.
We know your home or property is one of your biggest investments, so we go above and beyond our competition in using the very best materials for your solar system; from the most efficient solar panels on the market to the highest quality roofing and electrical materials.

Source: EzineArticles - SolarDelphia

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Where to Install Your Solar Panel?

Solar panels offer a cost-efficient way to generate renewable and natural energy. Solar energy is a reliable energy source that saves you money on energy costs and helps protect our environment. Solar panel installation is the best way to generate solar energy and transform your house into a power generator. Solar electric system consists of photovoltaic cells that convert sunlight into a renewable and clean energy. If truth be told, solar panel installation is a valuable option for creating your own electricity for daily expenditure. In this article, I will describe some terrific benefits of this energy as well as give you some useful tips regarding solar panel installation.

Install the Panel in Direct Sunlight

Prior to installing your solar electric system, it is very critical to identify the right and appropriate place of installation. It is very important for the solar electric systems to get maximum amount of sunlight in order to perform at optimum capacity. These electric systems are usually installed on the roof, building tops or stand-alone units to receive maximum sunlight. The solar panel installer will help you to identify the right position for the installation of photovoltaic cells so they can directly receive sunlight for maximum efficiency.

 Remove Unnecessary Objects

While selecting the right location for installing you photovoltaic unit, make sure you choose a location where trees, trim branches, foliage and other unnecessary objects will not obstruct the sunlight. As these objects may cause daytime shadows which will have a marked effect on the efficiency of your system.

Check the Roof Support Capability

Another important consideration while installing your panel is to check the supporting capability of the roof area. Make sure that your roof is structurally sound and has enough capacity to support the solar electric systems.

Mounting a Solar Electric System

After determining the right location for installing your panel, another important consideration is the mounting which is used to install photovoltaic cells. There is a variety of mounts available for solar electric (photovoltaic) panels including pole mounts, flush mounts or roof-ground mount. Your solar panel installer will help you out in opting for the right type of mounts.

                                                   Roof Mount Solar Electric System

Solar electric system installation will provide you the most promising renewable energy source that will definitely reduce your monthly energy expenditure. It is a lucrative and cost-effective way to generate non-polluting, safe and clean solar energy for indoor heating and electricity generation. Selecting the right location for installing a solar electric panel is very critical. Placing solar photovoltaic cells in the right place will boost the efficiency of the solar power system. Getting the help of the professional solar power system contractor is a worthwhile decision in this regard. Your solar panel installer will better guide you in determining the right location and choosing the appropriate type of your solar electric system.

Source: Ezine Article - Solardelphia