There has been a lot of talk about home solar power systems from as the past couple of decades especially after all the growth and development that the solar energy area has been undergoing in the past decade or so. Further, immense advancements in technology has further made it possible for home owners and scientists to look at from a commercial and practical point of view and consider it as a serious competitor for other traditional energy sources. Also, solar energy has also taken big strides in the renewable sources of energy field and is way ahead of other renewable sources of energy when it comes to converting natural sources into useful energy such as electricity. The thing about electricity and the reason why many scientists get excited over converting renewable sources of energy is that it is very versatile and flexible. What I mean to say is that electricity can be converted to almost any other form of energy that we practically use in our day to day life. This is also one of the other solar energy advantages as it makes sure that all the solar energy is being efficiently converted into electrical energy. The other advantage with electricity is that it is efficient. In fact, that is one of its single highest advantages. Because it is efficient, the energy can be used in almost every way without losing a lot of energy. Anyway, now lets move back to the original topic of home solar power systems and look at the options that a prospective buyer has of getting one or buying one or installing everything by himself in his house.
I digressed a bit from the main point that I was going to talk about. This can happen to me from time to time and you may have noticed it if you have been reading the posts in my blog for quite a long time. Anyway, once again, getting back to "home solar power systems"...
Let's look at some of the advantages of home solar power. As each day and each month passes, many governments across the world are realizing the various advantages that generating useful energy out of solar energy has to both the people in the respective countries and to themselves as a huge money saver. Even the private sector is getting very actively involved and is viewing it as a huge money making opportunity. Any time that the private sector gets involved so actively, you know that there are profits involved. Also, with today's energy crisis turning out to be pretty bad, it does not come as a surprise that solar energy and other renewable sources of energy are being looked upon as possible solutions to this problem. Of course, fossil fuels need not be mentioned as being sources of pollution and being perfectly capable of harming the environment and our planet. Here's a fact if you have not heard about it before. Every hour, if all the energy that the earth receives is effectively used, then it will be enough to meet the energy needs of the whole population of the earth for an entire year. For those wanting facts, every day, one square feet of area on the earth receives as much as a thousand watts of energy. Photovoltaic cells or PV's or solar cells as they are known can be used in a large scale to convert this solar energy to electricity. The Mojave Desert is one of the perfect examples of the ways this energy can be used. It is located in California and meets the energy needs of 500,000 people by using solar energy.
Solar panels are basically made up a lot of solar cells and are designed to generate electrical energy from solar energy and are basically made up of a lot of individual solar cells or photovoltaic cells are they are also called. Ideally, they would have to be placed at places where the sun shines all day. Also, it would be even better if it could somehow be made sure that it is angled in such a way that when the sun is the brightest or the most intense, the solar panel receives all of the sun's rays in an efficient manner. As I had described before in one of my previous posts about the working of photovoltaic cells, silicon receives these rays and there are two plates of silicon-phosphorus and phosophorus-born which make sure that the electricity is conducted with a smooth flow of electrons. You have to make sure that you need other essential equipment such as charge controllers preferable around 6 amps and battery tanks to store power. The solar panel is built in such a way that this energy is stored properly when there is excess electrical energy generated.
The best part about home solar power systems is that if you happen to make extra power with the help of your solar panel, you can sell that power to your local utility company for money. This is also called as "net metering" and is basically the process where in government recognize people who generate their own power and seek to reward them by offering various financial incentives and tax incentives. You would have to pay lesser money in taxes than most other people. In "net metering" basically what happens is that your electric meter runs back and forth depending on how much extra energy or power you have generated.
Regarding the costs, the main factor that you would have to be worried about with home solar power systems is that the initial costs can be quite formidable. But it helps if you consult professionals such as solar professionals or professionals from your utility company to see if your house is fit to be used for generating power with solar energy. But, rest assured that you will definitely recover any costs that you may have gone through initially, in the long run when the home solar power system starts churning out some serious power for you sitting on the rooftop of your house.
To a greener future,
Andy.
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