How To Run A House On Solar Power
It seems that the cost of gas, electricity and oil to provide power to our homes continues to rise every year. This rise often seems to outstrip average inflation. We are often told that there are a number of legitimate reasons for this inflation. One that may not be so well publicized is that many utilities companies are privatized and have to run at a profit. Indeed, the management would not be doing their job if they did not turn a profit.
However the reason most often given for price rises is that the resources that create electricity are becoming scarce. Oil, natural gas and coal are finite resources and are becoming harder to find, harder to extract and harder to deliver to the consumer. Thus the consumer must cover the increased costs.
Within this context and partly because fossil fuels are thought to contribute to environmental change, people are keen to find alternatives to traditional energy resources. Solar power has been around for many years and is becoming a viable alternative to fossil fuels for generating power to the home. This article will cover how to run a house on solar power.
So, you can run a house using the sun’s thermal energy. The best application of this is to heat water that can be used in the home (or even a swimming pool).
The idea behind this technique is to allow a metal plate to be heated by the Sun. This can be made more efficient by painting the surface black and putting insulation on the areas not exposed to the Sun so that the heat is not lost.
Once you have a hot plate you can allow water to come in contact with it and the result is heated water. This can be piped into the home to be used however it is needed. The solar heated water can also be connected to the standard water heater thus saving grid supplied energy on making the water hot.
So a good solar water heating system can save you money on water heating costs which is often one of the more expensive items on a monthly utility bill.
We can also utilize sunlight to create electricity. This is a more recent development in solar power technology and is known as photovoltaics. Cells made of a silicon semi-conductor react to photons in sunlight. The reaction causes an electron to be thrown loose. The flow of electrons can be controlled using an electric field. This can create a current of electricity. The more photovoltaic cells that are connected the greater the voltage and current that can be produced.
This is direct current (DC) that can be stored in a battery or transformed to alternating current (AC). This can be done using a power inverter. The resulting AC can be used to power the home.
The solar panels that you may have seen on the roofs of many a home are a number of PV cells formed together in a series or parallel configuration to optimize the production of electricity. Installing a solar panel in your home has become easier as the energy industries focus more attention on solar power. The cost and installation of solar panels has also come down in recent years
Most people will start using solar panels as part of their existing grid supplied electricity. They are essentially joint venturing with the utility company. All the solar electricity that they create is sent to the utility company and this is deducted from their total bill at the end of the quarter.
The advantages of this is that the utility company will install the system and the home is still attached to the grid as a safeguard should the sun not shine or a problem occurs with one of the components of the solar power system.
The next step is to go off the grid completely. This is more responsibility for the individual and more knowledge of the system is needed. They will also need a back up energy generation system should there be any problems.
