Solar Panel Home

The sun naturally radiates solar energy every day to the earth. Recently, it has been discovered the ability to convert the suns energy into solar energy to heat not only homes and water but also converts electricity to power your house.

Solar panels take the suns energy and convert solar power into electricity that you can use to run everything in your home. These systems, called renewable energy systems, can harness enough solar energy so that your reliance on the power company is severely limited. The first thing you have to know is how these solar energy systems work.

Solar energy systems consist of three components, they use photovoltaic panes as a power source, they have a power storage unit and they all have a load capacity to store the unused energy. Photovoltaic panes are like turbines or fossil fuel generators but on a much smaller version. The power unit stores the energy for future use and the load is based on how much energy your home attracts to the solar system.

There are three types of solar energy systems. The first kind is on grid. These systems are on the local power grid and supplement the power received from there with the solar energy. In the event of a blackout, the energy system in the home will go down because there is no way to balance out the load. Any extra power can be sold back to the electric company. The next type is off grid. Off grid systems are not connected to the local power company. These systems generally will store the power in batteries or in the system itself. In the event of a blackout, the system is fine. Extra power can be used to heat water or air.

The third type of solar energy system is called grid plus battery. This type has a battery back up connected to your local electric company. In case of power outage, the grid plus battery solar energy system will continue to operate using the stored solar battery power. With the grid plus battery system, you may want to consider selling overages of solar power back to your local electric company.

Before you do that, I would suggest making your home as efficient as possible. Replace all your current bulbs with florescent, get a new fridge, make sure all your windows are double pane, and replace any of you electric appliances with gas if you can. After you do this you will have a good idea of how much power you use and can come up with a solar energy system that will meet your needs.