Solar Power: Why Pay for Electricity?

The improvements in solar power generation have made it possible to generate enough electricity to power your home. Turn free sunlight into electricity and sell the excess to the electric utility company. That’s right; any additional electricity that your solar power system produces that is not used by your home can be sold to the electricity company. Not only are you saving on electricity costs, the solar panels mounted on your roof are providing much needed shade for your roof.

What is Required To Power My House with Solar Power?

Here is a list of the basic components of a solar power system.

• Solar cells capture the sun’s energy and change it to electricity. Inside a solar panel, each cell contains silicon that absorbs sunlight. The energy in this absorbed light produces a small electrical current. Metal grids around the solar cells direct the currents into wires that lead to the power controls.
• A solar panel is made up of a collection of solar cells. Combined the solar panel produces DC electricity.
• Solar array – Is a network of solar panels connected together. They produce DC electricity. The solar array must be facing the south and have uninterrupted access to sunlight.
• The Inverter changes the DC solar power into usable 120 Volt AC electricity which is the most common type used by most household appliances and lighting.
• Charge controller – Is used to control the charging of the batteries and prevent over charging. It also prevents the batteries to discharge the electricity into the solar array at night.
• A battery pack provides a way to store excess generated solar power. The battery pack is discharged when the solar array is not generating power.

Is it worth investing in solar power for my home?

You are going to have to pay a fairly hefty sum to install the solar power system. With rising cost of electricity purchased from the local electric utility, the reduced electric bill will pay for the solar power system over a few years.

Take a look at how much each month you pay the electric utility company to power your home. There are many power hungry devices in the modern home deep freezers, refrigerators, entertainment systems, computers, air conditioners, and more. But why should you have to pay for electricity when you can get solar power that comes a natural source: the sun.

Solar cells convert sunlight into electricity. This solar power can run your air conditioner, computer, refrigerator, and other appliances. Instead of purchasing electricity from electric utility company convert the readily available sunlight into the useful electricity.

How come solar arrays are on the south side?

In order for a solar powered system to work, the solar arrays must have direct access to sunlight. They should not be blocked by any obstruction such as trees or buildings. The ideal location is on the southerly facing side of your roof, where the sun shines down directly.

How do I find out the installation cost?

To find out the going rate for having a solar power system installed call each of the solar power installation companies in your area. Ask them for an estimate for a solar power system. There are several things you should receive with the estimate.
• Itemized list of components that will be installed including manufacture and model number.
• An estimate on the maximum electricity produced by the proposed solar power system.
• Total price of installing the solar powered system. There shouldn’t be any cost overruns.
• Any solar power tax incentives and rebates that will help lower the installation cost.

No matter how much you spend initially, you will make it back ten-fold when you figure that you’ll never again pay money to someone else to power your home.

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