Steps In Going Solar: Creating A Power Independent Home
January 31, 2010 by admin
Filed under Alternative Power
A square meter on our planet receives roughly one thousand watts of power from the sun on a typical sunny day. This finding influenced researchers and engineers around the world to build more inexpensive solutions to harness this limitless and free power.
Given our looming fossil fuel lack, along with current projects on alternative lifestyles, countries like the United Kingdom and the US have taken beginning actions to encourage families to employ alternative sources of power. Given many people’s new interest in energy cost reduction, solar power is one of the renewable energy sources exhibiting superior prospects for future widespread use.
Attainability of Solar Energy
Owing to progress in environment friendly research, present scientific knowledge now enables people to power their residences with solar energy. Along with a a small number of steps along with a modest spending plan, generating adequate power to run one’s house is attainable.
There are, nonetheless, a couple of important considerations that may pose problems for urban dwellers, each boiling down to the need for space. Solar-powering a house requires a suitable area for both the panels as well as the electric batteries which store the power.
The solar power systems should be based where the sun’s power is soaked up at its optimum. The batteries keep the electrical power churning throughout the night.
This means that the larger the household, the more batteries it’s going to need. The batteries add a considerable price tag and degree of upkeep to the system over time.
Required Parts
The most highly recommended battery for solar power panels is a deep-cycle model. It can discharge a sizable amount of its stored energy while preserving extended life. These commonly utilized batteries are lead-acid and nickel-cadmium, with the latter priced considerably more.
Essential to extending battery power service is the utilization of charge controllers. These units preserve the batteries from getting drained until they’re charged up again.
An extra crucial part of the solar electrical power system is the installing of inverters. Inverters convert the direct current (DC) produced through the solar power system into alternating current (AC) which typical homeowners utilize.
Motivation for Change
A few countries offer a power grid where people can connect with and purchase electric power in case their do-it-yourself solar panel systems create insufficient electricity.
In turn, the community energy supplier purchases surplus electricity created by families at market prices. This practice is intended to encourage homeowners, particularly those situated in sunny locations, to take the initiative of creating their own power.
Instances similar to these are being practiced in the UK, Canada, Australia, and Spain. Then again, the use of a solar system as a primary source of energy – not only for homes, but additionally for commercial establishments – shouldn’t be predicted to occur soon.
Critics tell you virtually any government’s environment policies are crucial to growing the interest in alternative sources. Up to now, the financial burden of these resources has significantly leaned on subsidies. However, people are increasingly motivated to find creative energy saving options.
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Use This Formula To Calculate Your Solar Panel Power Needs And Costs
April 24, 2009 by admin
Filed under Alternative Power
With green living becoming more and more important, many people are starting to install home solar power to supplement their power, and reduce their electric expenses.
But before you install a home solar power system, how many panel will you need in order to say reduce your utilities by half? And how much will you have to invest in the system?
Here is a four step process that you can follow to answer these two vital questions:
1 – What Is Your Daily Power Consumption?:
To work out how much power you use on an average daily basis, this is what you have to do: First go back and look at your past 12 months electricity bills. Then work out the average kilowatt hours (kWh) used per month. The reason we do this is because we use different amounts of power throughout the year. The calculation is month 1 + month 2 + month 3 etc… then divide that by 12. If you do not have all the statements, just use last month’s bill.
Now take your average kwH per month and divide that by 30 to get your average kWh per day.
- Here is an example: Lets say the power used last month was 800 kWh. Your average daily usage would be 800/30 = 26.7 kWh per day.
- So to reduce your electricity bill to half, 26.7/2 = 13.4 kWh of solar power per day is needed.
2 – Calculate The Total Wattage Of Solar Power Needed:
To work this out you are first going to look at an insolation map to see the average usable hours of sunlight your area receives each day. A map is available on our website.
Now take the average daily kWh calculation and divide that by the number of daily usable sunlight hours, then multiply that by 1.25 (to take into account the wasted energy from wiring, charge controllers. batteries, and inverters).
- From the previous example, if you live near California where the average daily usable hours of sunlight is 5.5 hrs, the solar wattage needed is:
13.4 kWh / 5.5hrs x 1.25 = 3.045 kW or 3045 Watts per day.
This indicates that our home solar power system must have the minimum capacity to produce 3045 Watts of power.
3 – Calculate Solar Panel Watt Costs:
This step will help you work out the cost of the solar panels needed to make 3045 Watts of power. At the moment the highest average cost for solar panels in the US is $4.85 per Watt.
- Following on from our example, the solar panels will cost 3045 x 4.85 = $14,768 to only halve our monthly power costs. This excludes the cost of wiring, charge controllers, batteries, inverters, and installation fees.
4 – Take Government Rebates and Credits Into Account:
Before you think you are going to have to fork out at least $14,768 for only 3045 Watt of solar panel power, you need to consider the effect of government subsidies and incentives.
2009’s Federal renewable energy tax credits came into effect from the beginning of the year, and coupled with the state-side incentives in places like Connecticut, California, New York and New Jersey, the cost of the solar power system will be much less.
- Let’s use our example: If we were from California we would receive tax rebates of about 20% of the cost, and a federal tax credit of 40% on the remainder. So after rebates and credits, our solar panels would cost us:
$14,768 – $14,768 x (20%) – $14,768 x (1 – 20%) x 40% = $7,089.
A word of warning: The formula outlined here will give a rough estimate of what you can expect to pay for your solar panel watt needs. Obviously the costs will differ with regard to special offers, the state you reside in and the contractor you use to install the system.
Anyway, from what you can see it would cost us around $7,089 to buy enough solar panels to halve our power bill. We, instead, either get our solar cells at cost or source them for free, and wire up our own solar panels, which obviously saved us a lot of money. The good news is, anyone can learn to find cheap solar cells and make their own solar panel watt power.
