Making Your Own Solar Power Home System Is Now Easier Than You Think

Whether you are an advocate of a cleaner future or even if you are looking to save some money every year on your utility bills, installing solar panels for your home is a great choice for any homeowner.

The technology that goes into each and every single solar panel is improving every year with leaps and bounds. At the same time, the costs associated with manufacturing solar cells is constantly dropping. Only 5 years ago, many in the energy industry insisted that the cost of panels would never drop below a dollar per watt, yet today the costs for a cell is well below that level.

In the past few years, the growing solar panel market has helped to reduce the cost of manufacturing these cells. They come in many different shapes and sizes. You can have a very efficient monocrystaline cell, a multicystal cell or even anyone of many popular flexible dye sensitive cells which are available on the market today.

Before you rush out and purchase solar panels for your home, it is important that you take the time to learn as much as you can about the technology. Your goal should be to develop as much power as possible for the least amount of initial overhead. What that means, is that you need to make sure that you get the most efficient cells possible, and get them at the lowest price possible.

While there are many different kinds of cells available today, the most efficient ones are the monocrystaline cells. These are generally a solid deep blue-purple color. They are also usually the most expensive because of how difficult it is to manufacture the crystals and cut them into the thin wafers that make up a cell.

Since you have limited space, you need to have the most efficient cells possible. A solar cell, or panel for that matter will only produce a maximum amount of power for a given area. The more efficient the panel is, the more watts that are produced. Furthermore, while you need more sun to produce more energy, the sun heats up the cells which reduces their output throughout the day. Choosing efficient panels is crucial to getting the most for your money.

For most homeowners, when you purchase solar panels for your home, you will have a number of output options to choose from. Higher voltage panels tend to be more efficient and less energy is also wasted when it is being stored. While most people are aware of simple 12 volt solar panels, you can get them in 24 volts, 48 volts and many other output values. It is important that your panels match the electronics which will be converting the power to a useable 110 or 220 volts.

Not everyone has the option of selling their extra energy back to the grid, if you have that option available to you, then you should make use of it. What happens, is that extra energy that your panels produce which are not consumed, go back on to the grid and as a result, you receive credit from the power company. At night time, when there is no sun light, you then draw your power from the grid and some of those credits get used up. It?s basically like using the grid as a storage facility that pays you.

If you do not have the luxury of being able to sell your excess power to the utility companies, then you need to have a storage system. You will need to have a battery bank which stores the excess power until you need it. Some people make use of deep cycle marine batteries while others make use of forklift or other similar battery packs. However, more and more people are choosing to make use of an older technology.

Nickel Iron batteries where first popularized by Tesla when he created his first electric car over a hundred years ago. The cars that are left today still have their original cells and they are still fully functional. NiFe battery packs cannot be over charged and have been known to last for more than a hundred years. The only companies that make them today are located in China, but you may be able to find a local distributor that has them in stock. Keep in mind that because of the high cost of nickel, these batteries tend to be very expensive.

You have many fine options available today when it comes to solar panels for your home. Do not jump on the first deal you see because you may not be getting what you are hoping for. Take the time to shop around to ensure that you are able to get the most efficient panels possible at the most affordable prices. Since most panels have a 20 year warrantee, you need to make sure that you will save enough money over the time period to cover the costs of installing a solar system in your home.

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