Posts Tagged ‘diy solar charger’

New Breakthroughs in Home Solar Panels

Saturday, September 26th, 2009

The average homeowner can reduce or eliminate their annual electricity bill by installing a solar power system. With a properly sized solar panel array, all of their power can be easily generated from sunlight and they will never again have to worry about another electric bill. Some homeowners, though, encounter problems that prevent them from getting the return on investment that they had hoped for. However, many of these issues can be overcome with recent innovations and improvements in solar technology.  You can make use of these improvements whether you’re purchasing solar panels or making a DIY solar panel.

The biggest concern for most homeowners that are considering installing a solar panel system is does their home have the proper orientation to the sun to be able to take advantage of solar power. For solar power systems to operate at peak efficiencies, a home has to have a roof that faced south if they were located in the northern hemisphere. As the sun travels across the sky, a southern exposure ensures that the solar panels get a good amount of sun through the day. Older panels had a very specific need to constant sun exposure for most of the day. If their positioning was even a little bit off, it could have a major impact on the amount of power they could generate

More efficient solar cells in modern panels solves this problem. Besides producing more electricity with similar amount of sunlight, these newer solar cells can also tolerate a more severe angle relative to the sun. Because of this, they have a wider tolerance for locations that would not have been good choices for older systems. This makes them a perfect fit for installations that have a lees than perfect alignment for maximum solar power generation. These modern solar panels will produce more electricity when there is dimished sunlight, like on cloudy days, and also in these situations that are out of standard alignment with the sun.  These newer panels don’t have to be rotated during the data to point directly at the sun.  This makes it much easier to do a homebuild solar panel installation.

This is a vast improvement over older cells that required a strong consistent amount of sunlight to produce power. Older panels were inactive early in the morning and late in the afternoon because of this. The amount of sun at these times doesn’t cross the electricity production threshold required by these older panels. Newer panels will produce power proportional to the amount of sun even during these periods of lower amounts of sunlight. This means they will produce their maximum output during the day when the sun is brightest and will still produce power in lesser amounts when less sunlight is present. So, these more modern solar panels can produce more average power per day and therefore more total power through the year. This additional power can have a big impact on savings and can make all the difference to homeowners that are trying to justify a solar power system for their home.

Among the many ways to increase the resale value of your home, a solar power system is one of the best.  No matter whether you supplement the electricity provided by the power company or supply all of the electricity needs of your house, a solar power system will definitely increase the value of your home.  A simple diy solar charger can be a great first solar project.

Home Solar Panels

Thursday, August 27th, 2009

With many homeowners seeking to reduce pollution and greenhouse gasses, help the environment and lower their monthly electric bill, home solar panels can be a terrific way to accomplish all of their goals by generating free electricity from sunlight.Home solar panels have increased efficiency and lower cost than 10 years ago and can be a great way to lower or even completely replace the energy you buy every month from the electric company. A terrific way to use these newer solar panels in in a do it yourself solar charger.

These newer solar panels require very little maintenance and will give years of use producing electricity. The primary way these home solar panels have been improved is in the area of efficiency converting the sun’s energy into electricity. Modern solar panels can achieve nearly 20% efficiency and so you will not require as many panels to produce the same amount of power as you would with older panels. The net result is big savings for the homeowner in installation cost as fewer panels will be required and less space is also needed. This is a great benefit for homeowners with limited roof space. Ten years ago, because they could only install as many solar panels as would fit on the roof, these homeowners could not produce as much electricity as required. With the same roof space, today they can generate more power and meet their energy needs.

Modern solar panels are also less dependent on being pointed directly towards the sun. One had to point the older home solar panels due south in order to maximize power output. In this way, for the maximum amount of time per day, the solar panels had access to sunlight at a direct angle. If the home didn’t have a side facing directly south, the older panels generated much less than maximum power because of the angle between the solar panels and the sun. These newer solar panels are a boon for the many homeowners who have houses without a south facing side. One great guide to building your own solar panels is earth4energy review. Generating threshold is another big improvement in these newer solar panels. The generating threshold is the minimum amount of sunlight required for the conversion to electricity to begin. Quite a bit of sunlight was required before the older solar panels would start producing power. Because of this, at sunrise and sunset or on cloudy days, the solar panels might not produce any energy at all even though the sun was out. The lower generating threshold of newer solar panels allows them to produce more electricity for much larger portions of the day and on many more days of the year. This will allow the generation of power for more hours each day even if the solar panels are mounted in a less than perfect position. The combination of these improvements means more power produced for your home. By taking advantage of free energy from sunlight, you will have to purchase a lot less electricity from your local utility. For plans to build your own solar panel visit homemade energy review.