Sealing Off A Crack

Before you install solar panels, you need to perform an energy audit.

This serves a two-fold purpose – to determine the size of your solar power generator and to identify sources of energy wastage that can be avoided.

As you are doing your household energy audit, it is useful to check for air leaks. They account for as much as 5 to 30 percent of your energy wastage (when it comes to heating).

If your windows and doors are closed and you feel an air draft, you have a good chance of cutting down wastage simply by plugging the leaks.

The best time to test for air leaks is when it’s cold outside and warm inside. You can feel cold air quite easily this way.

A pressure test can quickly surface any leakages around your house. All you have to do is close your doors and windows, turn off all heaters and turn on your exhaust fans to full blast.

In this way, the pressure inside your house is slightly lower than the outside. Thus more air will flow through those leakages to equalize the difference in pressure.

Go around the house and look for leaks. Pay more attention to windows, doors, electrical outlets, switches, hatches and joints. Once you find a leak, mark them out immediately.

Before you seal off those leaks, you have to turn off the exhaust fans.

You can use transparent silicon caulk to plug all your air leakages. The best way to handle this is to use a caulking gun that has a pressure relief gasket. This allows good control of silicon flow as you plug those leaks.

Another way to plug air leaks is to use an aerosol can of expandable insulation. This is difficult to use, initially, as it is hard to control its flow. But it works very well. So if it’s your first time using this, get some practice on used magazines.

There may be several places that leak air. Windows and doors are easy to handle. But if you have to climb up to your roof, remember to take precaution so you won’t risk falling.

After you’re done plugging up the leaks, repeat the pressure test. Then mark out those areas you have to work on again and get cracking.

You can also check for leaks outdoor. Most often, they appear in cracks, around faucets, pipes, electrical wiring and electrical outlets. Unfortunately there is no way you can feel for air leaks outside your house.

The only way to handle this is to do a visual inspection. If you suspect a leak, give that area a touch of silicon caulk.

After you are done plugging all your air leaks, your heating system can be more efficient. Thus your indoor temperature can be maintained using less energy.

Continue Reading:

1. 7 Different Ways of Using Solar Energy At Home and In Your Office
2. Creating An Energy Efficient House – A Primer On Why You Should Do It and How
3. Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Projects That Can Complement Solar Panels

Home Solar Power Systems

This article will paint a thirty thousand foot view of this plan and then discuss how we can implement it. Then I’ll let you in on further resources that will help you with solar energy calculations, construction and installation.

Building a home solar power system involves a few major steps:

(1) Determining the household energy requirement. This influences the number of solar cells needed to produce the required electrical energy.

Most households will not want to take their homes completely off-grid. After calculations, the majority of families seem to prefer their solar panels to bear roughly 75% of their total energy consumption.

Why do they not want their house to be totally off-grid and be 100% powered by green, renewable energy? Because there will be periods when the light intensity is insufficient. It’s during these times when we’ll need to tap into the grid again.

(2) Constructing the solar panel. The photovoltaic cells are responsible for converting solar energy into electrical energy. It is also a major cost driver. Therefore the solar panel is the most important piece of the puzzle.

If you’re on a budget, you’re able to construct a solar panel by joining broken solar cells together. If you have money to burn, buying ready-made, commercial solar panels can also be an option. These come with long warranty periods (like 25 years and beyond) and are framed in high quality aluminum.

(3) The inverter. This component converts direct current (DC) generated by the solar panels into alternating current (AC) that’s usable by your household appliances. After that, this is channeled to the power distribution box via a synchronizer so that electricity from the grid and electricity from the solar panels can be combined before each appliance in your home uses them.

(4) Installation. Obviously, we need to choose a location where there is as little shade as possible throughout the day. This is usually the roof. With proper guidance from more experienced hobbyists or a guidebook, you can fix the solar panels to your roof (or anywhere else) exactly like the professionals do.

To put all these together, you’ll need a proven plan that tells you exactly what to do — from the broad structure down to the last bolt and nut.

Continue Reading:

1. How To Build A Personal DIY Solar Power System With Less Than $99
2. Do-It-Yourself Solar Panels – Electricity Conversion From Sunlight
3. Homemade Solar Panels

How To Build Solar Panel

In this final part of the “How To Build Solar Panel” series, we’ll impart the finishing touches that make your solar panel project a winner. You’ll discover how to push your solar panel system up one notch so you’ll have a world-class DIY solar panel.

Here, I’m assuming that resources like money, time and skills are not lacking. What we’re trying to push for is a solar panel that will make you proud.

The Solar Panel Frame

The best material to use for the solar panel frame is aluminum. This is a material that will not rust easily and it’s able to carry away additional heat that may be trapped inside the solar panel. This is particularly important since heat can diminish the efficiency of the photovoltaic cells.

Diodes

The diodes you should be using are the Schottky types. These diodes have a much lower forward voltage drop so less power is wasted. And when the temperature gets higher the forward voltage drops further.

Solar Panel Cover

If budget allows and there is no hail at your area, the best cover that your solar panel can have is made of non-reflective glass. Solar panels covered with non-reflective glass can enjoy significantly higher efficiency because greater proportions of sunlight reach the solar cells.

Battery

If you intend to power outdoor equipment like sprinklers and gate openers, your battery will need to be sheltered from the rain and dew. Unfortunately it may be impractical to house these indoors as we’ll then need very long wires that may also be a safety hazard if it’s left lying around.

You can put the battery (or batteries) into a waterproofed electronics housing and seal up the opening (for the wires). In this way rain or dew will not cause short circuit to the battery.

By implementing all of the above tips to your solar panel project, you can surely make for yourself a world-class DIY solar panel project.

Continue Reading:

1. How To Build Solar Panel (Part 1 of 3)
2. How To Build Solar Panel (Part 2 of 3)
3. Solar Shingles — What Are These?

Currently there are solar panels that boast 30 percent efficiency. These are specially doped triple junction cells that began its development as dual junction cells. However these phenomenons are largely confined within the laboratory and engineers are still unable to produce such solar panels in large quantities without charging consumers an arm and a leg for it. More work remains to be done before common retailers stock up solar panels endowed with this technology.

In practical there is nothing much we as consumers can do about technology. Yet the little we do to ensure our solar panels achieve its maximum potential really goes a long way — especially since solar panels are designed to last us for a few decades.

The most important thing we can ensure is to install our solar panels in the right orientation and tilt angle. The optimal position helps photovoltaic panels receive the most sunshine throughout the day and across different seasons of the year. This helps reduce the payback period. If you are living in the northern hemisphere (like most of us do), then you’ll need to orientate your solar panels toward true south (as opposed to magnetic south). You’ll also need to tilt them according to the latitude of your installation site. The correct installation position will allow your solar panels to be exposed to direct, unobstructed sunshine from 9am to 3pm everyday.

Many homeowners underestimate the adverse effect that shading has on their solar panels. Even if only one solar cell is shaded, its entire solar generator’s power output can be dramatically reduced. The individual solar cell that is now shaded acts as a resister that drains the electricity generated by its neighbors. As resistance increases, power reduces.

Another seemingly minor event that reduces solar panel efficiency is the accumulation of dust on the glass surface. This dissipates sunlight that would otherwise reach photovoltaic cells for power generation. Since dust and dirt will inevitably collect, the only solution is to wash the glass surface regularly. If you’re living in a relatively dust-free environment, this should be an infrequent activity.

Temperature also affects solar panel efficiency. The higher the temperature, the further its efficiency drops. Unfortunately more heat is collected as solar panels experience more sunshine. Thus efficiency tends to taper as sunlight intensity increases. Therefore we have to ensure that our solar panels are installed sufficiently far away from roof shingles. The gap in between the roof and solar panels also allow air movement to bring away additional heat that may otherwise be trapped there.

Continue Reading:

1. Solar Panel Installation
2. Installing Solar Water Heaters

Solar Panels Installation

Buying (or making) solar panels is an investment you make toward a better future. For every investment you make, you have to find out the risks involved and its potential payback.

This is the same whether you invest in equity, put your money in the bank or use it to buy a solar energy system.

Even if you know (or have an intuition) that investing in solar panels for your home is a great decision, it doesn’t hurt to estimate how this decision can help you financially.

First, let’s look at the big picture: There is an upfront cost for owning PV panels, and this hurts initially (for many of us, at least). Thankfully this is about all you’ll pay for the next 30+ years, as long as your solar panels last.

When you add up the total cost of your utility bills for the next 30+ years, your perspective will change. This is because it will almost always be more expensive. To make things worse, energy rate only goes skywards over time. And the bill you’re paying now will probably double in 30 years time.

Do you remember what the energy rates were 30 years ago?

Next, in order to know how long it takes to recoup your investment, we have to consider the total upfront cost for a commercial solar panel setup.

Here is a list of things you have to invest in:

1. Equipment cost. This includes your PV panels, inverters and rechargeable batteries, if applicable. This cost can be paid in one lump sum, or you can get financing from the bank or the supplier. When a loan is involved, you also have to include interests to the total cost.

2. Installation cost. You can hire a professional installer…or you can do it yourself, if you are handy with these tasks. Installers can charge you an hourly rate or quote you a net price for the installation job.

3. Maintenance cost. You’re lucky…solar panels need very little maintenance. And damages are usually paid for by the warranty.

4. Miscellaneous costs. There are other costs involved. You may have to pay for permits and fees to carry out solar panel installation on your roof. Although rare, there may also be taxes involved as the value of your home appreciates due to solar installation. When your solar panel has reached the end of its lifespan, you may also have to pay people to haul your equipment away.

Fortunately, the costs above are defrayed by subsidies and rebates that you may be qualified for. Your utility company, the state and federal government or even the manufacturer often provide these benefits.

Part 2 of this series talks about how long it takes to recoup your investment in the light of the above costs. The article also illustrates how much savings you can expect by installing solar panels at home.

Read on…

View Part 2 here:

http://www.diysolarpanelsworld.com/how-to-determine-the-payback-for-your-solar-panel-investment-part-2-of-3

Continue Reading:

1. Creating An Energy Efficient House – A Primer On Why You Should Do It and How
2. Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Projects That Can Complement Solar Panels
3. How To Determine The Payback For Your Solar Panel Investment (Part 2 of 3)

Solar Energy

Solar power is touted to be the next biggest solution to mankind’s energy problems.

As we know, there is a huge amount of environmental concerns when we use fossil fuel to generate electricity.

There are carbon emissions, nuclear waste and coal slurries that become toxic lakes, just to name a few.

As a country, we rely heavily on coal. When we use coal, we cause humans (especially miners) to come into contact with carcinogenic elements. This is because toxic heavy metals are found in coal. These can be released into our environment.

Some examples of harmful elements include arsenic, selenium, cadmium, mercury, chromium, boron, and nickel.

Fossil fuel is also limited in supply. This drives up the price of energy. Whenever the price of oil and natural gas rise considerably, the United States relies heavily on coal to reduce expenditure.

Naturally, people will be concerned when presented with such facts. But there is nothing much they can do other than voicing their opinions.

Fortunately humans also discovered photovoltaics, a technology used to produce electricity from sunlight.

As solar panels become more and more effective, they become a sustainable solution to a desperate world with insatiable energy needs.

Using solar power, we can all play a part to save the environment. We can help the country become less dependent on outside energy sources. We can save money.

Comparing all the energy sources available to mankind today, solar power holds the greatest promise for solving many of our energy issues.

The sun gives out a huge amount of energy every single day. Only very small proportions of its energy reach the earth. Yet this is sufficient to supply the whole world with energy 35,000 times over at any given moment.

This means if we can tap into just 0.003 percent of the solar radiation we receive on earth, we can solve the world’s energy struggle. (And also solve many political strives caused by conflicting energy interests.)

Solar energy can certainly play an important role in your family. When you install photovoltaic panels (also known as solar panels) on your property, you can enjoy many benefits:

a. You can save money on your monthly energy bills
b. Your property increases in value
c. You solar panels will eventually pay for themselves in the form of monthly energy savings, thus you’ll essentially own those solar panels for free.

In many places where it’s too expensive to run electrical cables, solar electricity becomes the cheapest form of electricity you can have.

Discover more about solar energy. You will be amazed how it can change your life in many ways.

Continue Reading:

1. Is Solar Energy Really Renewable and Sustainable?
2. Challenges and Difficulties In Using Solar Panels And How To Overcome Them

While you are working on your solar panels or solar heaters, you can also explore other small projects that can make your house a better place to live in.

Here are some projects that take you less than a day to implement. And many of them are very helpful in lowering your energy bills as well.

Most of them do not cost more than $100+, so if you have a little time and a little cash, you can begin right away:

1. Install solar screens

Solar screens help to keep your house cool during summer. It prevents heat from coming into your house through the windows. As such, your air-conditioners will not need to work as hard.

Most solar screens are quite affordable. The best ones are those with a metallic, reflective surface. They reflect radiation away instead of absorbing it. They are also pretty durable.

2. Solar ventilators

Ventilators can be installed at your attic, powered by solar energy. During summer, you can activate these fans to pump the heat out of your interior. This alone can cool your house considerably.

All you need is a small fan, a small vent that comes with a cover and a small solar panel. You don’t even need rechargeable batteries. It stops working when it becomes dark, but you won’t need it at night.

Try it.

When the weather gets colder, remember to cover them properly so heat doesn’t escape through these vents.

3. Solar powered air circulation

When you heat up your house, warm air rises to the top. They are all trapped at the ceiling or attic. Heat is not distributed evenly. You can install a ceiling fan to push the heat down, or use solar power to pump warm air down to ground level.

The effect: Your home warms us faster and you’ll feel more comfortable.

For this project, you’ll need a small solar panel, a set of rechargeable batteries, a long pipe and a small exhaust fan.

4. Landscaping

Planting trees, scrubs and bushes around your house can give you many benefits. You will not only create a beautiful and rejuvenating environment… You can prevent bitter cold winds from blowing against your house in winter and shelter your house from strong sunshine during summer.

5. Install solar light tubes

Solar light tubes allow natural light to enter your house while keeping the heat and precipitation out. They cost a little more. But you can experience the benefits of full spectrum lighting in your room without expensive illumination technology.

Continue Reading:

1. 7 Different Ways of Using Solar Energy At Home and In Your Office
2. Before You Install Solar Panels, Plug All Your Air Leakages
3. Challenges and Difficulties In Using Solar Panels And How To Overcome Them

Solar Panel Battery

A solar panel battery is different from a normal battery. A normal battery converts chemical energy into electrical energy while a solar panel converts sunlight into electrical energy. While a normal battery has the capacity to store energy, a solar panel depends on external resources to do that.

A semiconductor is the medium through which electron movement takes place. As photons hits the surface of the material, electrons are displaced, creating a potential difference. This phenomenon was accidentally discovered when scientists observed that silicon doped with some impurities became very sensitive to light. Very soon, mankind began researching into various materials to make photovoltaic cells.

The first solar cells are large pieces of single-junction semiconductors made of silicon. The productions of such cells are very energy intensive and expensive. Later, other materials with semiconductor properties were experimented with success. Some of these were Cadmium Telluride (CdTe), Copper Indium Gallium Selenide, Amorphous Silicon And Micromorphous Silicon.

Engineers also discovered that such semiconductors could be deposited on thin pieces of glass or ceramic. This reduces the mass of solar cells. While such materials coupled with better production techniques do not promise higher energy conversion, but certainly enabled lower production costs

The efficiency of present day photovoltaic cell comes close to 20%. Further research gives us hope that someday we can reach efficiencies as high as 60%. This can probably be achieved by harnessing more of the solar radiation, tapping into the ultraviolet and infrared wavelengths.

Solar panel batteries are commonly installed in homes, office buildings and even on streets. Their size varies according to the application involved. Recently manufacturers have also designed another type of solar panel (known as Solar Shingles) meant to fit aesthetically into various architectural designs. These look like the roof tiles we commonly see, but they are coated with a layer of photovoltaic material.

Applications of a solar panel battery

While all solar panels look pretty much the same – dark, reflective-surfaced panels – their application varies widely.

Small solar panels can be used at your backyard or garden to power small electronics like your garden sprinkler, automatic gate opener or pond filters and aerators. Larger systems can also be installed at your home to replace all or part of your household energy needs.

Solar cells are also seen on many types of small gadgets and electronics like calculators, music players, mobile phones and LED torch. On the opposite end of the scale, large groups of solar panels can be used to produce massive amounts of energy to supply an entire city’s energy consumption.

Many large projects were designed and discussed. But the huge investment and seemingly long payback period has discouraged organizations from adopting solar power generators on any scale. Fortunately there are corporations like Google who are willing to trail-blaze the way for others to follow.

In both large and small solar power systems, some means of energy storage is necessary. This will retain excess power that’s generated during the day so it can be dispensed during the night. The most common form of energy storage is rechargeable battery. This is almost always the case, even for an off-grid solar power system. All it needs is a larger set of batteries.

For grid energy storage, possibilities (that are still not widely applied) include pumped-water storage, compressed air, thermal storage, frictionless flywheel, super-conducting magnetic storage and compressed hydrogen.

Scientists and engineers are hopeful that technology may advance to the point where implementation costs falls significantly – so that an average family may afford solar panels easily.

By then, more and more homes will make use of solar power to supplement their energy needs. Many other homes will go off-grid. Large corporations and governments can also install numerous solar electric power plants to sell cheap renewable energy to consumers living in areas without abundant sunlight. By then, most parts of our country (and even the world) may be ready to usher in a new solar panel battery era without fossil fuel.

Continue Reading:

1. Build Amazing Home Solar Power Systems Used by Families Who Don’t Want to Pay For Their Utilities
2. Solar Shingles — What Are These?
3. Do-It-Yourself Solar Panels – Electricity Conversion From Sunlight

Solar Panel Installation

Solar panel installation may be a daunting task for most people — it requires you to know where and how to site your solar panels. Moreover installation on roofs exposes you to the danger of falling. You are also at risk of electrocution while wiring your inverters.

But we do not have to be discouraged. Knowing what to do can help us tremendously and keep us away from danger. Some important installation know-how can make your job much safer and easier. Here are some points to consider before you install your solar panel…

In the northern hemisphere, we’d like our solar panels to tilt towards to south so that it can receive the most sunlight throughout the year. If we have a south-facing roof, all we need to do is line the solar panels along the surface of the roof. Otherwise we’ll need additional brackets to tilt the photovoltaic panels toward the south.

The roof is usually the best place to site your solar panels, but there are exceptions. Therefore you have to do a thorough survey to know where is the best place to locate your panels.

During the survey, you’ll have to take into consideration shading from plants and nearby structures. Shading has an adverse effect on solar energy production. The amount of electricity generated by photovoltaic cells reduces by a significant percentage with slight shading.

Through different seasons of the year, the position of the sun changes. So you’ll have to take this into consideration. An easy way to find the location that receives the most sunlight throughout the year is to use a Solar Pathfinder. This instrument shows you at a glance where shadows will be at different times of the day and different seasons of the year.

If the ideal location is on your rooftop, you’ll have to find out the maximum loading your roof can withstand. If the solar panels are too heavy, you will need to provide additional reinforcement to the roof structure before installation.

After the location is finalized, actual work can begin. You’ll have to get the correct solar panel mount to fix them at the ideal place — there are pole mounts, roof-ground mounts and flush mounts.

When installing on roofs, we frequently use flush mounts. This is the cheapest and easiest way to mount small solar panels. These are metal brackets that support both ends of a solar panel. It elevates the solar panels a few inches away from the roof to form a gap in between. This allows air to flow through, cooling the solar panels. It is vital to moderate the solar panel temperature so as to maintain the efficiency of photovoltaic cells.

Roof-ground mounts are grid-like structures that are used primarily for large solar panels. They can be installed on the ground or on roofs. A pole mount is used mainly for supporting a small, single solar panel.

After the solar panels are fixed, you’ll have to run and connect the electrical cables. The actual connections depend on whether you want a grid-tied or off-grid system.

With proper solar panel installation, each panel will be able to withstand strong winds and work efficiently for decades. You can also expect your property to increase in value with a solar energy system installed.

Continue Reading:

1. Solar Pathfinder – What Does It Do For You?
2. Installing Solar Water Heaters
3. Solar Panel Efficiency

Pool Solar Panels | Pool Solar Heaters

Solar heaters are also covered with a glass panel to act as a greenhouse, trapping heat within the enclosure. Since heat cannot escape through convection (due to glass), the only way of dissipation is through conduction. Fortunately the rate of conduction is much slower. Therefore most of the heat is retained.

How they work

Cold water runs into a heat exchanger and out comes warm water for your pool. This happens as the black-painted pipes absorb heat from the sunlight and transfer them to the water passing through. The surfaces of the heat collector box are also painted black and certainly helps warm up the air within. This, too, adds to the temperature of the water in the pipes.

The sunlight intensity, rate of water flow and diameter of pipes determine how hot the water will be. Generally, the thinner the pipes, the more efficient the heat transfer. This is because there is more surface area through which heat can be conducted from the pipe into the water.

Advantages

Solar heaters rarely need any maintenance at all. They can also last many decades without significant wear and tear, provided it’s built and installed properly. Most importantly, solar heaters are cleaner and cheaper than gas and electric heaters.

The typically payback period of a pool solar panel is about 1 to 2 years, depending on the sunlight intensity and fuel costs.

Because solar heaters are very simple in design, they make very popular DIY projects. Homemade heaters will obviously cost much lesser than commercially made pool solar heaters. A typical heater may cost within the $4,000 price tag while a do-it-yourself solar heater often cost only a tenth of this price. Therefore the payback period is much shorter.

Installation

Installing a pool solar panel will not be a very tedious task. Most importantly, you should tilt your panels toward the south (if you are staying in the northern hemisphere) so that they can receive more sunlight throughout the year.

Other installation considerations include local building and insurance requirements as well as safety issues. An option is to have a qualified solar thermal contractor to install your solar heating panels for you. This will ensure quality.

With its simplicity, ease of installation and durability, pool solar heaters are getting more popular with consumers. Many DIY enthusiasts are also beginning to put together copper pipes to make their own homemade solar heat collectors to warm up their pool. Such do-it-yourself projects will only get more popular as consumers realize the benefits of using pool solar panels.

Continue Reading:

1. 7 Different Ways of Using Solar Energy At Home and In Your Office
2. Heating Up Your Swimming Pool Using Solar Energy
3. How To Make A Simple Homemade Solar Pool Water Heater – Part Two: Building The Solar Collector