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. About
2. Sizing Your Solar Energy Panels – Part 3
3. 7 Different Ways of Using Solar Energy At Home and In Your Office

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

Do-It-Yourself Solar Panels Electricity

As you may have realized by now, the (semiconductor) material used is largely responsible for the efficiency of energy conversion — from sunlight to electricity. As scientists discover better semiconductors and better production techniques, photovoltaic cells become cheaper to produce. And as the demand for solar panels increase, economies of scale drives the price of solar cells to the value we know today.

Recently, many hobbyists are getting interested in building for themselves homemade solar panels. This further reduces the cost of introducing a solar power generator into their house. In fact, most of them are able to gather materials from used and broken solar panels to construct fully working (restored) panels at a tenth of the original cost.

However, before you commit to a do-it-yourself solar panel project, you need to consider what you’ll be using it for. Beginners tend to build smaller panels to power their garage lights or garden sprinklers. More experienced enthusiasts often challenge themselves to generate all their household energy needs with several pieces of homemade solar panels installed on rooftops.

If your aspiration is to build a grid-tied or off-grid system for your home, you’ll need to determine the size of your solar energy system needed. Then you’ll know the type and quantity of batteries to buy and what inverters to use. You’ll also need to cater sufficient space in your home to house these electrical items safely.

As many of the DIY solar panels are built from used solar generators, their efficiency may not be as good as off-the-shelf panels fitted with new photovoltaic cells. Therefore it is important to keep the efficiency as high as possible.

This can be achieved by keeping the solar panels as cool as possible. Because efficiency drops as the temperature of photovoltaic cell rises. If your solar panels are installed on the rooftop, you need to ensure sufficient gap between the roof and panels so cool air can pass through to bring away excess heat from the solar panels.

Another way to ensure maximum electricity production is to locate your solar panels at a place with the most sunshine throughout the year. This means the panels should be tilted toward the south (if you’re living in the northern hemisphere) and there should be as little shading as possible.

If your location allows you to generate sufficient energy for your household needs, you’re in luck. With your own set of do-it-yourself solar panels, electricity cost will no longer be a concern as long as the sun is shining for you. You’ll also enjoy shorter payback periods than similar commercial models because DIY solar panels are cheaper.

Continue Reading:

1. About
2. Homemade Solar Panels
3. Solar Panel Efficiency — How Does Dirt on Your Solar Panels Affect The Amount Of Electricity Produced?

Audit Your Household Energy Usage

An important step to take before you install solar panels is to do a thorough survey on how you use energy at home.

It is much cheaper to buy energy-saving devices and electronic timers to conserve energy than it is to build a bigger solar energy system.

Energy-saving lamps or LED lamps only cost you over a hundred dollars, at most. An additional solar panel can easily cost you hundreds of dollars.

Many people are not conscious of how they use energy at home. Thus they do not know how much electricity they are wasting on a daily basis. A simple energy audit can help you uncover areas where you can cut back on wastage.

First, you have to collect some data about your current electricity consumption. All you need to do is gather a stack of power bills from the past one or two years. Then average out your energy usage on a daily basis. (This will take inconsistencies and seasonal changes into consideration.)

Simply add up your monthly figures and divide it by 365. This will help you estimate your consumption in kWh per day. The average American uses about 20 kWh per day. How much do you use?

If you can get some data on the energy you use over a 24-hour period, it will be interesting. However such details are not always necessary.

The next thing you have to do is find out where you can save electricity. The average household use electricity in this proportion:

- Heating / cooling: 44%
- Lighting, household appliances & cooking: 38%
- Water heating: 18%

A huge part of your expenditure probably goes into heating or cooling as well. It makes sense to look at how we can save energy on heating before moving on to other areas.

You may find these suggestions useful for energy conservation at home:

1. Turn off heaters, air-conditioners and electrical appliances when they’re not in use

2. Use energy saving appliances. Some examples are energy-saving bulbs and LED lamps. Energy saving appliances are easily identified. With the Appliance Labeling Rule enforced, manufacturers are now required to attach labels on major home appliances to provide an estimate of their product’s energy consumption and efficiency.

3. Use power-controlling devices. These basically control the power delivered to motors (or other inductive loads) by matching the 60-Hz sine wave to the changing demands of the motor. Essentially, power supply that was once out-of-phase with the load is now aligned (in-phase).

You can use this formula to find out each home appliance’s power consumption:

(Wattage × Hours Used Per Day ÷ 1000 = Daily Kilowatt-hour (kWh) consumption

Let’s take your refrigerator as an example:

Suppose your fridge is rated at 725W, its monthly consumption is estimated to be:

725 Watts × 24 hours ÷ 1000 × 30 days = 522 kWh per month

(Note: This is just an example. A refrigerator, although turned on all the time, cycles on and off to maintain storage temperature. Thus it does not operate at maximum wattage all the time.)

Here are some power ratings (in Watts) of different types of household appliances, according to the U.S. Department of Energy:

· Aquarium = 50–1210
· Clock radio = 10
· Coffee maker = 900–1200
· Clothes washer = 350–500
· Clothes dryer = 1800–5000
· Dishwasher = 1200–2400 (using the drying feature greatly increases energy consumption)
· Dehumidifier = 785
· Electric blanket- Single/Double = 60 / 100
· Fans
Ceiling = 65–175
Window = 55–250
Furnace = 750
Whole house = 240–750
· Hair dryer = 1200–1875
· Heater (portable) = 750–1500
· Clothes iron = 1000–1800
· Microwave oven = 750–1100
· Personal computer
CPU – awake / asleep = 120 / 30 or less
Monitor – awake / asleep = 150 / 30 or less
Laptop = 50
· Radio (stereo) = 70–400
· Refrigerator (frost-free, 16 cubic feet) = 725
· Televisions (color)
19″ = 65–110
27″ = 113
36″ = 133
53″-61″ Projection = 170
Flat screen = 120
· Toaster = 800–1400
· Toaster oven = 1225
· VCR/DVD = 17–21 / 20–25
· Vacuum cleaner = 1000–1440
· Water heater (40 gallon) = 4500–5500
· Water pump (deep well) = 250–1100
· Water bed (with heater, no cover) = 120–380

After you have figured out where to save energy on, you’ll probably want to make use of solar heaters to reduce your utility bills. Solar heaters are much cheaper than PV panels and are more efficient.

With lower electricity consumption, you’ll only require a smaller solar system. Thus the upfront cost reduces.

If you are installing a grid-tied system, you need to take into consideration your rate structure.

Some utility companies charge you for electricity based on a flat rate. No matter how much you use, the rate remains. Others charge you according to a tiered structure. This means that rate goes up if you use beyond a certain limit. There may also be a time-of-use (TOU) rate, which means you have to pay more if you use electricity during the peak period.

If you have surveyed your household energy usage and also implemented energy saving measures, you probably will never need to pay the higher-tier rates set by your utility company.

Continue Reading:

1. About
2. Sizing Your Solar Energy Panels – Part 3
3. 7 Different Ways of Using Solar Energy At Home and In Your Office

After you know where most of your household energy goes to, you are now ready to plan for your system size. For grid-tied system (without batteries and charge controllers), you only need to make sure the inverter you use is large enough to handle the power generated by the solar panels.

If you are thinking of scaling up your system in the future, you can get a bigger inverter so there’s room to handle more power. You can also get an inverter that fits the power output of your current solar panel, and then add another inverter when you bring in more solar panels. Between these two options, it’ll be more cost effective to have a larger specification if you know your plans beforehand.

For solar power generators with batteries, you’ll need a little more planning…

For a start, we’ll look at how to determine the size of your solar array. Here are the steps to do it:

1. Compute the average Watt-Hours (usage) per day

2. Find out the Average Daily Solar Radiation figure for your location

3. Calculate the number of watts you have to generate per hour of solar exposure (divide #1 by #2)

4. With the solar module you have in mind, multiply its power rating by a factor of 0.7. If you are using a Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) charge controller, you’ll multiply it by a factor of 0.8 instead.

5. Finally, you get the number of modules needed when you divide #3 (energy you need) by #4 (energy generated by your solar panels)

After you arrive at the number of solar modules you need, you’ll also know how much space is needed on your roof. If there isn’t enough space, choose a more efficient photovoltaic module and do the calculations again. Going over this a few times, you will be able to find the solar module that’s most suitable for you and at the right price.

Continue Reading:

1. Solar Energy Panels For Big “Toys”
2. Sizing Your Solar Energy Panels – Part 1
3. Sizing Your Solar Energy Panels – Part 3

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Solar panel kits are becoming more and more popular with DIY hobbyists in the past few years. This is perhaps due to increasing energy costs and a heightened awareness to preserve the environment for our posterity. With these kits, even an amateur can easily set up a photovoltaic panel at his home to power small electrical appliances.

While these panels will not supply the energy needs of your entire household, it certainly helps reduce your energy bills. There are 3 compelling reasons why you should be using solar panel kits:

1. Using Renewable Energy Preserves Our Environment

The use of fossil fuel causes tons of pollutants to be released into the atmosphere every day. Young children and elderly people are more susceptible than others. People with health problems such as asthma, heart and lung disease may also suffer more when the air is polluted.

Since the beginning of the industrial revolution and the development of the internal combustion engine, people have been breathing in carbon particles and other harmful gases everyday. But our environment can be made cleaner in our generation if more of us use renewable energy in our daily lives.

2. They Help Cut Your Energy Bills

Besides helping the environment, solar energy can supplement your household energy needs. This helps reduce your electricity bills. With enough solar panels running for you, the savings can be substantial – you may even cut your bills in half. For example, estimates show that with renewable energy sources, the average family in New Hampshire can save up to $171 in utility bills.

3. Energy Can Be Available Anywhere

It is expensive and resource draining to run power cables to remote places. Whether you are in the middle of a desert or on an abandoned island, you can still produce electricity for yourself as long as the sun shines. With enough solar panels and with the help of an energy bank, your appliances can work anytime of the day, when you require them.

There is also no limit to the applications your solar energy kit can power — water heaters, satellites, outdoor lights, gate openers, et cetera. The only limitation lies in our willingness to use them.

In the United States, government tax breaks are given to encourage people to turn to renewable energy to supplement their energy needs. Many corporations are also relying less on fossil fuel as they realize the harmful consequence of burning these toxic-releasing substances. Building solar panels from solar panel kits is one good way you can personally take environmental and energy concerns into your own hands.

Continue Reading:

1. About
2. 10 Reasons Why You Should Build Your Own Solar Panel
3. Benefits Of Using Residential Solar Panels

Image via Wikipedia

As you shop around for solar energy panels, there may perhaps be that occasional doubt about its benefits. Many consumers have similar experience. At some point in time, they take the leap of faith to supplement their household energy requirement with solar energy. As a result, their utility bills decreased dramatically. Most are delighted to sell their extra supply of electricity back to the grid.

As energy cost increase over the last decade, more and more homes are installing solar panels on their property. Although it takes some upfront investment to own solar panels, they really pay for themselves after some time.

Theoretically, it takes about 12 years for you to make back your investment in solar panels. But many states are now offering rebates, so the final cost of your investment is really much lesser than it seems to be. Rebates vary from state to state, so be sure to check out what you’re entitled for. The government also offers other incentives to encourage you to use renewable energy for your home.

Over the past 30 years, the price of solar panels have fallen to only 10% of what it used to be. It was practically impossible for folks to get a good return on their investment in the past without very high solar exposure on their property.

However, solar panels are much more efficient than they used to be. Therefore they also generate much more power than before and they need minimal maintenance. Best of all, these maintenance can be done by yourself with very little time. Modern solar cells are also much lighter and compact. Thus they can be installed on your roof with little modifications to its structure. As solar cells become more reasonably priced, adding solar power to your home is a brilliant, long-term solution to expensive utility bills.

But before you go shopping for a solar energy panel, there are a few basics you need to find out. These will help determine what types of solar energy panels you’ll require:

1. Know Your Energy Consumption. You need to know how much power you consume – the average, the highs and lows. This information helps you size up your system so you can figure out how many panels you need and what design is most suitable for you.

2. Find Out How Many Sun Hours You Receive At Your Location. This is obvious, but even the most efficient photovoltaic panels cannot generate enough power if there is insufficient sunlight. It would be impractical and costly to pay for gigantic solar energy systems that produce trickles of power.

3. Decide Whether You’ll Be Going Off-Grid. On-grid and off-grid systems have their own advantages and disadvantages. Most homes will stay on the grid because they can tap extra power (especially during winters) when they need to and when they generate additional power, they can sell it back to the grid. If you’re located in a remote region, going off-grid may be practical. You’ll thus need a storage system such as a battery bank to store energy so you can use during the night.

4. Find Out The Rebates And Incentives Available To You In Your State. This is important as it helps you find out the true cost of your solar generator. This may be an important factor that helps you decide if using solar energy is worth it after all.

Continue Reading:

1. Benefits Of Using Residential Solar Panels
2. Sizing Your Solar Energy Panels – Part 2
3. Sizing Your Solar Energy Panels – Part 3