Home Solar Panels

You may aspire to build a full-scale solar panel system for your house. This is awesome, because you’ll be able to start reducing your utility bill (or eliminate it) and also help the environment at the same time.

However if you are doing every part of the installation yourself, you must be aware there are dangers involved. If you are not careful, serious injury or death may result.

Remember: Safety first.

Always ask yourself what you will be handling and the skill set (experience) you have. If you are a first-timer, you may find expert help useful.

Generally, if you take precautions and follow the usual safety procedures, you should be able to make your own PV panels without any issues.

So what are those dangers?

Here’s a list of them. Read them carefully and think of what precautions you should take when you’re doing those tasks:

1. Handling high voltages in grid-tied PV systems

Only qualified personnel should be meddling with different connections to the grid. In most areas, unless you are licensed, you are not allowed to make connections to the grid anyway.

Hire an electrician if you are not 100% sure. They are not too expensive and risking your life just isn’t worth the savings. Voltages at the mains are seriously high and it can kill.

Also, if you use the wrong cabling or make connections in the wrong configuration, you may have problems with your home insurance. You could also have a hard time selling your house until some licensed personnel fix this.

(The government doesn’t want to give you a hard time, they’re just trying to keep things safe.)

When handling any power cable or electrical connections, wear an insulating glove. Do it even if you know it isn’t connected to the mains or the breaker switch is off. You can never be too sure.

2. Installing solar panel on roofs

It is dangerous to be up on the roof at any point in time. Most people have no idea what it is like to work on roofs. Not only do you have to be carrying the solar panels (which are pretty heavy) up the roof, you will also need to pull cables, fix mounts, worry about the alignment and be moving back and forth all the time.

To make things worse, there could be strong winds blowing across your roof. This may cause you to lose balance, especially when you’re carrying those heavy solar panels.

Always wear a safety harness to prevent falls.

3. Handling batteries

If your full-scale solar panel array is not grid-tied, you’ll almost always require many batteries to store electricity. Batteries are pretty safe. But if their terminals are shorted, batteries will produce tremendous amounts of heat causing fire or even explosion. You may get burnt.

Even when they’re connected correctly, you may also see some sparks as you connect jumper leads to battery terminals. (Do not be alarmed.) This is because there are so many batteries connected together and you are dealing with pretty high current.

Always wear an insulating glove and be very sure of what you intend to do before making those connections.

Please don’t get the idea I’m discouraging you from installing your own solar panels. What I’m trying to say here is safety comes first. Building solar panels are fun and you can make them real fast.

But when it comes to roof installation and connecting inverters to the grid, you must be sure you know what you are doing.

Otherwise it is wise to just part with a little money and get professionals to do it. They are fast and will probably do a better job than you. (At least for now..)

Continue Reading:

1. Building A DIY Solar Panel – My Personal Experience
2. How To Build A Solar Panel Charge Controller
3. Homemade Solar Panels — Common Mistakes to Take Note Of When Building And Installing Photovoltaic (PV) Panels

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

Reduce Carbon Footprint

Using residential solar panels help your household reduce carbon footprint. As you already know, solar has no carbon footprint. Solar energy is also renewable and sustainable.

The only possible carbon footprint that solar panels have is when they are being produced at the production line. However this is very small compared to the electricity they generate over their lifespan.

Most energy sources are burnt to generate electricity. Each resource produces different amounts of carbon under combustion. The worst of these is coal. They are known to harm the environment in many ways. Unfortunately the United States depends on coal to produce more than half of its electricity.

It is estimated that the average annual carbon dioxide emissions per person in the United States is 20 metric tons. Compared to the world average of four tons, we are really consuming lots of energy even though we do not know it.

At home, we are also using more energy than we realize. This is due to transmission line inefficiencies. Long lengths of transmission cable encourage electrical resistance. Thus the power station has to generate more energy than what we need.

By the time electricity reach our houses, a part of it has already been lost through Joule heating (this is also known as Ohmic heating or resistive heating). Therefore if we consume only 3kWh of energy, the power station may have to generate 9kWh in order to compensate for the loss.

We can all do our part to reduce our carbon footprint by using solar power. It is a misconception that we need to raise at least fifteen thousand dollars before we are able to use solar energy. It is true that it takes quite a bit of money to install photovoltaic panels on our roofs. But we can all start with solar heaters, which are relatively inexpensive.

Solar heaters use solar energy instead of electricity to heat up water or air. Thus it leaves no carbon footprint.

If you want to use PV panels, you can install a few pieces first. This lowers your initial outlay. Then when you have the cash (or have your loan approved), you can buy the rest of the PV panels to generate more electricity.

In fact, on a clear sunny day, 1 kWh per square meter of solar energy falls on the Earth. Most commercial silicon solar cells only have an average of 15 percent efficiency. Thus most of these energy is yet to be harvested using today’s technology. But there is a lot of potential in solar technology.

With better engineering, residential solar panels may double its efficiency, making them more affordable. This will help many homeowners use solar energy on a daily basis. As a result, there is a chance we can permanently reduce our carbon footprint.

Continue Reading:

1. Cost Of Using Residential Solar Panels
2. Home Solar Power — Different Ways of Harnessing Energy From The Sun To Reduce Energy Bills
3. Will Solar Power Be The Solution To Mankind’s Energy Problems?

Google assembled a 1.6 MW solar panel installation at their headquarters in Mountain View in 2007. After several months, they facilitated a study to find out if cleaning solar panels would make them more productive, thereby yielding more electricity.

The engineers focused on two separate sets of photovoltaic panels in Google campus — the flat ones in carports and the tilted ones on roofs. They gathered a plethora of data about the energy their solar panels produced. Observations were also made on the accumulation of dirt on both sets of solar panels.

Conclusion?

They found dirt accumulating on the surface of flat panels. On tilted panels, less dirt was found. This is because rain swept them away, leaving some accumulation at the bottom corners. After cleaning both sets of solar panels (after 15 months), energy output from the flat panels doubled! The improvement from tilted panels was marginal.

Both sets of solar panels were left untouched for another 8 months before they were cleaned again. This time, the flat panels showed a 36% improvement in electricity output while the tilted panels produced negligible gains.

The conclusion of this study illustrates 2 points:

1. Solar panels are best installed in a tilted position.

Like those solar panels in Google headquarters, tilted solar panels are less likely to retain dirt and occasional leaf. Blocked solar cells introduce high internal resistance and this devastates power production. In fact, just one cell without sunlight can cause an observable drop in energy output.

Fortunately, most of us are living away from the equator and chances are we have to tilt our solar panels considerably. Thus all we have to do is spend 5 minutes to wash away unsightly dirt that accumulates at the corner of your solar panels. You can do this by spraying water using a hose once a year.

2. Solar panels have to be cleaned once in a while.

If you have to install your solar panels in a flat position, you’ll stand to gain when you clean your solar panels every 6 months (or more often if you bother to). Obviously, the more energy your solar panels generate, the sooner you’ll be paid back your solar investment.

It does not take you more than 15 minutes to briefly wash down your solar panels. But once you put in this little effort, your solar panel efficiency shoots up and these photovoltaic power generators can again work as hard for you as when they first arrived.

Continue Reading:

1. Solar Panel Efficiency
2. How You Can Benefit from Feed-in Tariffs (FiTs) with Electricity Generated by Your Solar Panels
3. How To Build A Sun Tracking Mechanism to Increase Your Solar Panel Efficiency by 40%

If you are looking for affordable solar panels that last, you can benefit from some tips here.

What you’ll need is as follows:

1. A list of local solar panel manufacturers
2. A list of overseas solar panel manufacturers
3. A list of solar installers

Generally, it is cheaper to buy from local suppliers. This is because of the high shipping cost of solar panels — they are heavy and occupy a large volume. By buying locally, the risk of damage during shipping is also reduced.

However this does not mean foreign-made PV panels are always more expensive. Some distributors import solar panels in bulk, making them more affordable.

Therefore you have to look through the list of local and overseas solar manufacturers in order to find out which of these are affordable and suit your design and requirement.

You can purchase PV panels from resellers or you can inquire directly from the manufacturers. It may be cheaper to buy directly from the manufacturers. However, many resellers offer attractive packages that lower the overall cost of installation.

Bottom line: You must know what you want in order to decide which is the best option for you. It is good to seek professional advice. However it is not wise to be swayed by every contractor who talks to you. You’ll only be confused in the end.

Before making your purchase, ensure there is sufficient hardware and installation warranty. Many solar panel manufacturers have a warranty as long as 20 to 25 years.

During this period, should your PV panels be damaged due to fair wear and tear, their technicians will repair your hardware for you (free-of-charge), or do a one-to-one exchange.

Many manufacturers also guarantee a minimum performance for your solar panels array for over 15 to 20 years.

In order to save cost, you can also consider buying used solar panels or re-manufactured ones.

Used solar panels do not perform as well as new ones. They also do not last as long. But you can often get a lot more power for each dollar spent.

Re-manufactured solar panels can usually perform almost as well as new ones. They are also likely to last for as long as 25 years. However the warranty period will almost always not be as attractive as brand new PV panels.

You can go to auction sites to look for used solar panels. You can also consult your installer since they are in touch with many other solar panel owners who may want to get rid of their old system.

They will often have the latest news about shipments of re-manufactured panels too. Solar professionals can be a great help to you in your search for affordable solar panels.

Continue Reading:

1. Why Are Solar Panels The Best Investment For Your Home?
2. How Do You Know If Solar Panels Are Suitable For Your Property?
3. How To Determine The Payback For Your Solar Panel Investment (Part 1 of 3)

Although you are paying a high initial cost for the equipment and installation, your energy bills will be slashed dramatically thereafter…

…at least for the next 25 to 30 years.

The French car maker, Renault, is working with Gestamp Solar to install roof solar panels at their plants. As a result, the amount of carbon dioxide emission can be reduced by about 30,000 tonnes a year.

This project is expected to complete by February 2012. The solar panels will cover a total area of 450,000 square meters on the roof and is expected to generate 60 MW of power.

On top of this, Renault will make a significant impact to the environment by installing solar panels for their facilities at Douai, Maubeuge, Flins, Batilly, Sandouville and Cleon. The proposed installation sites are on the roofs and staff carpark lots at their delivery and shipping centers.

Many other companies are following Renault’s example because it simply makes sense. Other than solar power, industrial leaders are also looking to tap wind power and geothermal power to supplement the energy needed for their operation.

Money that is invested into renewable energy can usually be recovered by the twelve year onwards. Of course, this depends on several factors like solar and wind intensity over a period of time. But if the solar panels array is sited properly, twelve years is achievable.

If oil prices increases dramatically, the payback period shortens. As a result, companies (or individuals) can even get back their total investment by the tenth year… or earlier.

Certainly there is a reason why many more factories are planning to install solar panels on their roof as part of their operational strategy. Large corporations will have done their calculation and made detailed analysis on why this makes a good decision.

Likewise, I believe it will be good for home owners to install solar panels on their roof to (at least) supplement their energy needs. Although you cannot enjoy the fruit of your investment immediately, you will definitely see it in due time.

Whether you build your own solar panels or buy them… whether you install many PV panels or not… you can at least start with a small solar panels array.

When you’ve tasted the goodness of using renewable energy, you’ll begin to realize why more and more industry leaders (and smart homeowners) believe in using solar power.

Continue Reading:

1. Why Are Solar Panels The Best Investment For Your Home?
2. Before You Install Solar Panels, Plug All Your Air Leakages
3. How To Determine The Payback For Your Solar Panel Investment (Part 2 of 3)

Compared to building materials, solar panels are expensive. This makes the entire building project very costly.

Homebuilders are usually very reluctant to suggest this idea to client unless they ask. They are afraid clients will go elsewhere. Homeowners are pretty ignorant about building integrated photovoltaics as well.

This doesn’t improve solar panel adoption rates at all. Thus solar panels are not commonly integrated into building structures.

Even though the energy yield of PV panels is not as high as separately-installed PV panels, their aesthetics are superior. Each building integrated PV panel’s energy output depends on its orientation, location, daily weather and season.

During summer, your PV panels can yield as much as 5 times the amount of electricity produced in winter. For example, your solar panels may be able to generate 500 watt-hours of energy in summer. However it only produces 100 watt-hours of energy in winter. Therefore preparation must be made for such trends.

A solar professional will be able to do a site analysis and let you know the energy output of the solar panels on your building through the seasons.

If you need to increase your energy production but are unable to due to space constraint, you can consider using solar trackers. These devices find out where the sun is and tilts the PV panels towards it.

Some manufacturers claim that solar trackers can almost double the power output of a solar array. However this is achieved only with increased cost and complexity.

You, the consumer, must make sure that your solar tracker purchase makes sense financially. And since mechanical parts are involved, there may be regular maintenance required. You must also be prepared to roll up your sleeves or get someone to do this.

As with all types of solar panels systems, a form of energy storage is required. If you’re using building integrated solar panels to serve as an off-grid power resource, then deep-cycle rechargeable batteries are a must.

Otherwise the lifespan of your batteries (which are not cheap) can be compromised. If you have a grid-tied (or intertie) PV system, shallow-cycle batteries may be acceptable although using deep-cycle batteries is still preferable.

Photovoltaic is still a relatively new technology. When they were just commercialized, solar panels were so expensive only NASA (and other large corporations) could afford them. But scientists have made significant efforts to lower its cost and increase its efficiency.

In the near future, we may see high quality solar panels that are as cheap as $1 per watt. When this is realized, building integrated solar panels will be a common sight.

Continue Reading:

1. Sizing Your Solar Energy Panels – Part 3
2. Creating An Energy Efficient House – A Primer On Why You Should Do It and How
3. How To Make A Solar Powered Air Conditioner

However this can be quite a daunting journey. You have to know many details and speak to many people in order to sieve out the best option for you.

Below are a few tips that can help you cut through the fog and gain some clarity:

1. Determine your budget

It is no surprise that solar panels are rather costly. A complete system for the average household may cost at least $20,000. However this should not deter you from installing PV panels. You can always start with a partial system that costs $12,000, and then put up more panels when you have the budget.

Different brands carry different price tags. Therefore it is important for you to know how much money you can spare for your solar setup. With this information, you (or a solar professional) can work out a plan that benefits you most in the long run.

2. Check if it is worth it

There are different numbers you must find out in order to know if using solar panels electricity is worth it in the first place. The most important of these is the solar intensity at your area.

If the sunshine is not strong enough, your payback period will be extraordinarily long. This means you may only get back the full return of your investment after more than 20 years instead of just 12 or 15 years. Or you may never get it back at all. Careful calculation is necessary to avoid errors in judgment.

The payback period is also determined by your solar panel’s efficiency. Needless to say, the more efficient your hardware is, the faster your payback period. However high efficiency solar panels (that are also of high quality) can be quite expensive. Thus you must have a basic understanding of various solar product and they can benefit you before signing on the dotted line.

3. Work out a plan

With many factors that determine whether installing solar panels at home is a worthwhile pursuit, it is wise to have a plan.

The first step of any good plan is to do a site survey. There are many instruments that can help you with this. A typical tool that many people use is the Solar Pathfinder.

After the site survey is done, you have to find out your energy consumption through different seasons in order to size your solar power system. Then you’ll need to devise a strategy to effectively utilize solar energy in every part of your house.

If all these seems confusing to you, your best bet is to call up a solar professional. Instead of spending time to find out about these details, a professional can educate you, devise an implementation strategy for you and help you coordinate different tasks with various contractors.

Before long, you can be using solar panels electricity for your everyday needs.

Continue Reading:

1. Do-It-Yourself Solar Panels – Electricity Conversion From Sunlight
2. 7 Tips You Can Use When Buying Solar Panels
3. Homemade Solar Panels — Common Mistakes to Take Note Of When Building And Installing Photovoltaic (PV) Panels

In general, climate has a direct influence on sunlight intensity. Different conditions (as listed below) may restrict or permit the use of solar panels on your property:

1. Sunlight.

The southwest part of the U.S. gets the most sun while the northern states (and Canada) gets the least.

Obviously if your area doesn’t have enough sunshine, it won’t be cost-effective to install solar panels. But how much is enough?

Studies show that the amount of sunlight we experience across the United States is more or less within 20% of the sunshine level in Florida. This makes it possible for most households to have solar panels on their roofs.

Occassionally, there may be shade issues at specific locations, but this can be solved in one way or another.

Generally, the more sun your home experience, the better (and faster) return you’ll have on your investment. You can get data about the sunshine your area experiences from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). They recorded sunlight data on 239 locations all across the United States:

http://rredc.nrel.gov/solar/pubs/redbook/

2. Cloud

If you are living in a cloudy region, it is still possible to use solar panels. This is because solar energy is present although it’s diffused. Surprisingly, there is an advantage to this. The orientation of your solar panels becomes less important since light is coming from different directions.

3. Snowfall

Snow covers your PV panels and weighs them down. Some parts of your property may accumulate more snow than others. This may be because some spots are warmer than others. You will want to locate your solar panels where there is least snow accumulation.

4. Fog

Pollutants, fog and smog in the air affect sunlight intensity. If this is an obvious concern, you (or your contractor) should measure the sunlight intensity at your area to determine if you can get enough solar energy on a long-term basis.

5. Temperature

PV panels are affected by temperature. The lower the temperature, the better its performance. You can generally get more power output from a cold, cloudy day than a hot sunny day.

6. Air Density

Air density affects the amount of sunshine you receive. However its effect is marginal compared to the other factors. If you live on the mountains where air is thinner, you receive more sunshine. The air temperature may also be lower. Thus your PV panels will likely be more effective than when it’s installed at sea level.

7. Wind

Strong winds can damage your solar panel installation by tearing it from its mounts. But this, by itself, should not deter you from using solar panels.

To handle strong wind, you can either (i) use stronger mounts for your solar panels, (ii) use vegetation to block the wind, or (iii) use wind turbines to dissipate its force and to generate more electricity.

Some wind is actually good for solar panels. It helps to cool them down by bringing heat away. This helps to enhance its efficiency.

Continue Reading:

1. 7 Different Ways of Using Solar Energy At Home and In Your Office
2. Survey Your Household Energy Usage Before Installing Solar Panels
3. Before You Install Solar Panels, Plug All Your Air Leakages