Residential Solar Energy
Turning Light Into Energy
The benefits of installing a photovoltaic, or solar energy system are hard to ignore, and with recent tax credits and incentives put into place by federal and state governments, as well as local utilities, right now is an exciting time to be a part of this revolution in energy.
Most people don’t know that solar electric panels (also call photovoltaic panels) are a technology that has been around for decades. The Hubble Space Telescope, as well as satellites that provide communication, television and weather information are all powered by photovoltaic systems. Most panels have a 25 year performance warranty, and the Enphase inverters have a 15 year warranty.
Photovoltaic systems ( PV ) work by placing solar panels on any level surface on or around your home, such as your roof. With advances in technology, these panels are not the same panels you’re probably accustomed to seeing with solar energy. The new panels of today are much slimmer than older models and can be attached flush to the roof of your home. This makes it aesthetically much more pleasing and better able to abide within restrictions that homeowners associations may have. If your roof is not suitable for a PV installation, the panels can be ground mounted.
Each of the solar panels are made up of “cells” of silicon, protected from the elements by glass. When the sun shines down onto these panels, the cells act as semiconductors, absorb the light and capture the energy as free-flowing electrons. As it moves across the panel and down towards the home, it becomes an electrical current.
To be usable energy, the current has to be converted first by an inverter. An inverter is simply a system that turns the DC current the panels provide into 120 or 230 volt AC power, the standard in residential homes. This is a grid tied system which means you will use the power produced by the solar panels first, any additional power needed is supplied by the electric utility. If you are producing more power than you are using it is fed into the electric grid running your electric meter backwards producing a credit against your electric bill. How cool is that!
In addition to the energy system, there are additional monitoring systems available that can show you in real-time how much energy you’re producing and what that equals in light bulbs, computers and more.
