How To Create Solar Power For Your Home
How does solar power work even work? Solar Power works by first creating solar cells which consist of semi-conducting components. The solar cells are put directly in the sun it creates an effect known as the “photoelectric effect” and free electrons are formed. Together these form an electrical current and electricity is formed. A couple solar cells are linked to create a solar panel.
The suns power is larger than you or I can really imagine. The sun produces an estimated 4 x 1026.. Since this is really beyond anyone’s comprehension, it means it is equal to 8 x 1016. of the largest power plants in the world. A different way to relate the difference in power is that our sun puts out as much energy each second that the world’s largest power plant produces each year.
Don’t feel bad if you have trouble grasping the amount of energy it produces every second let alone how many hundreds of years it’s been doing it for. It’s mind boggling. So, let’s break it down to the smallest denominator that so that we can understand it. Each time we hang our cloths out to dry, we are using the suns energy to dry our cloths and even eliminate any odors. Plants use the suns power to grow, grow plants for animals and humans to consume and create energy in our own bodies.
The typical American households use about 1kW of power each hour. That equates to about 720 hours each month or 720Kw of energy used. This does not account for extra usage for items like spas, continual running of major appliances, plasma TV or other electronics that run all day which use up added power. To be on the safe side, solar panels produce about 10 watts/sq. ft. The average conversion rate is 12%, this means that for every kW of energy you need to produce, you will need about 100 sq. ft. of solar panels.
Depending on which part of the country you live in and how many hours of continual sunlight you have during the day will increase or decrease the total area of solar panels you’ll need. On average places like Portland, Chicago, New York will get about 3 hours of adequate sunlight per day where as Denver will get 5 hours and Scottsdale Arizona and Miami will get 7 hours.
Before you attempt to build your own solar power, you have to have the right tools. You need to have a simple process that I spell out in this guide. I made it a personal mission to manufacturer the best solar panel manual you can get. I searched the Internet for months looking for the best designs for building solar panels.
