Given the growing awareness that using fossil fuels may be causing to the environment and the fact that it is becoming expensive to use such fuels, people are looking to alternatives for their home power systems. Residential solar panels is one alternative that seems to tick all the boxes and is becoming increasingly popular. Not only does it diminish the degree of our fossil fuel dependency but it also affords us the opportunity to reap the financial rewards by using it. This article will run through some of the options when installing your own residential solar panels.

The advent of the internet has seen an explosion of information readily available to anyone wanting to learn how to install their own residential solar panels.  Making your own solar panels is labor intensive but can be financially rewarding while giving you a sense of achievement at the same time.

Because there has been an uptick in solar panel interest lately and because people are tired of being held ransom to rising energy bills, they are desperately looking for cheaper alternatives, hence the recent boom in the DIY solar panel kit market.

There is a wide selection of residential solar power kits these days and it’s no longer affordable to only a select few.  Gone are the days when you needed to outlay $20,000 just for the privilege of owning them in fact you can purchase your own residential solar power kit for as little as $200, a drastic price difference putting the technology into the hands of anyone wanting to gain the benefit from them.

Depending upon your budget, the varying materials that comprise your residential solar panels will have different price points and along with it they will also have varying levels of effectiveness.  Some of the materials that are used in residential solar panels are more efficient at collecting and storing the energy from the sun than others.  Just because you may not pay as much doesn’t mean that your solar panels will not be able to effectively harness and store solar energy, it just means that it does so at a slightly lower efficiency.  Don’t let this be a deterrent if you’re interested in solar panel technology because even cost effective solar panels are still effective.

When installing residential solar panels you can also produce excess energy that can be sold back to the power company, a definite advantage of going partially off grid.  The extra energy production can help fund the installation of even more residential solar panels enabling you to save even more money over time.  Not only does this feature of solar energy make it an attractive solution to your power needs but you also receive tax breaks and rebates allowing you to put more of that hard earned money back into your own pocket.

You can either find free information online or purchase a guide to make your own residential solar panels for free, however the better quality guides are the ones that you will have to purchase and the best solar panels are the ones that are readily made, the money you save creating your own free residential solar panels will cost you in extra time, so weigh up your options.

Whichever way you go, it seems that the future is very much a solar powered future. There is a groundswell of people interested in solar power and governments are making it more attractive to use such systems. Given that the costs of residential solar panels can only decrease as the costs of fossils fuels goes up, isn’t it time you looked into getting solar in your home ?

Despite the perceived unreliability of solar power as an energy resource, it is far more versatile than grid electricity. There are not many places in the world that do not get some form of direct sunlight from time to time. In fact you can use solar power to provide energy for your weekend retreat in the woods or your suburban residential home. The only difference might be the scale and quantity of electricity that is needed. There are four main components to all solar power systems that use the photovoltaic (PV) process to produce electricity.

The photovoltaic cell is the principle technology the conversion of the sun’s energy into electricity. Photons are converted to direct current electricity in each particular cell. The cells are arranged in series and an electric current is created. The series of cells are what you see on roofs of houses that used solar power and are commonly referred to as panels. Depending on the amount of electricity you need will determine the size and amount of panels that you need.

In addition to the PV cell panels, a charge regulator is needed. This connects to a battery that stores direct current electricity. When the battery charge is low the charge regulator will direct the converted solar electricity to the battery and thus keep it topped up. The regulator also knows when the battery is fully charged and will stop electricity being directed to it when this is the case.

The third component is the battery pack itself. This can be one or more batteries and again this is dependent on the amount of sunlight and the amount of electricity that will be needed when the sun is not shinning (at night)

The fourth component is the power inverter or converter. This transforms direct current (DC) to alternating current (AC). This is needed as most household appliances use AC. If you are joint venturing with a utility company they will require that the current is AC as it is more efficient to transport.

It is often tricky to know how big the solar power system should be. As the systems can be quite expensive to set up it is a good idea to monitor your energy usage so that you know exactly how much power you will need on a regular basis. Another important consideration is to insulate your home to the best possible standard. This will save on heat loss and less electricity will be needed.

All solar panels are rated by watts, similar to the rating of light bulbs. Since they are all 12-volt output, calculating the amperage is a simple formula. Knowing that volts times amps equals watts, and a 12-volt solar panel produces 60 watts, it can be figured out that the panel is capable of just over three amps.

Based on this, it is easy to understand why solar power systems do not work well for units that draw a lot of amps, such as appliances with a heating coil such as electric heaters, furnaces or air conditioners. However, there are 12-volt versions of many of this type of appliance that can be used, provided the solar array is large enough to produce the required amperage.

With most residential solar power systems it is easy to work with a utility company to begin with. They bill you for electricity used minus the amount of solar electricity that you have created. As you become more comfortable with the technology and the amount of power you use, you can think about being totally self reliant or going off the grid.

This is quite a big decision as there is more responsibility and it may even affect the price of your home should you decide to sell it (mortgage companies don’t like off grid homes but this will change as solar power becomes more accepted)