Although technological developments have improved our lives greatly they have also generated the need for more power supply. Most of us use many electrically-powered appliances in our homes as well as our workplaces. No matter what happens, the demand of power supply is bound to go higher. To meet up the power requirements alternate sources of energy are being used. Solar energy has been the leading player as far as alternate sources of energy are concerned. Solar panels and solar heaters are two of the most usually found solar energy devices.

A solar panel is a device that absorbs sun’s heat and transforms it into functional electricity. These panels are made up of numerous silicon chips called cells that are put together within a frame. The conversion rate of each cell is somewhat limited when measured in total wattage output. Each cell produces an amount of electricity equivalent to 1 to 2 Watts. And so a very large number of solar cells are needed to be integrated into each solar panel. The electricity produced by these solar panels is stored in batteries, to be used as and when required. The output is in the form of DC (Direct Current), hence DC powered appliances are required to use the electricity produced by solar panels. Yet, if you want to operate any AC (Alternate Current) powered device you can attach an inverter to the storage battery to convert DC to AC.

An additional very popular solar device is solar heater. This device is composed of solar thermal collectors, a water storage tank, interconnecting pipes and a fluid system to move the heat from the collector to the tank. A solar heater deals with the direct heating of liquids by the sun however no electricity is directly generated. The amount of heat delivered by a solar water heating system depends mainly on the amount of heat delivered by the sun at a specific place. In tropical places the heat delivered can be fairly high, while it can be much lower in temperate areas where the days are shorter in winter.

Both these solar devices not only help you to save money on your electricity bills, but it will also help the environment and make your home greener.

The sun radiates a great amount of energy through heat which, possibly, is a great renewable resource for the earth. In just one minute, the sun offers as much energy as it takes to meet all of earth’s needs for an entire year!

The sun’s energy is transformed into electricity. Once it is in a usable form it is referred to as solar power. There are many products on the market today that use solar power to function as an alternative of using other commons forms of energy such as gas and electricity.

Solar energy works in a couple of different ways, by using solar panels it can be turned into electricity. And, when thermal panels are used it can be turned into heat.

Silicone is used inside solar panels to collect the sun’s rays and the atoms and electrons are divided. Once divided, the electrons continue through the silicone and are changed into electricity. This electricity then must pass through a converter to be a usable voltage for use in our homes.

Home solar power can be used for many of our energy needs. There are many kinds of lighting, for instance, such as landscape and security lights that will operate on solar power. We can also run many home appliances and even heat and cool our homes with solar energy.

For a more energy efficient home, you can buy residential solar power kits. With the need to find a cleaner, less expensive way to produce energy, these kits are becoming more broadly available.

Solar power system strategies are in. The main reason behind this apparently sudden explosion of interest in solar power systems is twofold: Financial and ecological. Translated, it means that the home or business owner is afraid of the increasing oil costs and is now willing to test with non-conventional renewable energies. On top of this an increasing number of people feel that they would like to be friendlier towards our planet and leave less carbon footprints if possible.

Until not so long ago, these alternative energy structures were rather cumbersome to run, but now they can already assist greatly in powering the energy needs of faraway places and improve commercial electrical operations. They can also help homeowners to offset some or most of their power expenses.

How can we develop a solar power system operation?

The viability of a solar power system, though, is something that many skeptics question. Granted, these systems are not totally ideal, but what is? Anyhow, they are a remarkable option that can help reduce the huge amounts of non-renewable energy that we all consume. If we understand how these operations work we may be able to recognize undiscovered potential benefits and the disadvantages of certain designs.

Components of a solar system

For a solar system to work you need the following components:

Solar cells, panels or arrays – A solar power system is always based on a device that captures the photon energy of the sun. For very small designs you only need small solar cells.

Whether you have a solar power system that was conceived to run only one mechanism or a whole building, you need the right number and size of solar panels or solar panel arrays and arrangements to collect sufficient energy to manage the desired operation.

Once the solar cells or panels have collected the sun’s energy, the next step is to transform it to direct current power. The general efficiency of any solar power system depends significantly on how capable the solar panels are of collecting and transforming the power of the sun into DC (direct current) power).

An inverter – What this component does is take the DC energy that was generated by the solar panels and convert it to alternating current energy. AC power is the kind of electricity required by most major electrical appliances and systems.

The inverter component can increase or decrease significantly the efficiency of a whole system depending on how well it converts DC (direct current) power into AC (alternating current) electricity. A certain amount of loss is generally expected in the transformation though.

A battery or batteries – What this battery or batteries do is to store the AC or alternating current power so that it can be used in the future in electrical systems. As you possibly expected, the batteries also have a strong influence that depends on different aspects. A quality battery can be expected to keep a charge well; if it does not do its job the already absorbed power gets wasted during the conversion process.

The general effectiveness of any given solar power system can be influenced by several various factors. Luckily, the designs produced now are both more efficient and more cost-effective.

In fact, there are already a few solar power system models that are used as the only power source in a number of faraway locations. We should not forget either that many households or businesses put their trust in such solar systems to supply them backup power in case of an emergency.

A solar power system such as it is designed today is definitely not perfect, but it works and helps to solve many problems our society faces. It’s surely a big step in the right direction.