Home Solar Power Systems

Home solar power systems draw the attention of homeowners, many homeowners seek background information on home solar power generation, om solar panels for home and on solar inverters.

Home Solar Power Background

All home solar generators are utilizing the photovoltaic effect, the ability of certain materials such as Silicon to directly convert Sun radiation (light particles known as photons) into Direct Current (stream of electrons). This fascinating technology developed in a relatively short time from a mere laboratory oddity, through solar electric panels powering space vehicles and satellites in the 1960s, into a multibillion industry in the first decade of the new millennium. The dwindling supply of crude oil coupled with the increased price of crude oil and the dramatic price reduction of photovoltaic panels made home solar systems a more attractive proposition. There is a grass root political drive to reduce the emission of CO2 (carbon dioxide) and to reduce fossil burning. This pressure from bellow is driving governments to grant energy-tax-credits or to guarantee a fair price to homeowners that sell back electrical power to the utility grid at feed in tariffs. These incentives to homeowners installing solar power generators made the investment even more attractive. The advantages of home solar power systems are:

• Use available Real Estate on the roof, otherwise untapped, to produce electricity. This money making potential is attracting managements of schools, public buildings and other buildings with unused roofs such as parking buildings.


• Electricity production is closed to the consumer, eliminating the need to construct more super high voltage power lines from remote large scale power plants


• Solar power generators have no moving parts, they are silent and they are clean

There are two types of home solar power systems. The first one is for homes that are connected to the grid. The production capacity of photovoltaic systems for grid-tied homes can be less than the home consumption because the electrical utility will supply the balance. A grid-connected home doesn’t need to store electrical energy from day to night, so storage batteries are not a must. The only reason to add storage batteries is to have a backup supply for power failure hours (power shutdown), a very rare situation in most developed countries. A grid tied inverter is a must however, to convert the DC power to AC power

Cost of Home Solar Power Generators

The cost breakdown of a home solar power system is between equipment cost, installation cost and administrative cost (permits, inspection and certification). The gross cost range is $5 to $8 per 1 Watt production capacity. A typical US home installs a 3kW solar power system and can enjoy a 30% federal energy tax credit is guaranteed, and additional tax credits and incentives are available in the state level incentive programs

How is Home Solar Power Generated?

The “engine” of the solar power generator are the photovoltaic panels. They are usually placed tilted to the horizon and facing south. This is the optimal orientation to collect as much sun radiation as possible during daylight hours. The panels directly convert sun light into DC power, a DC to AC converter (the “solar inverter”) convert the DC power to standard AC power (115V, 60 Hz in the US). For systems with storage capacity, such as off grid solar systems, a battery bank with as many batteries as needed are added, and part of the solar panels DC power charges the batteries through a charge controller

There other methods of converting solar energy into electricity that are not suitable for home power generation. They fit better to large scale utility power plants

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