Solar power

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If you can count to five, you can probably understand how solar power works and what it does. That is because although there are dozens of small steps that go into the solar energy process, there are only five main steps that go into understanding the basics of this kind of energy.

Step 1: Collection from Solar Cells – These Photovoltaic (PV) cells are the items that go on a roof top and then collect the light and radiation that a sun produces. As the light hits the silicon cells, the energy from the suns photons is transferred to the electrons in the atom of the semiconductor.

Step 2: Moves to the inverter – After this energy has been captured and formulated, it moves on toward a device that is called an inverter. An inverter is a device that is able to take the DC current that is produced by solar power systems and then convert it into AC current, which is used to run most appliances.

Step 3: Electrical panels accept the energy – After this inversion process takes place, the current continues to move throughout the solar energy system until it reaches the electrical service panel. This device is also commonly referred to as a breaker box.

The power that comes from either the utility company or from your own solar power system is routed to this box which regulates how much energy will be sent to different places. After the power is collected here, it will then be available from any of the outlets inside of the home.

Step 4: To the utility meter – For those homeowners who have decided to tie their solar power system into the local power grid, the energy then moves to the utility meter. When the energy flows in this way, the meter actually will move backwards and this causes the electricity company to give you credits for the amount of energy that you have placed into the system.

Step 5: Into the Grid – The utility is the last place that the energy from your home will go. This is helpful to most homeowners to use their solar systems in this way because if their needs for energy are not met by the amount of solar energy their home is collecting, they can still simply draw from the local power grid.

Although these are the five major steps, there is one other step that usually takes place at the very end of this process. Although you may use the energy that your home produced that goes into the grid, it is just as likely that your neighbor or someone else miles away may be the one who uses this actual energy.

Of course, things in this process could be much different. For example, those people who decide not to tie-in their systems to the local grid often use their energy in a different way.
Most of these people instead have a battery that stores the amount of energy that the solar power system on their home has produced. Doing this has advantages and disadvantages.

One of the greatest advantages is the fact that if you have a back-up supply of energy in the battery, if there is a power outage, you will not be affected because you are not connected to the local grid.

But, this can also be a disadvantage because most residential solar power systems are simply not able to produce enough energy to keep a home running. So, unless the homeowner is a great conserver of energy, he may not have all the energy that he needs. There are many myths associated with solar panels and energy,find out the truth at Homewind.net.

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