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Solar Power For Beginners
Many homes in the US and Australia are now almost or totally self sufficient in green energy. It won't be long before we see a marked increase in the applications being made available for Solar Panels and their effectiveness based on size and power output. But what can the average person do with Solar Power? Well, there are many small applications available at your local garden centre for example, small garden lamps with built in solar cells and a small rechargeable battery that allows the lights to stay off during the day, but charge up and come on when it goes dark! Water pumps for small fountains, and fish ponds to recirculate water powered by a small solar cell. Moving up a step, you could place a solar heating panel next to a swimming pool and heat the pool if you live somewhere that the water doesn't get so warm. Spend some time looking at the option of adding a panel on your roof and get electricity fed into your house. This will reduce your electricity bill and also, if you make enough electricity, you can possibly sell it back to the local power company, thus profiting twice from the same installation. So what will you need? A south east to south west facing garden area or roof space, if you are in the northern hemisphere, or north eastern to north western if you live in the southern hemisphere. If you are on the equator or near it, anything flat that has no trees over it! Next you need to get some plans of what the system needs, wiring, panels, converters and batteries and a meter to link back into the mains. Most of this you can get for a very low sum indeed and in addition you can actually make the most expensive part yourself, the panel! Get some plans off the internet, build your panel, and take advantage of solar power! Connect up to your batteries through a charging unit and then connect the batteries to a converter that will monitor how much electricity you produce and send it back into the house and the grid. You'll need some basic tools, a small saw to cut plywood and aluminium strips, you'll need a few dozen small screws and a drill to create some pilot holes and then you'll need a soldering iron and some solder/flux to join the small individual sloar photovoltaic cells together. Now I know this sounds like it's difficult, but soldering is like melting wax onto your finger, you heat the solder, it drips onto whatever you hold it over. A small soldering iron will cost no more than 10 bucks anywhere in the world and solder is a dollar or two a coil, pre fluxed (that means it has some stuff in it that helps it join the parts together) Place the two small metal connections together, hold the hot soldering iron on the join to heat the join and then rub the solder onto the solering iron whilst still in contact. The solder will melt, run down the iron onto the joint and the flux will make it run into the join, presto, your first solder joint in your first solar panel. You'll be making a few of these soon! Some companies attach their PV cells in strings so you only have to join one group to the next and not each small panel, check before you buy. If you are about to have your house re-roofed there are even roof tile systems with the solar panels embedded in the tiles, expensive but better looking! Power it all up and let the sun do the work for the next 25 years while you sit back and count the money. My pool is great, 13 celcius when filled (took 3 days) and after one day it was up to 23.5 celcius, almost tolerable for me! Try it, you won't regret it, Captain Riley Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com Captain Riley was at sea for 27 years and sailed all over the world on cruise ships. He has now retired and uses his time to find new ways to help others save money and make money with systems we all need and use. Visit his Blog at www.advantagesofsolarpower.us or at www.CaptainRiley.com/blog |
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