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Solar Panels that use Solar energy, which is the process of harnessing the sun’s power through photo-electric panels and other collection methods, is no longer a “Green Dream” or something that businesses or universities are trying to emulate. There are many practical ways you can use solar energy in your own home. There are always investment costs involved with technological advances, but homeowners are increasingly making everyday use of this basic source of renewable power.
You don’t have to spend tens or thousands of dollars to cover your roof in solar panels. But that is possible if you are serious about renewable energy. A variety of solar-powered devices are available that can be used for essential purposes. DIY-friendly solar panel kits allow anyone to create a small system.
Improve your Home with Solar Panels
Solar-powered Ventilation Fans
Any type of ventilation fan is a good idea as they reduce cooling costs by removing hot air from attic spaces or other areas. These exhaust fans were wired to household electrical current which can be somewhat counterproductive for their energy-saving purposes. You can now buy roof vent fans with a panel of photo-electric cell panels that run the fan motor without any need for household electricity. These roof-mounted units can be used to cool a shed, garage, doghouse or chicken house in the summer. You can also use freestanding solar-powered fans on your patio, deck, or children’s play area.
Solar Heating for Your Swimming Pool
Children and parents love swimming pools. Everybody is excited when the pool opens, except for those who are too cold to swim in it. You can fix this problem by adding a solar blanket to warm the water. A basic floating blanket acts as a passive heating device by absorbing heat from the sun and then transmitting it to water.
If you are looking for something a bit more advanced, you could also consider installing a complete solar water heating system. The system uses solar heating panels mounted on your roof to capture the sun’s heat. This heat is then transmitted to the water via a series of tubes that run through the panels. The pool’s water temperature is gradually increasing as the water circulates slowly from the pool through the solar heating panel to the pool.
Solar Water Heater
Two types of solar systems can be used to replace conventional water heaters that are powered by electricity or gas. Active solar hot water systems use mechanical circulating pumps to circulate water from rooftop heat collection panels into a storage tank. Passive hot water systems do not have mechanical pumps and operate by the simple laws of heat naturally rising.
Active Water Heater Systems
There are two types active solar water heating systems.
Direct circulation systems use a pump to circulate household water through solar collectors into the home. These systems are great for climates that don’t freeze.
Indirect circulation systems use a non-freezing liquid to circulate through solar collectors to heat exchangers. Here, the energy is transferred into water which then flows into the home. These systems are often used in areas with freezing temperatures.
Passive Water Heater Systems
While passive solar water heating systems can be more affordable than active systems, they are usually less efficient. There are two main types of passive systems.
In regions where temperatures are more frequent than freezing, passive integrated collector-storage passive systems can be used more frequently. These systems are ideal for homes with high hot water requirements. These systems integrate the solar collector directly into the water storage tank. The sun heats the water storage tanks in the same way that a room warms up when it has its windows open.
Thermosiphon systems have a solar collector that is lower than the storage tank. The water rises naturally into the storage tank as the collector heats it. The heavy tanks that are usually installed on roofs require careful installation.
Installing a solar water heater can require a significant investment. However, it may be a cost-effective option if you consider the energy costs associated with a standard water heater for 20 years or longer.
Solar House Heating
You can heat your entire house with the energy of the sun in one of these two ways. These systems are for homeowners who are serious about renewable energy and can be expensive.
Hot Water Solar Systems
Whole-house hot-water systems are a large-scale version the same type of solar system that can replace a water heater and provide hot water to faucets. Whole-house heating systems are similar to that system. They heat water through solar collector panels. The tubing that runs through the collector panels circulates the hot water through the tubing. This hot water is not stored in a small tank to be used in plumbing fixtures. Instead, it is circulated through piping which provides warmth to radiant flooring tubing throughout the home. These systems can be used for heating water and heating the whole house.
These systems are large-scale and require large solar collector panels to be placed on the roof, as well as sophisticated tanks and circulation technology. While solar hot water heating systems are most commonly used for business purposes, they can also be used to heat your home.
Hot Air Solar Systems
Full-house heating systems can also be used to heat the house using hot air, rather than water or other liquids. These systems use the heat from the sun to heat the air and circulate it throughout the house. Clay roof tiles might have air channels that allow warm air to circulate. Hot air solar heating houses often have roofing or siding surfaces that absorb heat. To distribute warm air, many systems include a powered fan. These systems can heat only one room. This system is a more advanced version of the traditional sunroom. It was heated by sunlight through large windows, and a ceramic tile or stone floor.
Solar-Powered Pumps
Some hot-water heating systems, such as those described above, require a pump to circulate the water from the solar collector to a holding tank. These pumps, which are usually powered by household electricity, consume some of the energy that you had hoped to save when installing the system.
For maximum energy savings, you can run the circulating pumps on solar power by using photo-electric panels. These panels will produce the power needed to power the DC motors of the pumps. Although it is expensive to set up such a system, the cost of running hot water systems has been reduced to nearly nothing.
As with any photo-electric system the sun’s energy can also be stored in batteries. This allows you to still run the pumps during the night and on cloudy days.
Solar Power for Charging Batteries
Any device that runs on a battery can also be charged using solar power through a photo-electric panel system. Photo-electric solar panels are designed to produce DC current. This is the same type of electricity used in most batteries. You can plug in your cell phone, pad device, or laptop to charge it with many inexpensive solar panel kits. You can also connect other batteries to your chargers by simply adding an inverter that converts AC current from DC current into 120-volt AC current.
A larger scale of solar panels, as you’ll soon discover, can charge whole banks of storage batteries. These can be used to power almost any 120-volt AC device, up to the size of your entire home.
Photo-Electric Powers Your Home
Yes, solar energy is possible to power your entire house. It sounds expensive and complicated, but it is actually quite simple. The solar panels are made of polycrystalline silicon and react to sunlight to generate small electrical charges. They can be connected on a roof or open area that faces the sun. The sunlight converts to electricity. The DC current is then sent to an inverter which converts it to AC power. The AC power is fed into your main electrical panel and used to power all your devices. It’s just like utility company electricity. Your clean, renewable power source can power your home, cabin or tool shed as well as any other building by using transfer switches and other safety features.
Utility companies will now meter your home. This allows you to keep track of how much energy you produce and gives you credit. They also pay you back when the grid uses the energy that you have generated. You can set up a bank of batteries or a backup generator to store energy if you’re completely off-grid.
Installing a photo-electric panel system in a house is not an easy task. However, a look at the roofs of most American neighborhoods will reveal that it is not uncommon. It is very expensive to enclose your roof with photo-electric panels. A 5 kW system costs between $25,000 and $35,000. Subsidies and rebates can reduce this cost by up to 50 percent. Statistics show that you will only need to pay back your investment in energy cost savings over 6 to 8 years. Your household electricity will then be completely free after that point.
Solar Energy for Cooking
You can also use solar power to simply cook a meal. Even though it’s a novelty, solar energy cooking is actually quite simple. You’ll be able to cook in no time with just a pan, aluminum foil and a bag.
A solar cooker’s essence is to make a container with foil or other shiny material to direct the sun’s rays to a cooking area. There are many plans online for solar cookers.
Solar Energy for Outdoor Lighting
It is possible to provide landscape lighting using individual lighting fixtures. Each fixture has its own solar cell and rechargeable storage batteries. These were once quite small and dim lighting fixtures. But today’s LED technology and better batteries allow for adequate lighting, even spotlighting, with solar-powered fixtures that don’t require any wiring. Solar panels charge the batteries throughout the day and keep them powered through the night.
There are other systems that use a larger central panel to power multiple landscape lights. You can also make holiday lighting displays with solar panels.
