Solar Panels for Homes

How does solar power really work and how can you benefit from it in your home? In the following I will try to answer these and other questions, so keep on reading…

Solar energy is basically energy gathered up from the sun. This energy is extremely powerful, it is available on every part of the world and is it just waiting for us to take advantage of it. Solar energy is unlike most other energy sources completely inexhaustible. It is only a small fraction of the sun’s rays that hits Earth, but is more than enough to provide the entire population with all our power and energy needs.

The biggest issue is to learn how to gather this energy efficiently and in a manageable way. Today many different methods exists to take advantage of this gigantic power source and these technologies are constant being refined and developed. The concerns about the availability of the conventional energy sources and the fluctuating prices are causing many people to take interest in utilizing renewable energy sources, like solar energy.

It is reasonable to expect a further improvement of the solar power technology the exists today and the invention of brand new way to use solar energy over the next decades.

For the time being the most well know and tested methods includes:

Solar cells: Solar cells are also know as photoelectric or photovoltaic cells, and as the name implies these cells turn sunlight into electricity. Solar panels consists of modules of combines solar cells.

Solar water heaters: Water is heated from the heat from the sun, through glass panels installed on roofs or other places with access to the sun light. These glass panes are known as solar collectors and they utilize the heat from the sun (called solar thermal energy) contrary to solar cells which uses the sun’s light.

Solar furnaces: A relatively new solar power method, which uses reflective surfaces like mirrors, to concentrate the rays from the sun into a single point. In this single point an extreme amount of energy is concentrated, which can be used to create electricity or used in the electrolyses process of creating hydrogen from water.

The benefits of solar energy:

• Inexhaustible energy source.
• Free to use.
• Completely pollution and waste free.
• Can be used in remote and almost uninhabited parts of the world.
• High scalability, can be used for low power purposes as well as high power.
• There is no need to process the energy source before use (unlike fossil fuels).