Are You Ready For Solar Power in Your Home?

[Terrell Mccarthy]

For thousands of years, man has recognized the power of the sun's
energy and one need only step outside on a sunny day and feel the rays
of the sun to know that it can be a powerful source of heat. But the
sun can be used for more than heat, in fact its energy can be captured
and stored to meet the energy needs of your home.
While solar power for your home may seem like something far off in the
future, there are many homes that actually use solar power today. In
fact, more than 10,000 American homes are powered by the sun. You may
have actually used solar power and not really thought much about it -
if you've used a solar powered calculator or watch then you've tapped
into the energy of the sun!
Where residential solar power was once something only the wealthy
could afford, the cost of solar systems have actually come down about
80% in the past 20 years and they are getting cheaper every day. And
if you don't want to rely solely on the sun for your homes energy
needs, you can simply choose to use it for your water or only for a
portion of your electrical needs.
Of course you will need solar panels to capture the suns rays. These
panels are filled with photovoltaic cells which absorb the energy from
the sun. This energy is then stored in batteries after being converted
for use in the home.
If you decide that you want to use solar power in your home you can go
completely off the grid or get a "grid-tie" system. If you choose to
go off the grid, this means that you are not connected at all to your
local power company and your entire home is powered by solar.
Going with a "grid-tie" system actually has two advantages. One is
that you are still tied into the electric company so if you're not
producing enough solar power you can use electricity from them and the
other is that if you produce more solar power than you need you can
"sell" this to the electric company and get a credit on your meter.
Another benefit of this system is that you don't need the large
batteries that off the grid systems must have in order to store the
solar power in the home for use at night or on cloudy days.
Of course, using the sun to power your home means that you'll need to
have a sunny location for your solar panels. It's best to have your
panels mounted on a southern exposure where there is an unobstructed
view of the sun. You can mount them on your roof or on the ground and
there are fixed panels that stay in place or you can get movable ones
that move with the sun.
Either way, converting some, or all, of your home to solar power will
help you reduce a negative impact on the environment and, once the
initial cost of installing the system (around $30,000) has been
recouped, it will also help you save money on your energy bills.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Home Energy" group.
To post to this group, send email to homeen...@googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to homeenergymi...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/homeenergymi?hl=en.