Solar panels are an ideal way of reducing your electricity bills. All of us enjoy living self-sustainably or perhaps want to mitigate the carbon footprint of your home. Fortunately, solar panels actually make it possible to achieve the dream. However, it’s not that simple.
Although solar panels can be rather expensive at first, they might not always be suitable. Therefore, it’s important to find out if your specific home is suitable, as well as how the solar panels work. Read on to learn more.
What Is Solar PV?
Generally, “solar PV” or” solar photovoltaic” is a common term used to refer to solar electric systems. Most people are probably familiar with photovoltaic technology on a small scale. It is often used to power phone chargers, toys, road signs, and calculators. It runs the appliance by making use of the sun. Only on a large scale, solar panels used for electricity tend to work on the same principle.
In other words, all you need is sunlight to obtain electricity from the panels. Usually, more electricity is generated on sunny days; however, their performance is also good in overcast days. What’s more, these solar PV systems ate much easier to set up and can even last for more than 40 years.
How Does It Work?
- Photovoltaic solar systems generally make use of cells that comprise one or two layers of semiconducting material that helps in converting solar radiation into electricity. Typically, the semiconducting material is silicon, which happens to be the second most readily available element on the planet after oxygen
- There’s the formation of electric field across the layers when the light shines on the cell
- As a result, there is a flow of electrons thus producing electricity
- On its own, every single cell just creates a small bit of electricity. When joined together to form panels, however, they create large and useful amounts
- Mounting of the panels is either on a frame or the roof
- The purpose of the inverter is to deal with converting the DC (Direct Current) to AC (Alternating Current) electricity that’s much suitable for operating devices
- Grid-connected systems usually can export the electricity that they don’t utilize to the grid, and even import it from the same grid if there isn’t sufficient sunlight
Additional Useful Parts to Solar Panels
A typical solar module not only consists of silicon solar cells but also comprises a glass casing that provides protection and durability for the silicon PV cells. The panel also has a protective back sheet and a layer of insulation under the glass exterior, which protects against humidity and heat dissipation within the panel. The insulation is essential since increases in temperature will result in a decrease in efficiency, which also translates to a lower solar panel performance.
The anti-reflective coating found in solar panels helps in enhancing sunlight absorption and even enables the silicon cells to obtain maximum sunlight exposure. In general, silicon solar cells are made in two cell formations, polycrystalline or monocrystalline.
When it comes to polycrystalline cells, they are made up of shards or fragments of silicon, whereas monocrystalline cells are usually made up of one silicon crystal. Mono formats often allow more space for electrons to move around and hence provide a relatively higher efficiency solar technology compared to polycrystalline. However, they are generally more costly.
How Can You Guarantee Major Solar Savings?
If you have been thinking about installing a solar panel array for your particular home, there’re a few factors you need to look out for, such as warranties, installer selection, equipment, and financing. Apart from all of these, you need to ensure that you can receive a great deal and have strong energy savings in the long term.