Harvesting The Power Of The Sun To Create Solar Electricity
Free energy … What a dream, eh? One of the biggest household burdens is the cost of energy. The cost of energy is often 40% of total domestic bills. So, free energy would assist every family that is not rich a great deal. However, free energy is a pipe dream, is it not? There is alternative energy, that is non fossil fuel based energy, like nuclear energy, but that is not low-cost either.
Other alternative sources of energy include wind-driven turbines and solar power. In this piece, I want to talk about harnessing the power of the sun to create solar electricity. Creating solar power is nothing new and most people are acquainted with the general theory of how the scheme works. In deed, most of us have owned a solar powered pocket calculator or solar powered clock at one time or another.
Solar electricity is just as good and just as powerful as traditionally generated electricity and they can be used for exactly the same purposes. However, solar energy has one huge benefit, it is not ‘dirty’.
Electricity produced from the sun’s energy has not been made creating any greenhouse gases whatsoever. Additionally, because there are no moving parts in a solar panel, there is no wear and tear and so less maintenance.
Solar panel systems are more flexible too. For instance, if you have a small home with couple of appliances, you still have to have the same method of delivering grid electricity as a huge house and you still have to have a metering system and a means of paying for the electricity used.
However, if you take the same small house as an example, you might find that ten solar panels will power it. Therefore, for a one-off expense, you are free of electricity pylons and their cables, the meter box and the monthly bills. A huge house would just have to fit more panels, say one hundred, to achieve the same freedom.
This freedom from the means of supplying electricity is a very real advantage if you live in a remote place, where you are expected to pay for the electricity pylons and their cables all on your own. The down side of using solar power is the cost of installation. A professionally fitted solar energy system can cost about $30,000.
If you save $200 per month on electricity, then you will recover your outlay in about 300 months, which is 12.5 years. However, if you could get the system fitted more economically, you would recover your costs more rapidly.
This is possible, by building the solar panels yourself and installing them yourself. No matter what sort of a klutz you think you are, you can put together and install the average solar panel kit. In fact, most teenagers can manage the job. If you decide to buy solar panel kits to assemble yourself, you can save about half of the above outlay, but if you were to make the panels from parts that are readily available in DIY shops, you could be harnessing the power of the sun to make solar energy for up to 75% of the cost of a professional installation.
Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with a favourite subject, types of renewable energy. If you are interested in Sustainable Energy At Home, please click through to our site.