Solar How To
In this article, I am going to go through what each component of a solar power system does, and what role the component plays in the system. Every component does a particular role, though you don’t have to include every piece in every solar project. A standard solar power system produces electricity, stores the electricity using batteries to be used later and then changes the DC electricity from the batteries to the same kind of AC electricity that comes from the wall sockets in your house.
Solar Panels
Energy from the sun is converted into electricity by solar panels. The panel has a layer of silicon. When photons from sunlight hit the silicon, they knock loose electrons. The electrons are sent through wires and become electricity. A solar panel is composed of many solar cells, each of which generates about one half volt. Any voltage can be generated by putting together the right number of solar cells. Building a solar panel and generating your own free electricity is actually relatively cheap and easy. To read more about how to build your own solar panel, take a look at Building a DIY Solar Panel
Charge Controller
The solar panels generate power and then send the electricity to a charge controller, which charges the batteries. The power going to the batteries is regulated by the charge controller. As the batteries get close to fully charged, it gradually lowers the power sent to the batteries to make sure the batteries don’t overcharge. The charge controller will also “top off” the batteries every once in a while after they are fully charged to make sure they stay fully charged. For more information about charge controllers, check out Solar Charge Controller
Batteries
Standard 12 volt batteries like you find in your car are used in most solar systems. Sealed lead acid are the most common type. This type of battery is rugged, easy to find and cheap. Weight is the only potential downside, but since you aren’t going to be moving the batteries around, it isn’t really much of a problem. You can often obtain surplus batteries from places like computer UPS systems for very cheap or even free.
Power Inverter
The appliances in your house use 120v Alternating Current (AC), but the batteries in a solar power system use 12v Direct Current (Dc). The power inverter will convert the DC electricity from the batteries into the AC power that your appliances require. There are two different kinds of power inverter called Modified Sine Wave (MSW) and True Sine Wave (TSW). There are two kinds: Modified Sine Wave (MSW) and True Sine Wave (TSW). MSW is not as good as TSW because TSW exactly matches the electricity that comes out of the the wall sockets in your house. It is preferable to use TSW over MSW becuase TSW more closely matches the electricy that comes from the grid. MSW is cheaper than TSW, but it is generally worth it in the long run to pay more for a TSW inverter.
Complete Solar Power System
Now we will put all the parts together into a complete system. You generally mount the solar panels on the roof. The solar panels are connected together with wires which then send the electricity to the charge controller. The batteries are charged by the charge controller with the power coming from the solar panels. The power from the charge controller is stored in the batteries all day while sunlight is hitting the solar panels. The power inverter takes the DC electricity from the betteries and converts it to the standard 120v AC electricity that all your applicances are used to getting from the wall sockets in your house. A system like this can be small enough to power only a single appliance, or big enough to supply power to your whole house.
If you are interested in how much it will cost for enough solar panels to power your house, take a look at this guide to Solar Panel Cost
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Tags: diy solar panel, solar charge controller, solar how to