3 Steps For Understanding How Solar Works
Solar panels are springing up all across the globe and you’ve probably seen a roof or a field covered with panels near you. When you walk or drive past those installations, you might be curious about how the solar panels generate electricity, how much power they can offer, and how much money they save. With the scope to save a lot on the electricity bills, solar for tenant is a common installation these days.
The following steps will help you understand how the solar works –
Solar panels convert sunlight into electricity
Solar panels are the initial step in generating power from the sun. Solar panels are made out of a grid of silicon cells sandwiched between two sheets of glass. When sunlight strikes a solar panel, it reacts with the silicon cell, which causes electrons to travel about. The cells are fitted with cables that capture the electrical current caused by the movement in order to capture this energy. For your landlord solar installation, this has to be the first step.
A single panel can aggregate the electrical current produced by each of these cells into a single flow of electricity because each panel normally comprises 60 or 72 of these solar cells. Solar panels are about the same width as and a foot shorter than a twin mattress, weighing around 30 pounds each and measuring about five feet long and three feet across.
The number of solar panels you’ll need for your installation is determined by several factors including –
- The quantity of sunlight that your area receives
- Your roof’s angle and orientation
- How much energy do you use in the winter and summer
Inverters convert DC electricity into usable AC electricity
Alternating current (or AC) energy is the type of electricity that comes out of your home’s sockets to power your equipment. Solar panels, however, create electricity in a different format than all other power plants: direct current (or DC) energy. Solar panels are connected with solar inverters, which convert the DC energy from solar panels into usable AC energy for your home, in order to make this electricity accessible in your home. Inverters are a more active component of solar energy systems with complicated power engineering and technical designs, whereas solar panels passively lie on rooftops gathering sunlight.
Solar inverters can either take all of the electricity generated by your panels and invert it all at once, or they can invert the electricity generated by each panel separately.
In its most basic form, a solar battery is meant to store excess solar energy and utilise (discharge) that energy in the evening or at night when the solar panels are not generating power. A solar battery can be connected to the switchboard or the solar inverter (DC) (AC). When a battery is linked to a hybrid solar inverter, DC electricity from the solar panels can be converted to AC electricity.
Storing solar power in the grid or at your home
How can I power my home at night or on cloudy days when the sun isn’t shining? This is one of the most often asked questions concerning solar. The basic answer is that you can store that energy and use it later. When your solar panels produce more electricity than your home requires (for example, during the day when you’re at work), you transmit it to the grid, where it is immediately consumed, and your electricity metre reverses. You pull electricity back from the grid at night or when you use more electricity than your panels produce, shifting your metre ahead.
Net metering is when your utility bills you for the difference between what you took from the grid and what you put on it.
