The Residential Solar Power System - Harnessing Residential Solar Energy

A residential solar power system uses the energy of the sun to power household electrical items. Installing residential solar panels will allow you to get rid of (or at least severely reduce) your electricity bill and you will also be doing your bit for the environment by not purchasing energy from providers whose power generation facilities contribute to the planet's stock of greenhouse gases.

Whilst the cost involved with installing residential solar power systems (and the associated payback period) has been prohibitive in the past, these days solar panels are much more affordable and indeed better looking. The cost of making free electricity from photovoltaic (PV) panels has dropped considerably in recent years, thanks to financial incentives such as installation rebates, improved production efficiencies and increased energy capacity, making them a much more attractive proposition for the average householder. Modern residential solar power systems are essentially a plug-and-play technology that having been installed, require little participation on the part of the homeowner. With so much attention paid to keeping things green and our energy usage to a minimum, it makes good sense to install residential solar panels for our home's energy needs.

Typically installed on the roof, solar panels (also called photovoltaic panels) convert sunlight directly into DC electricity. An inverter then converts this DC current to AC electricity for all or some of your daily energy needs, depending on your home's daily power consumption. Installing a solar power system in your own home is a large step and one that involves a lot of forethought. Consideration should be given to things such as your house's location (is your house shadowed by a row of large trees or a neighbor's mansion?); the size of your home (you need 200-250 feet of rooftop oriented towards the sun's trajectory for the project to be viable); and the size of rebate on offer for residential solar power installation (rebates will vary from state to state).

Systems will usually have a payback period of between 6-12 years - and will almost certainly have paid for themselves well before their 20-25 year warranties run out. The exact payback period will depend on the home's electrical usage, the electric rate schedule and the cost of your system. Systems that are not grid-tied usually have battery back-up storage. This means that systems that are not connected to the grid must overproduce during the day and store the energy in a battery. Installing your own solar power can isolate your exposure to rising electricity rates as the portion of your usage that is generated on site will no longer be subject to increased in electricity rates.

Installation of solar hot water heating has become the norm in countries such as Australia, Israel and Greece, where there is an abundance of solar radiation, and even in Japan and Austria where there is considerably less. The increased take up of solar power as a domestic energy source has been aided by the increased global awareness of global warming and government incentives such as rebates for the installation of residential solar powered systems.

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For more information on installing a residential solar power system and harnessing residential solar energy go to http://www.about-solar-power.com

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