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Posts Tagged ‘solar cell efficiency’

Many homeowners can save a lot of money each year by using a solar power system to reduce or eliminate their electricity bill. They will never again have to worry about another electric bill if they install a properly sized solar panel array. Some homeowners, though, encounter problems that prevent them from getting the return on investment that they had hoped for. Some of these issues have been overcome in recent years with improvements to the solar power technology and these innovations make these systems the perfect answer for most homeowners.  These innovations can be useful whether you are using purchased solar panels or a DIY solar panel.

The biggest concern for most homeowners that are considering installing a solar panel system is does their home have the proper orientation to the sun to be able to take advantage of solar power. For solar power systems to operate at peak efficiencies, a home has to have a roof that faced south if they were located in the northern hemisphere. As the sun travels across the sky, a southern exposure ensures that the solar panels get a good amount of sun through the day. Older panels had a very specific need to constant sun exposure for most of the day. Even it positioning was just a little off, it could have a major impact on power output.

This problem is solved in modern solar panels by using more efficient solar cells. Besides producing more electricity with similar amount of sunlight, these newer solar cells can also tolerate a more severe angle relative to the sun. Because of this, they have a wider tolerance for locations that would not have been good choices for older systems. For installations with less than perfect alignment, these newer solar cells are ideal. These modern solar panels will produce more electricity when there is dimished sunlight, like on cloudy days, and also in these situations that are out of standard alignment with the sun.  Many older panels had to be rotated to maintain this direct angle with the sun, but newer ones don’t.  So, many people can now do a homebuild solar panel installation.

This is quite an advantage over older panels that had to have a lot of consistent sun in order ot produce electricity. Because of this, older panels were inactive when the sun was rising in the morning and setting in the late afternoon. There is sunlight at these times, but not enough to cross the threshold these older panels need to produce power. Newer panels will produce power proportional to the amount of sun even during these periods of lower amounts of sunlight. This means they will produce their maximum output during the day when the sun is brightest and will still produce power in lesser amounts when less sunlight is present. Having this ability to generate a variable amount of power from even weak sunlight allows these newer solar panels to produce more power each day and adds to their total power output for the year. This additional power can have a big impact on savings and can make all the difference to homeowners that are trying to justify a solar power system for their home.

Among the many ways to increase the resale value of your home, a solar power system is one of the best.  A solar power system is sure to increase the value of your home whether it provides all of the power needs for your house or only provides a supplement to power provided by the electric company.  A simple diy solar charger can be a great first solar project.