Once you have built your solar panel array. We then design a system to make best use of the solar power they produce. There are a number of ways of doing this. We can use a battery, push the electricity back to the national grid, or we can power our homes. You probably have a rough idea of what you want your finished system to look like, but plan very carefully. Know exactly how many watts of energy you need and how many watts of energy your solar panels are capable of producing.
Portable Solar Power Generator
This is the simplest of all the systems. All you need is an inverter, charge controller, a battery and your PV solar panel.
You don’t have to build all your solar panels before you install a system in your home. You can add more solar panels as and when they are available. Solar panels supply electricity as Direct Current. Your appliances use an Alternating Current, so the inverter converts DC to AC.
Should you produce more electricity than you use then the excess electricity can be stored in deep cycle batteries. Not your normal car batteries.
Solar Power For a Grid Tied Home
Are you tied to the national grid? If so then this is a very good system to use. Instead of storing the excess electricity in batteries, you feed it to the national grid. The benefit is you get paid by your supplier for producing the electricity, how cool is that.
If you think about it, it is so easy and cheap to build a solar panel. You can easily build one panel in 7 days and let’s say over a year you build 35 of them. This could turn it a very profitable income stream which will not only pay for all your power bills but may also pay for all your household bills!
Add a Battery Bank to Your Grid-Tied System
However, it still may be prudent to have a battery backup with a grid tied system. Should you have a cloudy day, or at night when you are generating no power, what do you do then? The battery bank is a passive supply of electricity, which has been previously charged up with any unused electricity generated over the past couple of days.
Solar Power generation With Off Grid Houses
I would think that if you do not have electricity piped straight to your home then definitely look at having a battery bank integrated with your setup. The battery bank will ensure you have the most effective system as it will store the unused power.
Batteries perform better when they are warm so it is wise to invest in a battery box and keep them in your garage. Not only does the battery box keep your batteries warm they also prevent them from being tampered by children or animals. If a dog weed on a battery it would do a lot of damage let alone what it might do to the dog!
The other thing to bear in mind is that for long cloudy periods or during the winter when you don’t get much sun, it would be worthwhile connecting a traditional generator to your solar powered system.
Different Types of Solar Powered Systems For the Home
- Solar panel with a battery backup
- Portable solar power pack
- Photovoltaic system without a battery backup
- Off grid with just a battery backup
- Grid tied setup + battery bank
Read further about how to build a solar panel and use it for powering your home visit build a solar panel.
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