Friday, January 31, 2014

Significant Improvements In Home Solar Panel Systems Over The Years

By Serena Price


Because of the harsh economic times that have characterized modern life, today more and more homeowners are looking for ways to cut on their monthly utility bills, particularly the ever escalating energy bills. The Use of home solar panel systems is one of the greatest ways that homeowners are looking into to generate free energy from the sun.

Solar panel systems have come a very long way to where they are today, hence justifying their huge popularity. They are highly sought after because they are not only efficient but also very economical when it comes to sun power generation. See, solar energy is a renewable resource, meaning with a good solar panel, you can even say goodbye to electricity from your local power company.

As mentioned, significant improvements have been seen in modern day units giving homeowners many years of use with minimal maintenance needed. A notable improvement is in efficiency. Today, solar panels have a 20% conversion efficiency. This means you will invest in fewer units to harness the same amount of energy from the sun compared to older versions of these panels.

It is indeed a great return on investment, if not for anything else, because the cost of installation for fewer units will be significantly lower. Another point worth noting is the fact that you will not need lots of space for mounting your panels. Technological advancements have seen a significant reduction in the size of these units.

It is also worth noting that these panels today are quite flexible when it comes to orientation. A decade or so ago, these units were limited to homeowners who had their homes in the northern hemisphere. This is because that was the only angle that the units could trap the most energy. When the units were mounted facing south, they were able to receive direct sunlight, thus converting to more energy.

Note, however, that if the house wasn't in line due south, the system would generate significantly less output current since they were not in place to handle the rigorous angle of the sun. Today, these panels are made in such a way that they can handle a wider gamut of sunlight angles to hit the panels and still be able to trap the most power. This is good news for homeowners whose houses are not aligned due south with the roof and thus can offer larger amounts of sun energy.

The last notable improvement to these systems is their power generating capability in relation to the minimum amount of sunlight required to initiate the conversion process. A decade ago, the units which were used had a very high sunlight threshold required to initiate the power generation process.

Not anymore. Today, whether the sun comes out or not, you can bet that heat in the atmosphere could be all that is required to initiate a power generation process. This explains the reason why home solar panel systems today work perfectly even on cloudy and rainy days, at sunrise or at sunset. Units today have a notably lower sunlight threshold, which also means that their trapping and harnessing power has also improved significantly.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment