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Tips on Selecting & Comparing Solar Panels According to Cost

June 30, 2011 By Leave a Comment

 

It took me a while to know how to compare between solar panels. There are lots of parameters that can be taken into consideration like lifetime, power generated in watts and so on. But when it comes to cost, I thought it was a bit misleading to compare the prices of solar panels taking into consideration the power and size of each one. I came up with a simple idea by simply dividing the cost of the solar panel by its wattage, this way I can compare solar panels apple to apple. For example; if a solar panel “A” costs 100 USD and delivers 150 watts, and solar panel “B” costs 80 USD and delivers 100 Watts, to be able to compare them divide each cost of each panel by its wattage as shown below:

Solar Panel “A”: 100USD / 150 Watts =  0.667 USD per Watt

While, Solar Panel “B”: 80USD / 100 Watts = 0.80 USD per Watt.

Conclusion is total cost of ownership of Solar Panel “A” is better than Solar Panel “B” as I will need less solar panels of “A” and will pay less to earn more wattage.


Filed Under: Solar Energy

5 Uses of Solar Energy

June 16, 2011 By 11 Comments

5 uses of solar energy

Our earth gets most of its energy from the sun. We call this energy solar energy. Sol means sun. Solar energy travels from the sun to the earth in rays. Some are light rays that we can see. Some are rays we can’t see, like x-rays. Energy in rays is called radiant energy. The sun is a giant ball of gas. It sends out huge rays of energy every day.

Most of the rays go off into space. Only a small part reaches the earth. When the rays reach the earth, some bounce off clouds back into space—the rays are reflected. The earth absorbs most of the solar energy and turns it into heat. This heat warms the earth and the air around it—the atmosphere. Without the sun, we couldn’t live on the earth—it would be too cold.

We Use Solar Energy

We use solar energy in many ways. During the day, we use sunlight to see what we are doing and where we are going.

FOOD

Plants use the light from the sun to grow. Plants absorb (take in) the solar energy and use it to grow. The plants keep some of the solar energy in their roots, fruits, and leaves. They store it as chemical energy. This process is called photosynthesis. The energy stored in plants feeds every living thing on the earth. When we eat plants and food made from plants, we store the energy in our bodies.

We use the energy to grow and move. We use it to pump our blood, think, see, hear, taste, smell and feel. We use energy for everything we do. The energy in the meat that we eat also comes from plants. Animals eat plants to grow. They store the plants’ energy in their bodies.

HEAT

We also use the energy stored in plants to make heat. We burn wood in campfires and fireplaces. Early humans burned wood to provide light, cook food, scare away wild animals, and keep warm. Solar energy transforms, or changes, into heat when it hits objects.

That’s why we feel warmer in the sun than in the shade. The light from the sun turns into heat when it hits our clothes or our skin. We use the sun’s energy to cook food and dry our clothes.

Solar Energy is Important

People, plants, and animals use solar energy for light, heat, and food. Solar energy is also important to nature.

WATER CYCLE

Solar energy powers the water cycle. The water cycle is how water moves through the atmosphere and the earth’s surface. The sun heats water on the earth. The water evaporates— it turns into a gas called water vapor and rises into the air to form clouds. The air in the atmosphere is cool. The water vapor condenses into liquid water.

The water falls from the clouds as precipitation—rain, sleet, hail or snow. When water falls on high ground, gravity pulls it to lower ground. There is energy in the moving water. We can capture that energy with dams and use it to make electricity.

WIND

Solar energy makes the winds that blow over the earth. The sun shines down on the earth. Some parts of the surface heat up faster than others. Land, for example, usually heats more quickly than water. The air over the land gets warm. The warm air rises. The cooler air over the water moves in where the warm air was.

This moving air is wind. Wind turbines can capture the wind’s energy. The wind turbines turn the energy in moving air into electricity. The wind pushes against the blades of the turbine and they begin to spin. A generator inside the turbine changes the motion into electricity.

FOSSIL FUELS

Coal, oil, and natural gas are called fossil fuels, because they were made from prehistoric plants and animals. The energy in the plants and animals came from the sun. We use the energy in fossil fuels to cook our food, warm our homes, run our cars, and make electricity. Most of the energy we use today comes from fossil fuels.

Solar Energy is Renewable

Solar energy is free and clean. Solar energy is renewable. We will not run out of it. The sun will keep making energy for millions of years. Why don’t we use the sun for all our energy needs? We don’t have the technology to do it yet. The hard part is capturing the sun’s energy. Only a little bit reaches any one place. On a cloudy day, most of the solar energy never reaches the ground at all.

RunGreenPower.com will teach you how to build solar & wind power systems for
your home within a weekend.
Check It Now: Homemade Soalr Cells

Written by YoniL

Filed Under: Solar Energy Tagged With: , ,

Sharp Solar

June 16, 2011 By 1 Comment


As the world looks to alternative fuel sources to save the environment and money, solar energy has come to the forefront. Sharp solar is known as one of the leading manufacturers.


Sharp Solar – Solar Energy Manufacturer


Solar energy has become increasingly important in today’s world. With fuel prices skyrocketing and other forms of home energy being impractical, solar energy is the Earth’s best solution to powering our lives. Solar products are a great way to collect energy from the sun and harness its power to run our households.


Sharp solar products are a great choice in the solar market place. Sharp is the number one manufacturer of solar cells, manufacturing more than its three nearest competitors combined. Sharp solar products are a convenient, safe and economical way to absorb solar energy and convert it into a usable form for household use.

Sharp has led the solar industry for over 45 years now, and they have installed solar product systems everywhere from houses to office buildings to even on satellites.


There are four basic parts to the Sharp solar energy production system. The solar modules collect the sun’s rays in their solar cells and convert it into usable energy. The inverter converts the electrical current that s created from DC (direct current) to AC (alternating current), which is the type of electricity used in homes. The Sharp monitor allows you to see how your system is doing in terms of output and performance. The final part of the system, the electric meter, shows you how much power you are using.


In 2003, Sharp introduced their residential solar systems for use in the United States. These systems, used throughout the world before coming to the US, have allowed Sharp to be named the number one solar cell producer in the world every year since 2000. Sharp solar products are now also being produced in a “clean” factory in Memphis, Tennessee, which represents an investment on the part of Sharp into the future of solar power.


Sharp offers their solar power systems for sale through their own Sharp Solar department, or through an independent Sharp Solar Certified Installer. The installers are able to come to your home and help you decide on your own solar energy needs. They then they can quote you a price on the amount of work and materials needed to make your house a solar powered one.


Whether you want to cut down on your energy costs or cut down on damage to the environment, Sharp solar products are a great way to achieve your goals. Solar products are cost effective and, once installed, easy to use and maintain. Solar energy is a great way to reduce your dependence on fossil fuels and other Earth-harming energy sources.

Filed Under: Solar Energy Tagged With: , , ,

What is Homemade Solar Energy?

June 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Solar Energy

What is Homemade Solar Energy?

Every day, the sun radiates (sends out) an enormous amount of energy—called solar energy. It radiates more energy in one second than the world has used since time began. This energy comes from within the sun itself.

Like most stars, the sun is a big gas ball made up mostly of hydrogen and helium gas. The sun makes energy in its inner core in a process called nuclear fusion.

Only a small part of the solar energy that the sun radiates into space ever reaches the earth, but that is more than enough to supply all our energy needs. Every day enough solar energy reaches the earth to supply our nation’s energy needs for a year!

It takes the sun’s energy just a little over eight minutes to travel the 93 million miles to earth. Solar energy travels at a speed of 186,000 miles per second, the speed of light.

Today, people use solar energy to heat buildings and water and to generate electricity.

Solar Collectors

Heating with solar energy is not as easy as you might think. Capturing sunlight and putting it to work is difficult because the solar energy that reaches the earth is spread out over a large area. The sun does not deliver that much energy to any one place at any one time.

The amount of solar energy an area receives depends on the time of day, the season of the year, the cloudiness of the sky, and how close you are to the earth’s equator.

A solar collector is one way to capture sunlight and change it into usable heat energy. A closed car on a sunny day is like a solar collector. As sunlight passes through the car’s windows, it is absorbed by the seat covers, walls, and floor of the car. The absorbed light changes into heat. The car’s windows let light in, but they don’t let all the heat out. A closed car can get very hot!

Solar Space Heating

Space heating means heating the space inside a building. Today, many homes use solar energy for space heating. A passive solar home is designed to let in as much sunlight as possible. It is like a big solar collector.

Sunlight passes through the windows and heats the walls and floor inside the house. The light can get in, but the heat is trapped inside. A passive solar home does not depend on mechanical equipment, such as pumps and blowers, to heat the house.

An active solar home, on the other hand, uses special equipment to collect sunlight. An active solar house may use special collectors that look like boxes covered with glass.

These collectors are mounted on the rooftop facing south to take advantage of the winter sun. Dark-colored metal plates inside the boxes absorb sunlight and change it into heat. (Black absorbs sunlight better than any other color.) Air or water flows through the collectors and is warmed by the heat. The warm air or water is distributed to the house, just as it would be with an ordinary furnace system.

Solar Hot Water Heating

Solar energy can be used to heat water. Heating water for bathing, dishwashing, and clothes washing is the second biggest home energy cost.

A solar water heater works a lot like solar space heating. In our hemisphere, a solar collector is mounted on the south side of a roof where it can capture sunlight. The sunlight heats water in a tank. The hot water is piped to faucets throughout a house, just as it would be with an ordinary water heater. Today, more than one million homes and 200,000 businesses in the U.S. use solar water heaters.

Solar Electricity

Solar energy can also be used to produce electricity. Two ways to make electricity from solar energy are photovoltaics and solar thermal systems.

Photovoltaic Electricity

Photovoltaic comes from the words photo meaning light and volt, a measurement of electricity. Sometimes photovoltaic cells are called PV cells or solar cells for short. You are probably familiar with photovoltaic cells. Solar-powered toys, calculators, and roadside telephone call boxes all use solar cells to convert sunlight into electricity.

Solar cells are made up of silicon, the same substance that makes up sand. Silicon is the second most common substance on earth. Solar cells can supply energy to anything that is powered by batteries or electrical power.

Electricity is produced when sunlight strikes the solar cell, causing the electrons to move around. The action of the electrons starts an electric current. The conversion of sunlight into electricity takes place silently and instantly. There are no mechanical parts to wear out.

You won’t see many photovoltaic power plants today. Compared to other ways of making electricity, photovoltaic systems are expensive.

It costs 10-20 cents a kilowatt-hour to produce electricity from solar cells. Most people pay their electric companies about 11 cents a kilowatt-hour for the electricity they use, large industrial consumers pay less. Today, solar systems are mainly used to generate electricity in remote areas that are a long way from electric power lines.

.

Solar Thermal Electricity

Like solar cells, solar thermal systems, also called concentrated solar power (CSP), use solar energy to produce electricity, but in a different way. Most solar thermal systems use a solar collector with a mirrored surface to focus sunlight onto a receiver that heats a liquid. The super-heated liquid is used to make steam to produce electricity in the same way that coal plants do.

There are nine solar thermal power plants in the Mojave Desert that together produce 360 MW of electricity.

Solar energy has great potential for the future. Solar energy is free, and its supplies are unlimited. It does not pollute or otherwise damage the environment. It cannot be controlled by any one nation or industry. If we can improve the technology to harness the sun’s enormous power, we may never face energy shortages again.

Solar Energy

What is Homemade Solar Energy?

Every day, the sun radiates (sends out) an enormous amount of energy—called solar energy. It radiates more energy in one second than the world has used since time began. This energy comes from within the sun itself.

Like most stars, the sun is a big gas ball made up mostly of hydrogen and helium gas. The sun makes energy in its inner core in a process called nuclear fusion.

Only a small part of the solar energy that the sun radiates into space ever reaches the earth, but that is more than enough to supply all our energy needs. Every day enough solar energy reaches the earth to supply our nation’s energy needs for a year!

It takes the sun’s energy just a little over eight minutes to travel the 93 million miles to earth. Solar energy travels at a speed of 186,000 miles per second, the speed of light.

Today, people use solar energy to heat buildings and water and to generate electricity.

Solar Collectors

Heating with solar energy is not as easy as you might think. Capturing sunlight and putting it to work is difficult because the solar energy that reaches the earth is spread out over a large area. The sun does not deliver that much energy to any one place at any one time.

The amount of solar energy an area receives depends on the time of day, the season of the year, the cloudiness of the sky, and how close you are to the earth’s equator.

A solar collector is one way to capture sunlight and change it into usable heat energy. A closed car on a sunny day is like a solar collector. As sunlight passes through the car’s windows, it is absorbed by the seat covers, walls, and floor of the car. The absorbed light changes into heat. The car’s windows let light in, but they don’t let all the heat out. A closed car can get very hot!

Solar Space Heating

Space heating means heating the space inside a building. Today, many homes use solar energy for space heating. A passive solar home is designed to let in as much sunlight as possible. It is like a big solar collector.

Sunlight passes through the windows and heats the walls and floor inside the house. The light can get in, but the heat is trapped inside. A passive solar home does not depend on mechanical equipment, such as pumps and blowers, to heat the house.

An active solar home, on the other hand, uses special equipment to collect sunlight. An active solar house may use special collectors that look like boxes covered with glass.

These collectors are mounted on the rooftop facing south to take advantage of the winter sun. Dark-colored metal plates inside the boxes absorb sunlight and change it into heat. (Black absorbs sunlight better than any other color.) Air or water flows through the collectors and is warmed by the heat. The warm air or water is distributed to the house, just as it would be with an ordinary furnace system.

Solar Hot Water Heating

Solar energy can be used to heat water. Heating water for bathing, dishwashing, and clothes washing is the second biggest home energy cost.

A solar water heater works a lot like solar space heating. In our hemisphere, a solar collector is mounted on the south side of a roof where it can capture sunlight. The sunlight heats water in a tank. The hot water is piped to faucets throughout a house, just as it would be with an ordinary water heater. Today, more than one million homes and 200,000 businesses in the U.S. use solar water heaters.

Solar Electricity

Solar energy can also be used to produce electricity. Two ways to make electricity from solar energy are photovoltaics and solar thermal systems.

Photovoltaic Electricity

Photovoltaic comes from the words photo meaning light and volt, a measurement of electricity. Sometimes photovoltaic cells are called PV cells or solar cells for short. You are probably familiar with photovoltaic cells. Solar-powered toys, calculators, and roadside telephone call boxes all use solar cells to convert sunlight into electricity.

Solar cells are made up of silicon, the same substance that makes up sand. Silicon is the second most common substance on earth. Solar cells can supply energy to anything that is powered by batteries or electrical power.

Electricity is produced when sunlight strikes the solar cell, causing the electrons to move around. The action of the electrons starts an electric current. The conversion of sunlight into electricity takes place silently and instantly. There are no mechanical parts to wear out.

You won’t see many photovoltaic power plants today. Compared to other ways of making electricity, photovoltaic systems are expensive.

It costs 10-20 cents a kilowatt-hour to produce electricity from solar cells. Most people pay their electric companies about 11 cents a kilowatt-hour for the electricity they use, large industrial consumers pay less. Today, solar systems are mainly used to generate electricity in remote areas that are a long way from electric power lines.

.

Solar Thermal Electricity

Like solar cells, solar thermal systems, also called concentrated solar power (CSP), use solar energy to produce electricity, but in a different way. Most solar thermal systems use a solar collector with a mirrored surface to focus sunlight onto a receiver that heats a liquid. The super-heated liquid is used to make steam to produce electricity in the same way that coal plants do.

There are nine solar thermal power plants in the Mojave Desert that together produce 360 MW of electricity.

Solar energy has great potential for the future. Solar energy is free, and its supplies are unlimited. It does not pollute or otherwise damage the environment. It cannot be controlled by any one nation or industry. If we can improve the technology to harness the sun’s enormous power, we may never face energy shortages again.

RunGreenPower.com will teach you how to build solar & wind power systems for
your home within a weekend.
Check It Now: Homemade Soalr Cells

Written by YoniL

Filed Under: Solar Energy Tagged With: , ,