Tag: Solar Power System

Things to consider before you install a solar water heater system

Solar water heaters are great. They will save energy, money, and the environment. But before you buy and install a solar water heating system, you need to first consider your home’s solar resource. Not all homes are suitable for a solar water heater system. It all depends on how much sun light your home gets.

Solar water heating systems use both direct and diffuse solar radiation. Ideally, if you live in a sunny, dry, and warm climate, it’ll be great to install one. However, northern climate might still have enough solar resources. The most important is where your home is built. If it’s built in a heavily wooded area, then it’ll not work.

The best way for you to find out if not through guessing, but consulting a solar system supplier or installer. They’re trained professionals who can conduct a solar site analysis.

Source: EERE

What is Concentrating Solar Power?

Concentrating Solar Power’s (CSP) relatively low cost and ability to deliver power during periods of peak demand—when and where we need it—means it can be a major contributor to the nation’s future needs for distributed sources of energy. Large-scale concentrating solar power technologies include parabolic troughs and power towers.
There are more than 350 megawatts of parabolic trough systems connected to the electricity grid in southern California. Photo credit: Warren Gretz. Illustration: open domain.
Parabolic troughs have a proven track record as a technology that can function effectively for large-scale power needs. They currently provide the least expensive way to produce solar electricity. Parabolic-trough systems concentrate the sun’s energy through long rectangular, curved (U-shaped) reflectors. The reflectors are tilted toward the sun, focusing the sun’s energy on a pipe that runs down the center (focal point) of the trough. The sun’s energy heats oil flowing through the pipe, and the hot oil then is used to boil water in a conventional steam generator to produce electricity.

Power towers have also shown their efficiency in demonstration projects and one is in commercial operation in Spain, but they are not yet in use commercially in the United States. A power tower system uses a large field of reflectors to concentrate the sun’s energy onto the top of a tower, where it heats a receiver filled with a heat-exchange fluid, such as oil. The heated fluid is then used to generate electricity in a conventional steam generator. Systems using molten salt as the heat-exchange fluid retain heat very efficiently, enabling them to produce electricity up to three hours after the sun has set.

Source: EERE, U.S. Department of Energy

Solar power is the new old technology to save energy

Solar power is the new old technology that people are using to help them save money. With the economy down and prices up, people are looking for new ways to save or even make money, which solar is a good option. With this, you can buy a pre build system that you piece together or you can make your own if you so inclined.

The savings on your electric bill can save you up to 100% of your bill if you get a large enough system. If you build a system that is bigger than you use, you can sell the power back to the electric company for a little bit of profit. This might vary state to state but most states are required to buy your power at market price.

The other plus of solar power is that you save the environment by using the natural power of the sun. If enough people use this way of power, we will all save a lot of money and cut down on carbon, and other emissions pumped into the air by power generation. So help yourself and the earth out and go green. Thank you and use solar power today.

Homemade Solar Power – Save Money by Making Your Own Solar Power System

Article by Jon Osbourne

There are many positives that come with building a solar power system. These positives include, but are not limited to, saving a lot of money on your power bills and helping out the environment. It’s therefore not a big surprise to discover more and more people are starting to produce their own Do it yourself (DIY) Solar Power Systems.

Building your own DIY Solar Power system is a simple and straight forward process, you don’t need to be an expert or have an expert help you out, you just need a clear, easy to follow blueprint and you will have your own system built and producing energy in no time.

The following three steps are crucial in ensuring your homemade solar power project is a success:

  1. Get a good guide: as mentioned above, putting together a diy solar power system is not the hardest tasks in the world, but you do need to make sure you have a good guide, set of plans, to work from. There are a large number of these guides, some not as impressive as others, I highly recommend that you choose one that comes with video as well as written instructions.
  2. Materials: Once you have got a guide to work from you need to assemble all the materials listed in the guide. All of these materials will be readily available at most local hardware stores.
  3. Follow the instructions: Probably the biggest mistake a lot of people make with diy projects is rushing the process and not paying enough attention to the instructions, take the time to read through and study your guide at least once before starting, it will make the whole process that much easier.

As I’ve emphasized in this article, making your own homemade solar power is a relatively easy process, best of all you get to enjoy the substantial financial benefits that come with saving hundreds if not thousands of dollars (depending on your usual consumption) annually of your power bill. In our household we estimate a 70% reduction off our traditional power bill, those sort of savings are substantial and I’m sure you would agree in any times, let alone the current economic ones we find ourselves in, this is a welcome and much needed relief.

So if you are interested in building your own diy solar power project and saving some money, what are you waiting for? Visit the following link for more information on homemade solar power.

As mentioned above there are some great homemade solar power guides and some not so great ones, to read a review of a side by side comparison of the best three available online, take a look at the following link DIY Solar Power kits Reviewed.

Article Source: EzineArticles.com