On-Grid Solar-Electric Systems

Grid-tied Solar Electric Systems, also known as on-grid, grid-connected, or grid-intertied photovoltaic systems, generate electricity for your home or business and route the excess power into the electric utility grid.

Off-Grid Solar-Electric Systems

Although they are most common in remote localities without utility grid service, off-grid solar-electric systems can work anywhere. These systems operate independently from the grid to provide all of a household’s electricity. That means no electric bills and no blackouts—at least none caused by grid failures. People choose to live off-grid for a variety of reasons, including the prohibitive cost of bringing utility lines to remote home sites, the appeal of an independent lifestyle, or the general reliability a solar-electric system provides. Those who choose to live off-grid often need to make adjustments to when and how they use electricity, so they can live within the limitations of the system’s design. This doesn’t necessarily imply doing without, but rather is a shift to a more conscientious use of electricity.

How does SS (Solar System Works) ?

Solar panels  convert solar energy (sunlight) directly to electricity. The electricity is stored in solar batteries and used to power home appliances in rural and remote location.

Requirements for a Solar System

Following are needed for a solar system.
1. Solar Panel
2. Solar Charge Controller
3. Battery
4. DC Lights

These are things that you must have to turn your lights on. Without them it is impossible to power up lights. Solar system works in this order. Solar Panel is giving current to charge controller. Charge controller charges a battery. And lights are powered up by a battery. In this case it is DC lights.

PHOTON

The actual (physical) particle unit of light, as the electron is of electric charge and the atom and molecule are of matter. Light has both wave properties and particle properties. Violet light has relatively short wavelength and higher energy in its photons; red light has longer wavelength, lower-energy photons. The wavelength and/or energy spectrum of the sun extends in both directions beyond the visible range of light, of course, and the silicon module solar cell can capture some energy in both of these invisible zones. Photons not captured by the cell are either reflected or converted to heat in the solar array.

Photovoltaic (PV)

Photovoltaic cells are made of parallel clusters of semiconductor materials such as silicon. Although silicon has been by far the most commonly used material, basically because of its abundance (it's the second most available element in the Earth's crust), it takes a lot of effort to generate a quality and efficient PV cell and until recently the cost for PV arrays restricted most people from using it.
Today those costs have come down considerably and are further diminished by the abundance of federal, state, and local tax credits, reliefs and other monetary incentives to make installing a solar energy system a viable and cost effective energy alternative. The future looks brighter and clearer still as scientists continue to explore different ways to create other non-silicon based photovoltaic panels with the hope of eventually producing solar cells at about one-tenth the cost of silicon based products.

Kilowatt-hour

A common unit of electric power consumption. One kilowatt-hour equals 1000 watt-hours and can be used to define the amount of energy used over a one-hour period. For example, a 60-watt incandescent light bulb turned on for one hour would use 60 watt-hours of energy.
A side note: Interestingly, a 19-watt compact fluorescent bulb (CFL) packs the equivalent amount of output as a 60-watt incandescent, but saves 68% of the comparable energy. There are two reasons for this: (1) 75% of the energy incandescent light bulbs use ends up as heat, only 25% gives off light; (2) CFLs last 10 times longer than incandescents and save $30 or more in energy bills over their lifetime. So use CFL bulbs wherever possible to cool down the planet too.

Net metering

The ability to record both power produced and power consumed. Utility companies record the information, as they do for all home meters, and charge customers for the power they use as well as credit them for any extra or excess power they generate and produce..

Passive Solar Design

 

If you are part of  constructing a new home, consider ways to take complete advantage of the sun – termed "passive solar design". Houses that incorporate passive solar design can positively augment the effects of a solar power system.

Main features to passive solar design include:

• Positioning a home on an east-west axis and ensuring that the home's south side receives its maximum amount of daylight.
• Designing interior spaces so that rooms used most frequently are along the building's south face.
• Taking advantage of thermal mass spaces to store, absorb, and distribute heat.
• Installing overhangs, selecting windows, and adding insulation to maximize sun (and shade).
• Planting trees and other vegetation strategically around your home to provide natural shading and buffer from intense heat.

Renewable Energy

Renewable energy sources consist of the sun and the wind. Harnessing energy from water currents, tides, and waves also described  as types of renewable energy. In opposition, the traditional energy sources we depend on to generate power namely natural gas and oil and coal are non-renewable sources of power. Once these resources are sufficiently depleted they become too expensive and costly to retrieve.
Mind it, not all renewable energy sources come devoid of consequences (think about issues surrounding hydroelectric dams in the West). Solar power has the unique advantage of tapping energy from the sun without actually impacting any other natural resource.