Archive for the ‘Solar Energy’ Category
- Solar Systems Phoenix
- Solar Panels Phoenix
- Solar Energy Rebates Phoenix
- Commercial Solar Systems Phoenix
- Residential Solar Systems Phoenix
- Residential Solar Water Systems Phoenix
For most Americans, the home uses more energy than any other aspect of their life. Heating, cooling, dishwashing, washing and drying clothes, refrigerating food, lighting, and powering appliances and electronic devices can consume an enormous amount of power in a short period of time. This costs the average family in the average house hundreds of dollars a month in energy costs. In the heat of the summer and the cold of the winter, the heating and cooling costs alone can raise your bill past the point of tolerable. Wouldn’t it be nice to have an alternative source of energy?
As you should know by now, the sun shines down on us every day of the year. Even on the cloudy days, you still know that it is up there. All of that sunlight heats the Earth, feeds plants, and helps our bodies create Vitamin D. There is more than enough beaming down for us to find a way to harness it. How do we collect it? Solar panel systems have been around for decades. The panels are mounted in a spot that gets full sunlight for as much of the day as possible, usually up on the roof. The panels collect the sunlight without any further effort and convert it to electricity that is used to power your home. They are nowhere near as efficient as oil, coal, or natural gas, but they do not produce any carbon dioxide, have any moving parts, or create any noxious fumes.
Solar panels are easy to install. Once they go up, they do not need a whole lot of care or maintenance. You will need to keep the panels clean, which simply means giving them a rinse and a scrub every few months to make sure that the sun is getting all the way to the solar cells. They can go on the roof, which provides a nice unobstructed view of the daytime sky, or you can put them in a clear spot in the yard. As long as they are relatively close to the house, they will remain at the maximum level of efficiency with little electricity loss over the transmission line.
Solar technology has gotten a lot of focus in the past few years. As oil prices continue to have wild swings and people are forced to pay more and more to heat and cool their homes, people are screaming for viable alternatives. Research into solar technology has yielded cells that are much more efficient than the photovoltaic cells of a decade ago, and continuing work promises to make the systems even more efficient as time goes on. Some day we will have solar shingles, paper thin solar panels, and even solar paint that can be brushed on to a house. With enough research and time, the sky is the limit.
Adding solar panels to your home makes more and more sense by the year. As the systems become more efficient, the costs will come down, and the payoff time that represents how long it will take the savings to pay for the units will continue to decrease.