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Residential Solar Power: Generate Your Own Electricity For The Home
By George Sykes

Residential solar power allows the homeowners to generate their own electricity at their homes and the design includes interconnecting with the existing utility service and takes the form of solar modules or plug-and play wiring or power electronics using patented mounting kits. The residential solar power works through solar cells that are mounted in the module on the roof and which help in converting sunlight directly into DC power. Using a device known as an inverter, DC power is then converted into AC power which may be used in the home and the system is interconnected with the utility and in case the residential solar power system produces more electricity than the home is using, the utility may allow for net metering or credit to your account for the excess of power that has been generated and which was returned to the grid. There are also residential solar power systems that come with battery backup and some of the power generated during the day is used for charging these batteries which in turn provide power in the event of power outages.

Will The Residential Solar Power System Work In Your Home?

Residential solar power systems are fine for most homes and are engineered to work with most roofing materials and all that is required is plenty of sunshine. A sunny place having approximately 120 square meters should suffice for small systems while for larger systems one may need 1,000 square meters and a south-facing roof area is ideal though solar heating panels may also be mounted in other directions and would in any case produce as much as ninety percent of power as compared to the south-facing systems. The number of solar panels used will largely depend on the average electrical usage, climate, angle of the roof, as well as shading problems and to calculate the array size of solar panels one should multiply average daily electrical demand in kilowatt hours by 0.25.

Typically, a residential solar power system that has no moving parts and which is made of inert materials and are tough would last for many years without any problem though batteries may require to be replaced every five to ten years. The residential solar power system has a meter that tells the homeowner how much electricity is being generated and used and when the power is sent back to the utility grid and is useful in managing the household usage adequately.

Author Details:
George Sykes writes for various web sites writing articles about environmental issues and green energy such as solar power.

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