Electricity, gas and fossil fuels have always been a mainstay of operating a house, but now a new option is being considered by many to add to their home's power options and subtract from their power bills. Solar power is becoming more popular and the use of solar cells or solar powered batteries is becoming a common sight in many new homes. But what is solar power and how can it be created and stored for you to use in your home?
Solar power is taking the massive energy that the sun is putting out and harnessing it for our use. Did you know that the sun gives off approximately one thousands watts of power per square meter per day? If we could pull all of that energy together and store it, we would have an infinite amount of energy available to power the entire world.
But we haven’t developed that technology at present, so we have to console ourselves with using solar cells to capture what we can and either use it immediately or store it for future use.
Solar cells can be found almost everywhere – in calculators, on satellites and now on the roofs of many new homes. But what are these cells made up of?
Small photovoltaic cells or modules (groups of these cells) are displayed on a large frame and directed at the sunlight. These cells are made up of silicon semiconductors, which will absorb part of the light and convert it into energy by shaking electrons loose and allowing them to run along the semiconductor. The current then runs through the metal contacts at the top and bottom of the PV cell and can be used to power anything from a small calculator. Or it can be stored for literally a rainy day, which is where solar batteries come in.
These aren't the regular batteries you can pick up at your local hardware store. These batteries are called deep-cycle batteries and are very different from other batteries, such as the one that runs your car. Your car battery needs only to put out a large current for a short amount of time to get your engine running and is recharged by the car itself over time, giving it a long lifespan. Deep-cycle batteries give off a much smaller current than a car battery at the start, but they have to maintain it for a much longer time, usually hours and hours. After all, when the sun is out you really don't worry much about your solar power. But if it's a rainy day or the sun goes down and you need power overnight the solar battery has to maintain your home's basic functions until the sun shines down on the solar cells once again.
The two types of deep-cycle batteries in common usage are lead-acid batteries and nickel-cadmium batteries. The difference between them isn't so much performance but cost. Nickel-cadmium batteries cost more but have a longer life and you can technically empty them totally without any bad effects on the battery or any problems recharging them back up to full capacity. On the other hand, lead-acid batteries should not be emptied more than halfway before you would be concerned about shortening their usefulness and are much cheaper in cost.
But you can't just hook up a few batteries to your rooftop solar panels and turn off the power lines. These batteries may provide free power but they come with restrictions and concerns for the homeowner. First, a charge controller needs to be installed to make sure that your solar batteries aren't being overcharged by a bright sunny day or drained to the point of destroying the battery's potential to hold a charge.
As well, the power coming in will be DC or direct current. This needs to be converted to AC or alternating current in order to be compatible with most of your household needs. For this you'll need an inverter to make sure that the DC current is sent to where it can be used and some is channeled through the inverter to become AC current. This system can be relatively self-sufficient once it goes into operation, with maintenance being the only concern and monitoring the wear and tear on the solar batteries.
At the present it is uneconomically feasible for most houses to switch over to solar power as a sole means of electricity. With the average cost of a renovation costing well over thirty thousand dollars, the time for solar power may not be right now. But with advances in technology and the rising cost of fossil fuel power you can be sure that this alternative fuel source will become a viable option within our lifetime.
