How Do Home Solar Power Panels Work?

By Author: Preston Hammond
Total Articles: 170
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Home solar power panels are becoming more and more popular every day. While the cost of solar panels drops like a rock, the cost of energy is skyrocketing. Solar panels don't just make environmental sense, they also make financial sense. Solar panel owners often see their panels as investments - investments that return a higher ROI than bonds, stocks or precious metals.
How do these coveted panels work?
The Solar Panel
These panels are also known as "Photovoltaic Panels" (PV). These panels convert direct sunlight into direct current (DC) electricity. It does this through a series of complex interactions that involve separating electrons from sunlight and pushing them to the edge of a panel.
Panels are usually built in arrays. The arrays collect all their DC power and funnel it into the inverter.
The Inverter
The inverter transforms DC power into AC power. This usually sits outside your house, possibly next to your power box. AC power is the type of power the rest of your home uses.
The Breaker Box
The inverter then plugs directly into your breaker box. The breaker box helps direct ...
... electricity to different parts of your house. Once you "flip the breaker" in the box, your solar power is hooked up directly into your home.
The Grid
Your home will be plugged both into the power grid and into your own solar panel at the same time. If you're creating more solar power than you're using at any given time, the energy is fed back into the grid. This is far more energy efficient than storing excess energy in a battery.
If you "sell" energy back to the grid, you'll actually get to see your utility meter roll backwards instead of forwards.
That, in a nutshell, is how home solar power panels work.

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