It seems that fuel costs for the home rise above inflation each and every year. I'm not completely sure why this is the case. There have been many changes in the way utility companies are run in many countries. The biggest change is that many companies have become privatized. This means that they are responsible to their shareholders and their aim is to make a profit. This may explain why prices have been going up from a cynical perspective.
However, the reason that is most often cited is that the resources that create the power for our homes is becoming harder to find. This not only makes it harder to extract but harder to get to the power stations that create the electricity. The cost is factored into the prices we pay on our monthly utility bills.
Within this context, people are embracing new ways to create power for the home that are considerably cheaper and have a longterm future. A popular option is solar power. Solar power in one form or the other has been around for thousands of years. In more recent times the technology has been developed to take advantage of sunlight energy. Before that it was principally the heat from the sun that was used. This article will discuss how to run a house on solar power using both these sources.
You can run a house using the heat energy supplied by the Sun. The most typical application of thermal energy is to heat water. This can be used as hot water to use or heat the home. Solar thermal energy can also heat a swimming pool.
The principle behind this idea is that if you expose a flat metal plate to sunlight it will become hot. If the plate is painted black then more of the heat energy is absorbed. If you put insulation on the underside of the plate then less of the heat is lost back to the environment.
When you allow water to come into contact with this hot plate the heat is transferred to the water. Thus you have hot water. This can be connected the plumbing of your home and used as a water source. In some cases it may not be hot enough for use and can still be connected to the standard water heater.
Thus a solar water heating system can save on one of the more expensive items on a normal households utility bills.
Using sunlight to create electricity is a fairly recent innovation. Photovoltaic (PV) cells were first developed in the 1950's. A PV cell is made from a silicon semi conductor. When photons, the elementary particles of sunlight strike the PV cell, an electron is thrown loose from the silicon atom. By controlling the flow of electrons using an electric field a current can be produced.
This is direct current (DC) which can be stored in batteries or converted to alternating current (AC). Using an power inverter. AC is used in homes to power lights, and most appliances that plug into wall electrical sockets.
The solar panels that you see on the roof of many houses are a number of PV cells connected together in a series or parallel configuration to increase the amount of electricity that can be produced.
Solar panels have become easier to install as utility companies become more conducive to solar power. Many states have agreements whereby the electricity company must buy electricity from the household at retail price. This can make installation and viability of solar power more acceptable.
Having a hybrid system of grid and solar power means that if the Sun stops shining or there are cloudy days then you can still use the grid for power. This takes a lot of the responsibility for creating power off the home owner.
The final stage in this process is to go off grid. This means you stop using the utility company and take responsibility for your own power generation. This will require more work and you will probably have a combination of systems to cover all eventualities. So your major system might be solar but you also have a wind power generator if the sun stops shining or the weather becomes bad.
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