Vintage Electronics

Solar How To

This solar how to article will go through each piece of a solar power system, explain what it does and how it fits into the system as a whole.  Every part does a particular role, though you don’t have to include every part in every solar project.  A typical solar power system produces electricity, stores it in batteries to be used later and then changes the DC electricity from the battery to the same kind of Alternating Current electricity that comes from the wall sockets in your home.

Solar Panels

Solar panels generate electricity using energy from the sun.  Electrons are knocked loose from a layer of silicon after being hit by photons from sunlight.  The electrons are sent through wires and become electricity.  Many solar cells, each of which generates about one half volt are put together to make a single solar panel.  It is possible to generate any voltage by putting together the proper number of solar cells.  You can actually build your own solar panel and generate your own free electricity relatively cheaply and easily.  For a great guide to building your own solar panel, check out How to build your own DIY Solar Panel

Charge Controller

The power is used by the charge controller to charge the batteries. The charge controller makes sure that the voltage going to the batteries is in the right range. It also gradually lowers the power sent to the batteries as they get closer to fully charged to make sure the batteries don’t overcharge. The charge controller will also “top off” the batteries every once in a while after they are fully charged to make sure they stay fully charged. If you’re interested in more detailed information about charge controllers, visit Solar Charge Controllers

Batteries

The majority of solar power systems use 12 volt batteries like you find in your car.  The most common type are sealed lead acid.  This type of battery is rugged, easy to find and cheap.  The only potential downside is weight, but it isn’t really much of a problem since you aren’t going to be moving the batteries around.  Surplus batteries from places like computer UPS systems can often be found for very cheap or even free.

Power Inverter

The appliances in your house use 120v Alternating Current (AC), but the batteries in a solar power system use 12v Direct Current (Dc).  The power inverter will transform the DC electricity from the batteries into the AC power that your appliances require.  There are two types of power inverter:  Modified Sine Wave (MSW) and True Sine Wave (TSW).  MSW is not as good as TSW because TSW exactly matches the electricity that comes out of the the wall sockets in your house.  It is preferable to use TSW over MSW becuase TSW more closely matches the electricy that comes from the grid.  MSW is cheaper than TSW, but it is generally worth it in the long run to pay more for a TSW inverter.

Complete Solar Power System

Now let’s put all the pieces together into a complete solar system.  Typically the solar panels are mounted on the roof.  The solar panels are connected together with wires which then deliver the electricity to the charge controller.  The power coming from the solar panels is then conditioned by the charge controller and used to charge the batteries.  The batteries are charged all day while sunlight is striking the solar panels.  All day, while sunlight is striking the solar panels, the batteries store the power generated by the panels.  When an appliance like a TV, or lights or a computer needs electricity, the power inverter converts the power from the batteries in to standard 120v AC electricity  and that power is delivered to the appliance.  This type of solar system can be small enough to power just a single device or big enough to power your whole house.

If you are interested in how much it will cost for enough solar panels to power your house, take a look at this guide to Solar Panel Cost

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This entry was posted on Monday, February 20th, 2012 at 2:24 pm and is filed under Vintage Electronics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.