Solar power

What are the uses of solar power

Solar power was born more than hundreds of years ago.  But the use of solar energy as a renewable source of energy has been in existence from the past century, still people all over the world are having various discussions on how to improve on this god gifted renewable source of energy that is absolutely free. At the present state of the world with soaring prices of imported oils and home energy prices sky rocketing every year, many people are talking about using alternative sources of energy for their day to day activities. The solution that one can think of at present for reducing the burden on mankind by these soaring prices of the essential commodities like oil and energy is by turning to solar energy.

"At the present state of soaring oils and home energy prices many start using alternative sources of energy for their day to day activities."

In earlier days, solar energy found its use as a heating source. As early as 1830, a solar energy was designed that was used on a safari. Since then, many uses of solar energy have been found out and now people consider solar power to be a major provider of electricity for their homes. Solar energy or power is the most important energy source that is popular, easily usable and most convenient among people all over the world, even more than the wind and the water energy. Also, people from all walks of life have benefited from the energy derived from the sun in one way or the other.

“One of the most common uses of the solar energy is as a power source, since early 1970’s,  people have been putting up solar collectors on their roof tops.”

One of the most common uses of the solar energy is to use it as a power source. Since early 1970’s, many people have been putting up solar collectors on their roof tops and using the resulted power that is collected to light up their electrical appliances.

Nowadays, with the development of technology, lot of people have started installing solar panels in their homes and are trapping solar energy through these panels to provide the energy for their entire home and in some odd cases, people are going to the extent of supplying power to the grid system or electrical companies run by the government. In fact, people have started using solar power that is directly drawn from the solar panels during the day and use the stored energy in the batteries at the night.

The next common use of the solar power is to heat the water to produce hot water. The solar water heating systems can use either a passive solar energy, where the tank filled with water is heated by leaving it out in the sun or by using solar panels and arrays with a heat transfer fluid. The heat transfer fluid runs in a tube along the side of the solar panel. The process of heating water in a tank through this system is very simple.

The solar energy is collected by these tubes and transfers it into the fluid. The heat from the fluid is transferred into the water as the tube runs around a water storage system. This heated water from the storage tank can be used for various purposes like pumping it into the swimming pool, hot water for bathing etc. In the last ten to fifteen years, solar system manufacturers have started inventing and developing new creative applications for the solar power. One such development is the portable solar panel, a very popular product among vacationers. Also solar panels of folding type have been introduced which will open up like a ledger and is used commonly to power up laptops and mobile phones.

The solar power is generated using a simple method of capturing the light of the sun by the solar cells arranged inside the solar panels placed on the rooftop of a home in a position where there is maximum presence of sunlight during the day. The solar cells react with the light collected and converts the light into usable DC electricity. This DC electricity is stored in the battery and then finally is connected to the inverter where the DC electricity is converted into AC electricity to power the entire home. The main advantage with the installation of the solar power systems is the ease in which it can be operated and the low maintenance cost and also for the fact that it is a non polluting system as well as it is noise free.

What is Solar power -  understand how it works, the history of using energy from the sun and much more.

The advantages that the solar energy has shown over the years have driven many people to use this solar energy to power their homes and workplaces. The major advantage is that the power that is derived from the sun is absolutely free and it will omnipresent as long as there is the presence of sun in this universe.

The production of the solar energy does not produce air as well as noise pollution and is considered to be the most renewable, cleaner and greener source of energy. Nowadays, the advancements in technology have made the solar power systems to be more cost effective than before. The other major advantage of the solar energy and its systems is that it will last for lifetime and hence the homeowner will not be needed to shelve money from his pocket for the maintenance of these systems. Generally, most solar system manufacturers give a warranty of 20 to 30 years on their product. Also there is no need to have a solar storage system these days, as many states in the U.S are ready to buy the excess electricity generated through this solar energy.