subject: The Two Most Important Benefits Of Solar Energy [print this page] The savvy are considering solar energy towards saving in energy costs and to lessen their energy footprint on the environment. Solar energy is the fastest growing renewable energy source, and anyone can learn to harness its power to do things like cooking your meals, lighting your house, heating your water, and many other useful things that we ignore most every day. Two of the very most useful reasons we would like to harness this energy are to generate electricity and to heat the water in our homes.
Generate Electricity from Solar Energy
The system that generates electricity is a relatively new technology. It's called Photovoltaic (PV). PV systems are an organized array of modules that contain certain materials that convert solar radiation into direct current electricity. PV uses semi-conductors and sunlight to make electricity and the more modules a PV system has, the more electricity will be generated.
Once this direct current electricity is generated, it may be inverted into an alternating current to be use-able power for a home or office, or even offset or eliminate the electric bill.
Solar Thermal Water Heaters
Up to 30% of a home's energy consumption is used to heat water for bathing and cleaning the laundry. Raise the foremost and most cost effective step when turning to the sun for energy.
Solar water heating systems are either active, having circulating pumps or controls, or passive, which have no pumps or controls. They contain either a single storage tank or two. In a two-tank system, the solar tank preheats the water before it goes into your main water heater. In a tank system, a backup heater is combined with the solar heater in the same tank.
There are lots of types of solar water heating systems including drain back systems that keep collector water separate from potable water, glycol systems that use indirect heating and an antifreeze to keep the water from freezing, and active direct systems that directly heat the water and circulate the potable water from the storage tank to the collector when heat is available.
Benefits of Harnessing Solar Energy
We have seen two of the major benefits of solar power: generating electricity and heating your home. The other obvious benefits are that solar energy is freely available and can reduce or even eliminate your electricity bill. In addition, if you reside in an area where electricity is not available, solar energy may be your only option other than using diesel generators or propane tanks. Regardless of which situation you have, harnessing the strength of the sun can benefit everyone.
There are numerous contractors that can install solar systems at your residence and there is several information on the net and other sources where one can even learn to build solar energy systems yourself with a very minimal cost.
