If You Sell Your House
Find out how the contract will affect your ability to sell your house. Does the contract:
- let you move the system to your new home? What will that cost?
- let you transfer the contract to the buyer?
- require you to give the company written notice if you want to transfer the contract to the buyer?
- require the buyer to meet credit requirements or pay any fees before taking over the contract?
If you think a companys product doesnt live up to the advertising, you can file a complaint with the FTC and your state consumer protection agency.
Solar Energy Pros And Cons
Are you blown away by the information provided so far? Are you wondering whether solar energy is the right investment for you or not? Read on to find out its advantages and disadvantages. This will help you make an informed choice. A choice thatll allow you to acquire a better and safer future for yourself and your loved ones.
Use Of Solar Energy In Earlier Centuries
Human beings have harnessed energy from the sun since the 7th century. Of course, the technologies werent as advanced as today that makes people think it is only a recent invention. However, our ancestors would use pieces of glasses to focus the suns rays on a piece of land to light a fire.
The positioning would help to garner maximum energy. You must have heard how we can get vitamin D from the sun? Well, people in the 4th century knew that. That is why they positioned and structured their infrastructure for maximum sunlight.
However, during the dark ages, diseases and war significantly hampered technological growth. As a result, advancements in solar energy suffered as well.
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How Long Do Solar Panels Last
Solar panels can generate electricity for a long time. Most panels come with a warranty that lasts 25 to 30 years. Panels can work efficiently for more than 30 years and many are still producing well after 40 years of daily use. However, they will be a little less efficient each year beyond the 25-year warranty period.
Mini Portable Solar Oven
A portable solar oven is a great thing to have in a grid down situation. While you can certainly build a fire and roast food over that, the solar oven allows you to cook food without having to constantly attend to it. With enough sun, you should be able to cook anything you can think of on the Sunflair.
It folds down nicely for transport and also comes with a thermometer, a trivet, a silicone pot , and a bag for storage. This is a great tool that is equally at home in an RV or camping trailer as it is in a survival kit or bug out bag.
The AGPtek Solar Lantern offers you five different power methods: solar, cranking, plugging it into an AC adapter or a car adapter, or installing 3 AA batteries. That means you have alternative options at night and on cloudy days.
Want to prep but not sure where to begin?
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Is Solar Power Right For You
If youre thinking about using solar power in your home:
- Start by reviewing your utility bill to see how much energy you used in the last year and what it cost. See what part of the total bill is for metered electricity or kilowatt-hours and what is for other items such as delivery costs. Even if you reduce the number of kilowatt-hours you buy from the utility, youll still need to pay the utilitys fixed charges, like delivery or administrative costs.
- Evaluate how you use energy, and look for ways to reduce your home’s electricity use. Make your home and appliances more energy efficient and ensure your home is properly weatherized to reduce your energy needs.
- Consider how long you plan to stay in your home. A residential solar system is designed to stay on a home for at least 20 years. Leases and PPAs generally are long term some last 20 years. If you think you might move in that time, find out how installing a system will affect your ability to sell your house. Ask the solar company about its policy on transferring the contract to the new homeowner after a sale, and confirm that what it tells you is the same as what is in the contract.
- Figure out what size system you need to meet your average energy usage. Learn about the different products available in your area that will work on your house. The customizable calculator from the Department of Energy uses your address and details you provide about a system to help you estimate how much energy it will produce.
Vii It Enhances Your Residence Or Workspace
This is especially true in localities where environmental degradation has been very prominent, and the government is looking for ways to fix the situation. Installing solar energy systems in your home will undoubtedly prove to be a smart move and would save you many electric expenses. Similarly, integrating a solar energy system in your workspace will help you reduce the places maintenance cost and enhance the offices appeal.
Research carried out in this department has shown that solar energy systems in homes can increase their value by as much as $20,000. Since this amount is similar to the money required for installation, this means you can get your cashback when selling the property. This is undoubtedly a smart investment and one thatd only increase in value with time.
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Efficiency And The Environment
Solar panels are roughly 15% to 20% efficient, according to the University of Michigan. That means they only convert about a fifth of the suns energy into electricity.
Other sources are more efficient. But that one data point doesnt take into account that solar panels are merely harnessing an already abundant energy source. Coal plants, for instance, require excavating and burning fossil fuels to produce electricity.
And burning fossil fuels pumps carbon into the atmosphere, exacerbating climate change. A quarter of the greenhouse gas emissions in the United States come from producing electricity, the Environmental Protection Agency says.
But that gets to a common complaint about renewable energy sources like solar and wind: theyre only useful when the sun is shining or the wind is blowing. And while its true that solar panels require at least some sunlight, a battery system can store energy produced during the day for you to use on cloudy days or at night, as EnergySage points out.
To get an idea of how much solar energy will fall on a given area over time, we can measure a locations solar radiation. Folks in the Duluth area can expect around 4.5 kWh/square meter/day. For context, El Paso, Texas gets about 7.5 kWh/sq. m. per day, and Seattle gets about 3.5.
Trends In Solar Power
Youve probably seeing a lot of headlines about solar power lately, so it might be hard to keep up with this rapidly changing industry. But heres a few larger trends were seeing.
That was a lot of information to handle, so congrats on making it this far. Hopefully you have a better grasp of solar power and can start making decisions about your own installation project.
Read more from Northlands solar energy experts:
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Harnessing Solar Energy For Every Home: Energy Saving Applications
Jitisha Aggarwal
1Electronics Engineering Department, YMCA University of Science & Technology , Faridabad, Haryana 121 006, India
2Mechanical Engineering Department, YMCA University of Science & Technology , Faridabad, Haryana 121 006, India
Academic Editor:
Abstract
Most of the present day resources of energy are limited and irreplaceable. The next generation will face acute energy crisis if alternate resources of energy are not developed concurrently. Increasing cost and import of conventional resources have bad effect on the economy of a country, and the only cheaper solution is unlimited power from the sun. The use of solar energy is so far limited in household applications. In fact, if we harness only 0.0034 percent of the solar energy reaching the Earths surface, the energy need of the whole world will be met. In the present work, a substitute of 10-watt conventional night lamp has been proposed by a solar night lamp of the same light intensity through an experimental setup. The developed solar system is cheaper, portable, user friendly, and free from maintenance. The paper stresses on the need of replacement of conventional night lamp by solar night lamp in every home for reducing the energy crisis at present.
1. Introduction
2. Materials and Method
| Serial number |
The Use Of Solar Power Converters/adapter
This is a very simple and cheap method of tapping into the solar power grid without owning a power plant. All you have to do is have access to purchase what you need. This device measures the average daily energy use and purchases energy for you from certified solar farms. It uses a smart outlet adapter that measures the electricity you take from your wall outlet and upgrades it to solar power by purchasing small fractions of a solar energy certificate. This is a cheaper way of purchasing solar power in small bits rather than owning the whole grid.
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The Process Of Photovoltaics
You may wonder, How do we harness the power of the sun? is what you call it. Photo is the Greek word for Light and Voltaics is in reference to Alessandro Volta, the inventor of electricity. Essentially, it is what makes a solar panel works. Solar cells capture photons from sunlight. These photons bounce around the semi-conductor layer of the solar cells freeing electrons which, in turn, become the electric current. Connect several solar cells together to form the solar panels to generate more electricity. While there are other ways to collect solar energy, photovoltaics or Solar PV, seems to be more popular. Its easily adaptable from small-scale like for homes to large-scale like for commercial and industrial use.
Buying A Solar Energy System
If you buy solar panels, you pay the cost of the entire system. Costs vary depending on the systems size, but can typically add up to about as much as a new mid-size car. You might pay for your system with a home equity loan, or get financing through the installer, a bank, a credit union or a finance company.
Or, your county or state may participate in a Property Assessed Clean Energy or PACE program. Your county or state does not lend the money for a PACE program. Contractors or home improvement companies that sell solar panels and other energy efficiency improvements offer PACE financing.
If you get PACE financing, a property tax lien is put on your home. You repay the lien by paying an extra amount every time you pay your property tax bill. You must pay your property tax bill with the extra amount included each time it is due, to avoid default and foreclosure. A property tax lien for PACE financing takes priority over your home mortgage. Some mortgage contracts may not allow you to add this type of lien.
- What will I pay up front?
- What annual percentage rate will I pay?
- How arethe payments calculated?
- Will the payments change during the financing term?
- Is there a balloon payment?
- For how long will I pay?
- Will a lien be placed on my home or system?
- Do I have a right to cancel this financing, and for how long?
Because PACE financing is different from a traditional home loan, you may need to ask more questions of the company that is offering the financing, including:
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Who Needs Plants When You Can Harness Solar Energy With An Artificial Leaf Cleantechnica
The idea of a human-made device that can process solar energy to make usable fuels has been tantalizing researchers since the 1970s. There being no such thing as a free lunch, it is not so easy to engineer a device that mimics photosynthesis, which Mother Nature perfected a long time ago. Nevertheless, researcher…….
The idea of a human-made device that can process solar energy to make usable fuels has been tantalizing researchers since the 1970s. There being no such thing as a free lunch, it is not so easy to engineer a device that mimics photosynthesis, which Mother Nature perfected a long time ago. Nevertheless, researchers at the Department of Energys Lawrence Berkeley Lab in California appear to have solved an important piece of the artificial leaf challenge.
What Does Grid Connection Mean
Every home that is connected to the local electrical grid has a utility meter that measures the homes power supply. If you install solar, your system is connected to the utility meter either through roof or ground-mounted panels. This way, your homes solar production can be measured.
Most homeowners in the U.S. have access to net metering. Net metering makes going solar even more economical. Using net metering, solar homeowners can send excess power back to the grid when the system overproduces. Then, they may receive credits on their electrical
bill or even payments from the local electrical company.
During winter months or during the night, when solar systems produce less energy, this excess energy can be used to continue powering the home. In this way, net metering is a free storage solution. Plus, it eliminates the concerns many people have about not having enough power on cloudy days or at night.
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Xi Installing A Solar Energy System Helps You Avoid Politics
The usage of non-renewable resources, such as coal and oil, requires constant vigilance. Changes in the political climate occur frequently and unpredictably, causing the prices of these fossil fuels to fluctuate in response. This is a source of stress for users, especially since electricity generation through fossil fuels requires a constant input of these resources.
Solar energy stands above and beyond all this. There are no price fluctuations for you to worry about. This is because, after its purchase and installation, solar energy systems are free to use. They require no additional inputs or materials, apart from sunlight, freely available and accessible to everyone.
Harness The Sun: Bringing Renewable Energy Home
90% of Americans practice some form of sustainability for the good of the planetThanks to innovations in technology, its been easier than ever to adopt energy efficient and sustainable practicessearches for clean energy have gone up 96%half of Americans only buy from brands that make an effort to be ecofriendlyThe use of solar power has steadily increased11 in the past twenty years, and that use is projected to triple12 over the next ten years.
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How Do Solar Panels Work
To put it simply, solar panels absorb energy through cells inside the panels, called . These cells generate energy from the sun called Direct Current .
Most of the things in our homes use AC energy, not DC. An inverter converts the energy absorbed by the solar panels into AC energy. Then, the energy can be distributed to all the places you need around the house.
Heres a quick step-by-step overview of how that happens:
Iii Solar Energy Systems Are Economically Viable
Do you know that China and the United States are actively investing in solar energy? Wondering why? Its because solar energy is helpful for the economy. Why, did you ask? Find out below.
The most common solar energy systems are solar panels. They require extensive knowledge in production, installation, and maintenance to work. However, if you install them, you will cut your electricity cost. In the long run, you can eliminate electricity costs.
This is one reason why more and more companies are shifting towards clean energy consumption. The usage of solar panels will increase with this shift. Consequently, this will create a host of employment opportunities for skilled workers in the energy sector and boost the countrys economy.
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Forum: Use Covered Walkways To Harness Solar Energy
Singapore has limited space for the production of renewable energy.
To expand our sources to harness more solar energy, Singapore has creatively started installing solar panels on the rooftops of buildings and on landed properties, as well as on the waters of reservoirs and open seas.
An alternative is to explore having solar rooftops for sheltered linkways by installing lightweight solar panels, solar shingles or other more suitable materials.
With the completion of 200km of sheltered linkways and plans to add another 150km within the next two decades, this will add much-needed rooftop space, equivalent to about seven times the total distance from the east to the west of Singapore.
While protecting us from the sun and rain, linkways with solar rooftops can absorb solar energy in the day and help to light up the linkways at night.
Any extra energy harnessed may even be used to power up other public spaces nearby.
This would enable us to become greener and more sustainable in the long term.
Madeline Lim
