The Many Advantages of Solar Power for Homes

Jul 12
07:16

2010

Christopher Lollini

Christopher Lollini

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Solar power for homes is a mature and reliable way of generating your own electricity from sunlight. Installing a solar power system on your home will enable you to lower your monthly electricity bill each month and help the planet at the same time.

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Solar power systems have improved dramatically in recent years and today offer a great solution for any homeowner looking to generate their own power for their home. These newer solar power homes systems are more flexible,The Many Advantages of Solar Power for Homes Articles easier to install and less expensive than ever before and can accommodate the needs of almost any size of home. Whether you are looking to generate a little power from the sun to lower your monthly electricity bill or eliminate it completely, there are home solar power systems than can help you.


Improvements in Energy Conversion Efficiency

One of the biggest advantages to these newer home solar power systems is their efficiency. A typical system today has an average efficiency of over 15% and can generate far more power than older systems from the same amount of sunlight. This means that most solar power homes will need a smaller system to provide all the power their home requires. Because of this, most modern systems are less expensive and easier to install with fewer components. The lower system cost has allowed many homeowners that could not take advantage of solar power for homes in the past to afford a system today.


Interchangeable Components Enable Design Flexibility

These modern solar power homes systems are also more flexible in their designs than systems in the past. This helps consumers by allowing them to more easily mix components from different manufacturers into the same system. By doing this they can pick the exact components they need to create the perfect home solar power systems. Older solar power for homes systems were stricter about this mixing of components and typically required all of the parts in the system to be made by the same company. Also, the lack of standards in these older systems meant that the connections, voltages and mounting equipment would vary between manufacturers making it even harder to mix and match different equipment. Because all of these manufacturers now build their solar power equipment to an agreed upon standard set by the National Electrical Code (NEC), the mixing of various systems components is much easier and safer.


Newer Systems Accommodate Future Expansion

These newer solar power systems are also more expandable than ever before. Older systems were very rigid in their design and did not allow for changes once they were installed on a home. This meant that a homeowner had to install the largest system they would ever need from the start since they could not expand it later. In many cases this initial investment kept many homes from being able to take advantage of a solar power for homes solution because of limited budgets. In contrast, these newer systems are designed to be very easy to expand, which allows you to grow your system slowly over time. You can start with a smaller and affordable starter system and add more solar panels to it over time to increase the amount of power you are generating. This way you can enjoy the savings your initial system provides and increase those savings as you expand your system. This allows you the homeowner to spread the cost of your solar power for the home out over a number of years and not have to worry about a large initial installation investment.