Finding The Right Types Of Solar Panels For Your Home

Even though most solar panels may look the same at first glance, there are subtle differences between them that can have a big impact on how much power they'll generate on your home. Knowing what makes one solar panel a better choice than another for a given solution will help ensure you get the best performance possible from your system.

The first and possibly most important component in any solar panel system is the solar panel. Modern photovoltaic panels provide an almost perfect solution for any homeowner wanting to power their home independently with the free energy the sun provides. The newer solar panel design used today is durable, less expensive and efficient enough to make solar power for homes a preferential option. Over the years these solar panels for homes have improved dramatically through changes to their design and improvements to the formulations used in making the solar cells which are contained in weatherproof enclosures. Because of these innovations, modern types of solar panels for homes are able to generate far more power than older versions and are actually over twice as efficient as panels produced only a few years ago. They are also built to higher standards, which allow them to last on your home years longer than older versions and further extend their value.

How Solar Panels Work

The way these solar panels for homes produce this free power is through a chemical process called photovoltaic conversion. This process occurs when certain chemicals are placed in direct sunlight and can generate a small current as a result of this exposure. Inside the typical solar panel design there are a collection of solar cells that do this photovoltaic conversion. These solar cells are typically grown out of a silicon crystal formulation that allows them to do a very efficient job with this conversion. Over the last several years newer formulations for growing these solar cells have been developed that allow them to generate far more power from the same sunlight than ever before.

The 2 Types of Solar Panels

Basically there are two types of solar panel technologies that can be used in these home solar power systems and both of them have different advantages. The most efficient type of solar panel design is called a monocrystalline and is also the most expensive. This type of solar panel is built from solar cells that are grown as a single large crystal and do the most efficient job of converting sunlight to power. Even though this style of solar panel design might seem too expensive for your needs, it's actually more cost effective over the total life of your system. Because the monocrystalline solar panel design can deliver more solar power for homes with the same sun exposure as other panels, you'll need less of them on average. This can save you a substantial amount of money on installation and equipment costs.

Polycrystalline Vs. Monocrystalline Solar Panels

The other solar panel design is called a polycrystalline design and includes solar cells that are made from smaller fragments of silicon that have been joined together to form one larger crystal. This type of solar panel design is less expensive than the monocrystalline, but will produce less power as well. Even still, these solar panels for homes are used in many installations and can provide a lot of power for considerably less money than the monocrystalline solar panel design.

Continued Innovation

One recent innovation that has been released in the last few years is solar shingles that can be used in place of traditional solar panels for homes. These solar shingles differ from these other types of solar panels since the solar conversion material is actually applied to the surface of the shingle and doesn't involve a traditional solar cell. While these are not yet as efficient as the other types of solar panels, they do hold a lot of promise for the future as development and improvements continue.

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