Knowing the Solar Panel System – Who doesn’t use electricity nowadays? Foods, clothes or even houses, sometimes we need electricity more than those three essential needs. Almost everything needs electricity to runs.
Most of us takes electricity for granted, doesn’t care about how electricity produced, but some people started to think how can they be free from that mindset and start to do something about producing electricity themselves.
Most popular solution as of lately, is by using solar panel system. So, what is solar panel system? How does it work?
What is solar panel system?
Solar panel system includes several hardware, solar panel itself, controller, inverter and battery. Let’s use simple terms, solar panel is a tool that catches sunlight and convert it to direct current electricity, the direct current electricity move to the controller and being stored in the battery. The inverter is going to convert the direct current electricity to alternative current that will run through your house.
Depending on where you live in, there might be optional options to install solar panel system. What I explain above is called off-grid system, which means your system won’t be connected to the electricalgrid in your area. If where you live in supports the installation of solar panel system, you might be able to use on-grid system, where you don’t need to use battery to store your electricity. When your house doesn’t need electricity, it will be sent to the grid in your area and distributed to other household.
Another option is called hybrid system, where your system is connected to the battery and electrical grid in your area.
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What is the idea behind the hybrid system? Let’s talk about cons of on-grid system first. If electrical grid in your area experiencing blackout, doesn’t matter how bright the sunlight currently is, your on-grid system will experiencing blackout as well.
As electrical grid in your area experiencing blackout, with hybrid system, you can switch from on-grid system to off-grid system, which means the power source is going to be your battery. Pretty much good to have electricity running when your neighborhood experiencing blackout,huh?
Continuing our talk about cons, how about off-grid and hybrid system cons? My answer is going to be battery cost. Although the price of battery is getting cheaper every year, it’s still on the price where it can empty your wallet.
If you’re being half-hearted using off-grid system which mean not enough battery to store your power, you’re going to have hard time when the sun is set and your house consuming electricity more than you stored on the battery. More or less going to be the same with hybrid system during a long duration blackout.
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Many of us already or wanting to install solar panel system to their house, hopefully solar panel system can be greener, cheaper and easier to access or install for every household.
Before you install solar panel system on your house, it’s going to be better if you create a plan, consulting with professional or trusted company if you’re not going to do it yourself to avoid mistakes or regret in the future.
Let’s talk more about solar panel in the next article.
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Solar Panel System Installation
Solar panel here, solar panel there, solar panel everywhere. Nowadays we can see many of it on the roof of someone’s house. Even small thing like a powerbank now own its own solar panel. During outdoor activity, we can bring mini power source with solar panel. Of course none of those convenient item is cheap by any means.
Talking about convenient, we can just simply choose any solar panel system company to install solar panel system for our house. By “simply” it also means that we need to be smart enough to choose which company, because who knows when will the company goes belly up and leave our solar panel on it’s own?
According to my experience and my opinion, a good company to choose usually already operating for more than 5 years. Why 5 years? Because solar panel itself has warranty about 25 to 30 years. You would not like it if your solar panel only operating for 1 year, and then the company who sell it to you went bankrupt. To whom you’re going to claim your warranty if the panel stop working only after 1 year?
If you have neighbour who already installed their solar panel for more than 5 years, you’re probably lucky enough, because you can get references from them and also learn about their setup, mistakes or regrets when installing solar panel system with their current setup. After that, you can choose whether to use the convenient way to install your solar panel system, or do the installation by yourself.
Some people like trial and error,if you happen to be one of them, there are also companies that sells solar panel system “Do It Yourself” kit. They’re going to provide you with every item you need to install and also instructions manual. Some of them also provide consultation service if you have no idea what to do anymore during your “Do It Yourself” installation.
Other than warranty, you need to mind about solar panel maintenance. Although usually you don’t have to do anything about it, depending on where you live, you are probably going to schedule its maintenance time. Maintenance is including checking up the wire and cleaning up the panel.
Some area has a lot of dust, or even sandstorm. I won’t say it has to be dust free, but make sure your panel is clean enough to receive sunlight. The cleaner it is, the better it’s going to work for you.
In windy area, sometimes the cable can get loose, which also dangerous if you left it alone for a long time as it can be broken. It’s better if you check it regularly than fix it when it’s broken. Better safe than sorry, no?
My advice on this? I would suggest that you look for trusted company and let them handle your needs. Why? Because when they install it for you, you can observe and learn about what to do. Especially when you need technical support but their team currently not available to help you at the moment, you can do some “first aid” for your solar panel system. It will not hurt to learn by watching and doing together with the expert.
