The first thing you might ask – what is solar radiation and how does it related to solar generated electricity? That is a good question and a topic discussed in our next article in our series dedicated to home solar power. This article, on the other hand, explains how kilowatts are calculated based upon the energy output of your solar array. We will also highlight the difference between solar cells connected in parallel versus in series.

The average American home uses about 25 kWh of electricity per day. The following example illustrates how to calculate the power produced by a residential solar energy system. Looking over a solar radiation grid, we can determine that a residence gets five daylight hours of solar radiation in one day which is then averaged out over the entire year.

Solar radiation maps are highlighted on may websites throughout the Internet. You can do a quick search for “solar radiation” to find one. In any area across the entire United States, they detail out the amount of sunshine hitting a given location based upon the time of year and its address.

Calculating the power from a solar energy system

Divide the average kWh per day by the average sun hours per day. For this example, we take 25 kWh divided by 5 hours of sun per day = 5 kW system This 5 kW system will generate 25 kWhs under optimal conditions in direct sunlight for 5 hours, or 25 kWh on an average day with some at peak production and most of the sunlight at less than optimal angles.

Future articles related to solar energy will continue to explain the effects of sun angle, reflection, and refraction on the design, output, and installation of solar panels.

Energy as it Pertains to Solar Modules

Individual solar modules that are measured in watts have a particular voltage (around 40 volts) and a particular amperage (around 5 amps). A solar module with 40 volts and 5 amps is called a 200-watt module, which means that it has the potential to produce 200 watts of electricity when in direct sunlight, away from trees or shading, and clear of snow or debris. Since most electrical components around your house are only rated for 600 volts DC, it is rare to see a solar array with a string larger the 15 solar modules. On the other hand, since inverters need a minimum voltage or pressure to turn them on, you will seldom have a solar array with a string solar modules with a size smaller then 6.

Electrical components, like solar cells, panel modules or batteries, can be connected in either series or parallel. This makes a big difference in the total quantities of energy produced from the solar energy system, as well as the stability of the technology over time. Each solar module or component has a positive and a negative pole. In essence, this is the same way batteries have their negative and positive poles arranged. Take a look at how you but batteries in a flashlight. Same idea here. The manner in which these poles are connected makes a big difference. Connect Solar Panels in Series

When you connect residential solar energy systems in series, you connect the positive (+) pole on one component to the negative (-) pole on the next. When modules are connected in series, the voltages are added. Adding voltage together in this fashion creates a long chain of solar modules all working together, depending upon each other, and creating a flow of current that increases along the length of the system.

These modules in series are called Strings. The average string is 8-12 modules so the voltage would be 320 – 480. Unfortunately, we encounter some negative aspects of of this type of construction.

Connecting Solar Panels in Parallel

When you connect solar panels or components in parallel, you connect the panels so current can travel to your inverter and to your house via multiple paths. Unlike adding solar modules in series which increases the volume of current as it goes, the solar panels connected in parallel has the effective of leaving the current or volume of electricity passing through the system the same.

Solar panels or strings of solar arrays tied together in parallel are called parallel systems. Their amps are combined together but the total voltage remains the same. Adding amps is like increasing the volume, the pressure stays the same but the volume goes up. Inverters can only handle so much volume so you will seldom see more than 1 to 3 strings in parallel; positive ends to positive ends with negative ends to negative ends.

One of the advantages of parallel connection is that electricity continues to flow, even though one of the components (or strings) is damaged. If a system is entirely in series, one damaged component stops the entire system. You may remember the ever-frustrating Christmas lights that were connected in series. Often difficult to trouble shoot, strings of lights connected in series are hard to fix when one bulb blew out. Now, the modern Christmas lights are connected in parallel. You are able to determine this easily. There are usually two different wires coming in and out of each bulb. You can feel this via their less frustrating maintenance and operation.

Options for Residential Solar Energy Systems

In this article, we explained in some detail how solar modules calculate the power they produce as well as how connecting solar arrays in series or parallel can have an large impact on energy output as well as complexity of design. Our next article will cover how sun angle affects solar energy systems and how to quantify the solar power produced from the sun.

New solar energy system rentals allow you to upgrade your home to solar generated electricity with no large system to purchase. You can rent the solar energy equipment needed to generate up to 100 percent of your electricity needs. Exciting aspects related to clean, green solar energy are emerging all around us.

Key Inquiries to Request Self Storage Facility Managers

When you’re searching for that perfect self-storage facility, it is crucial to be aware what they need to offer, what their standards are, and amongst other things, their payment options as well as their tos. You need to be critical about this stuff if you wish to select the right self-storage facility for you personally. Here are the essential questions one should request before making the decision concerning the selected self-storage service:

What size may be the space for storage provided?

First of all, you should attempt and gauge the quantity of space your products need before hastily determining on leasing the ability. Describe the items you’ll store and request them how big the storage room they estimate you’ll need. The manager needs to answer lots of this kind of questions each time a customer inquires and that he is most likely knowledgeable at knowing how big the area you’d occupy. This can then function as the time you are able to decide should you go for this or otherwise. When the space is simply too small, then it will likely be tough to fit everything inside. Generally, you’ll have to take apart certain furniture/equipment so everything will get saved. That’ll be very bothersome particularly if you are thinking about only a short-term lease. However, when the space is simply too large, you still be having to pay for that unused space, which is a significant reduction in your behalf. Make certain the space you will be utilizing is simply suitable for the items you will store.

How lengthy may be the lease term?

This ought to be requested since the lease relation to all self-storage facilities can vary varying from month-to-month, quarterly as well as yearly.

What exactly are your safety measures?

Attempt to request should they have video security cameras, evening watchmen, thief sensors along with other types of security. Request when they use key card access or traditional locks. If you’re storing valuable stuff, this ought to be your main concern.

Are you going to insure the items I store?

You will find some storage facilities who’re joined with insurance providers and just in case of loss and/or damage you should have your things insured. However, other facilities don’t provide insurance for products so their customers will need to get yourself a policy by themselves.

It is possible to weight limit? Exist things you won’t store?

You will find facilities which permit heavy boxes and containers to become saved while some have weight limits with respect to the size the products at hands. Also, most self-storage facilities have a listing of prohibited objects that you won’t have the ability to store.

What exactly are your payment terms?

Request if there’s an excuse for a preliminary deposit. Also request them when they would rather be compensated entirely or when they allow payments. You may also request when they accept major charge cards and/or publish-dated inspections.

For More Information on search self storage management or Mini Storage Management

The British Government has made a pledge to cut Britain’s carbon emissions by an ambitious 60% by the year 2050 at the latest. If that’s a pledge that is going to be met, then there have to be some rapid changes. One of the means of cutting emission to this level is by encouraging more Brits to go solar.

At the moment, only 1% of homes in the UK generate their own power using solar pv panels. This is pretty poor, to be honest. It’s especially poor when you look at a country with a similar climate, Germany, and consider that there, 40% of homes use solar electricity generation means. And the weather is a common reason people use not to install solar panels. Yet despite our cloudy climate in the UK, we still get 65% as much solar radiation as Spain gets and 55% as much as there is on the equator! So really, the weather is no excuse.

In order to encourage more of us to install solar PV panels and generate our own electricity, the UK Government’s feed-in tariff comes into play in April 2010. The idea behind this is that businesses and homes installing solar PV panels will be paid for every single unit of energy they generate – this includes energy they use themselves! They’ll be paid at premium rates depending upon the type of system they have. In addition, they will be paid at even higher rates for the units they generate and use themselves.

Because of this, the reduced electricity bills and the fact that solar pv panels can add around 10% to the value of your property, solar panel installation has become a particularly attractive investment, rather than a costly expense. The feed- in tariff means that the average return on solar panels will be 8% a year!

And that is certainly what the Government hope. Their ambitious pledges at the Copenhagen climate convention at the end of 2009 must be met and solar panel installation is looking like the most promising means of making it happen.

We have become a nation of instant gratification. We want what we want when we want it. But in today’s tight, economic situation, the importance of saving is critical. It is the only true means to financial solvency. That being said, however, trying to save money in a tough financial climate is difficult, at best. But did you know that the true secret to wealth is paying yourself first and living frugally? Generally speaking, that’s how most self-made millionaires became rich. You, too, can cultivate the mindset of a millionaire by doing the same.

Before paying your mortgage, before paying on your car, before paying all the bill collectors, pay yourself first! It’s your money, after all; you work hard for it. You deserve – in fact, are entitled – to keep a portion of your salary for yourself. By living frugally – not giving into impulse buying – and saving your dollars, you can build financial independence; but the sooner you start, the quicker you’ll build financial independence.

First, decide what you are worth; then deduct that amount from your paycheck and put it into a savings account. Let this be your chief priority. The best way is to take a percentage right off the top of your gross salary. This may cause a little pain at first (like alleviating a toothache by pulling a bad tooth) but your budget will be much healthier in the long run. For instance, if your monthly gross salary is ,000.00, and you decide that you’re worth at least ten percent of that, your savings amount would be 0.00 per month. (It’s important to decide your savings percentage from your gross salary as this is the true figure of what you earn, and you do not want to shortchange yourself.) Once you begin to do this regularly, your savings will grow rapidly.

Following are some tips that can help you to grow your savings even quicker:

Begin by living frugally. Curtail the accumulation of things and get rid of all the excess (you can sell what you don’t need or give it to charity). This will also help to alleviate the anxiety often associated with having too much stuff.

Cut out the fat in your financial diet; create a budget to track your spending. This is imperative in order to accurately gauge where your money is going.

Go back through your checkbook for a year; this will give you a snapshot of your spending habits.

Total all unnecessary expenditures (those items not considered a need). Then calculate your spending total. I’ll bet you will be amazed at how much frivolous spending you see there.

Make the decision to cut out impulsive spending habits. If you find yourself tempted to make an opulent purchase, walk away and allow yourself at least twenty-four hours to think about it. This loosens the emotional hold the product has over you (most impulse purchases are based on emotion); chances are, you will realize you can do without it. (Remember: if it isn’t food, water, shelter, basic clothing, or a matter of life and death, you can probably do without it.)

Don’t buy expensive cleaning or household products; this can be a major drain on your finances! Besides, most of these products don’t work as well as using a plain, cloth rag and a little elbow grease; but it will save you big bucks over those highly touted, expensive brands. Shop at dollar stores for cleansers, soaps, detergents, diapers, and other non-food items.

Get off the credit card treadmill. Pay them all off and be done with them (very few persons can keep a credit card for dire emergencies only; most give into the easy temptation of charging again).

Put the money you would have used on unnecessary spending and credit card payments in the bank, or use it to pay down your car payment, add to your mortgage payment, etc.

Cultivate discipline by delaying gratification for those things you want by saving and paying for them in cash.

If you can swing it, make one or two extra car payments a year and apply it to the principal (be sure to note atowards principal amounta on your payment coupon to ensure that it goes to principal and not interest). By doing this, you will hasten the loan payoff. (The same principle applies to mortgage payments or any debt payments.)

With just a little assiduous discipline applied to living frugally and by keeping to your savings plan, you will have a tidy nest egg by the end of the year. You can use this to pay off any remaining debt. And by placing a portion of your savings into a safe higher-yield account (preferably one that has penalties for early withdrawal) you can grow your savings into a fund that will eventually sustain you. Who knows? You may even become a millionaire!

Engineers have been tasked to improve solar panel efficiency since the last century. Our firs 00004000 t photovoltaic panel only worked to an efficiency of about 6 percent. But this meager performance is the result of a major breakthrough in science as we brought out our first commercial photovoltaic device in human history.

After the successful use of solar panels on spacecrafts, interest and research on photovoltaic panels intensified. Plans were made and approvals were given — funds poured in. Improvements came in rapid bursts, bringing the efficiency of commercial solar panels to about 20 percent. In less than 60 years, we more than doubled photovoltaic efficiency.

Currently there are photovoltaic panels that boast 30 percent efficiency. These are specially doped triple junction cells that began its development as dual junction cells. However these phenomenons are largely confined within the laboratory and engineers are still unable to produce such solar panels in large quantities without charging consumers an arm and a leg for it. More work remains to be done before common retailers stock up solar panels endowed with this technology.

In practical there is nothing much we as consumers can do about technology. You may be surprised the little we do to make our solar panels achieve top efficiency really goes a long way — this is because solar panels are designed to last for decades, and small differences add up.

Installing our photovoltaic panels in the right orientation and tilt angle is the most important thing we can do. The optimal position helps photovoltaic panels receive the most sunshine throughout the day and across different seasons of the year. This helps reduce the payback period. If your panels are sited in the northern hemisphere, then you will have to orientate your solar panels southward. You also need to tilt them to the correct angle, depending on the latitude of your photovoltaic panel site. The correct installation position will allow your solar panels to be exposed to direct, unobstructed sunshine from 9am to 3pm everyday.

Most homeowners do not understand the adverse effect that shading can have on their solar panels. Even if only one solar cell is shaded, its entire solar generator’s power output can be dramatically reduced. The individual photovoltaic cell that is now shaded acts as a resister that drains the electricity generated by its neighbors. As resistance increases, power reduces.

Another seemingly minor event that reduces solar panel efficiency is the accumulation of dust on the glass surface. This dissipates sunlight that would otherwise reach photovoltaic cells for power generation. Because dust and dirt will collect after a while, we have to wash the glass surface regularly. If you’re living in a relatively dust-free environment, this should be an infrequent activity.

Temperature also affects photovoltaic panel efficiency. The higher the temperature, the further its efficiency drops. Unfortunately more heat is collected as solar panels experience more sunshine. Thus efficiency tends to taper as sunlight intensity increases. Therefore we have to ensure that our photovoltaic panels are installed sufficiently far away from roof shingles. The gap in between the roof and solar panels also allow air movement to bring away additional heat that may otherwise be trapped there.