Green Energy Power

Archive for the ‘Solar Energy’ Category

More Information On This at:

http://www.buildahomesolarpanel.net/howdosolarpanelswork.php

Solar panels became commercially available in the mid 1950’s but the efficiency of the cells was quite low at that time. By the late 50’s the efficiency problem had been improved enough that the first solar powered satellite was launched in 1958.

From then until the early 90’s solar panels were only used for powering satellites, and small electronics like calculators and watches.

This adventure took place back in the early 1980’s while I was experimenting with living completely off solar power.

For More Information:

http://www.buildahomesolarpanel.net/solarpanelsstruckbylightning.php

As I said in another living off the grid post on this blog, I was using a 120 volt DC solar array to charge a bank of batteries and converting the DC to AC with a expensive, back then, sine wave inverter to run the house. Since my house was out in “the sticks” I could only receive two TV stations and they were both weak and snowy. So I decided to build a satellite TV system.

So you don’t live out in the middle of a desert?

A major misconception about solar energy is the myth that you need to live in some place like Texas with a lot of sunshine which is just not true. Take a look at this video about a guy who lives way up north in cloudy Seattle Washington! For the rest of this article visit

http://www.buildahomesolarpanel.net/howmanypanelsdoyouneed.php

It Is Now Possible To UNPLUG Your House From Your Electric Power Company, Knowing That You Are 100% Powered By Nature Saving Hundreds Of Dollars Each Month On Your Power Bill.

I myself lived off the grid for about 10 years from 1978 to 1988. Back in 1978 things were not so easy to do in solar energy, I had very little money, but I was determined to do it. I bought a small house on a dirt road far from power in the high desert region of Southern California. The real estate lady kept repeating “you do know this place has no electricity” I said yes, that’s why I want to buy it. She was totally confused.

I had previously purchased a single solar panel that produced 12 volts at 2 amps. This I used to charge a 12 volt car battery and I placed 12 volt lights around the house. It was a start but it was not enough I still had to run my little Honda generator to watch TV.

Back then the only affordable inverters you could find produced 120 volts square wave AC and TV’s or stereos do not like square wave current, they want normal 120 volt sine wave or else you have bars running through the picture and an awful hum in the sound. So on came the generator to watch TV or listen to music. This was not what I wanted so I kept searching for a sine wave inverter and I finally bought one used that required 120 to 140 volts DC input and produced 120 volts sine wave AC on the output and was voltage regulated to boot. Problem now was I needed 120 volts DC to run it.

I kept searching the classified section in the newspapers and one day I saw a notice for a government auction at a Marine base not far from me. I drove to the site and found they had a huge lot of very used panels mixed in with all kinds of stuff to be auctioned off.

I bid on the solar panels and won the lot for about $180. Now the problem was getting them back home. It took two trips in my pickup across the desert to get them all but at the end of day I found I had 15 good working panels and 8 or 9 that were broken up and damaged. I later used these to build five more working panels.

Now I had enough power to run my house without using the generator. Here’s how I did it. I really do not recommend that you do this as it is very dangerous to do and besides today you can buy nice 120 volt sine wave inverters that run on safe 12 or 24 volts input.

My system consisted of 20 solar panels wired in series/parallel to produce 120 volts DC which I charged 10 deep cycle lead acid batteries fed to my 120 volt DC inverter. This sounds easy but it had plenty of problems.

First 120 volts DC is extremely dangerous, unlike AC if you get across it you can’t pull yourself off and will be killed. The second problem was keeping the voltages regulated to the correct values to keep the 10 batteries charging properly. I finally got it working and now I had “normal” power in my house. At last I could use regular light bulbs and watch my satellite TV and listen to my CD’s all I wanted, it really felt good.

Today all the hassle and danger I went though has been eliminated and powering your house with solar panels is easier and cheaper than ever before.

If you use one of the new proven step by step guides and blueprints to do this, you too will be able to enjoy running your house on solar energy safely without spending a ton of money.

Last year my neighbors and friends all laughed when I told them I was thinking about using solar power to help reduce my power bill. They told me that it would be too expensive and I’d be crazy to even try. However I knew better because I had done it before, more than 20 years ago. Back then it was much more difficult to find parts then it is today. Plus now you can get big tax breaks and rebates for doing it.

So I did some research on where to get cheap parts and I found there’s a ton of information out there. Some of it really good and some of it a little sketchy. I did find one I liked called “Earth4 Energy” I bought it because it has great videos. With that information, the whole thing became an inexpensive and fun project.

After I got the panels on the roof, I started to save money every month on my power bill. This whole project was easier then I ever imagined and armed with this new up to date guide it’s even easier and cheaper than ever! My system is expanable so every few months, as I build new panels, I’ll add them to the array and save even more.

Today I’m helping my friends build their own solar power systems. Everyone says I should start a business doing this.