Tuesday, July 27, 2009
Will Solar Panels Work During Winter?
If you live in an area that has long, harsh winters you may be wondering if your
house is a good candidate for solar panels. After all, days or weeks of overcast skies, snow
flurries or monsoon rains hardly seem compatible with a technology that relies on the sun for its
power.
But there has been a lot of innovation and progress in solar panel technology during
the past 10 years. Now solar technology is far enough along that solar panels can easily
create electricity even on cloudy, snowy or rainy days.
If you have an off grid system which works independently of a public utility system,
your solar energy system will include a set of storage batteries. These batteries are similar to
the kind used in cars They are designed to hold any excess electricity that your solar panels
generate during the sunny part of the day. If your battery storage system is properly
designed for your region, it will include enough of these batteries to store electricity for the
number of cloudy days that are typical for your geographical area.
If you have a system that is tied into the grid of your local electric utility
company, then you won't need storage batteries. When the sun goes down at night, or during a
stretch of bad weather where you don't see the sun for days, your electrical system will
automatically use electricity from your local power company. Of course, during sunny days, your
solar panels will be generating your electric power, so you will still be reaping the benefits of
lower electric bills.
In some areas, you ay even be able to sell power back to your local electric
company. This arrangement makes solar panels even more cost effective. The way is works
is that any excess power that your solar panels generate flows back into the grid system and you
receive a credit for it on your electric bill. That way, even if you need to use electricity
from the grid during the night or during overcast days, any excess electricity that your solar
panels were able to generate will still be lowering your overall utility bills.
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