Grid Tie Solar
With the escalating price of energy, many homeowners are looking for ways of lowering their energy costs each month through the use of alternative energy solutions.
The good news is that this technology has matured over the years and today provides a less expensive system that is easier to install on most homes.
These modern grid tie solar power systems enable homes of every size to generate as much electricity as they want to lower or even eliminate their monthly power bill.
Click Here For The Green DIY Energy Guide!
One important piece of technology that has made this possible is the modern inverters used in these systems.
The inverter is the part of the system that converts the DC current being produced by the solar panels into AC current that can be used by the home.
It is also the part of the system that controls where the power for the home is coming from.
During the day when the solar panels are active the inverter channels the power they are producing to the home for its power needs. In the evenings when the sun has set and the solar panels are inactive the inverter connects the home to the local power utility to supply power.
What has changed in recent systems is the ability of the inverter to feed any excess power generated by the grid tie solar power system back up the power lines to the local utility. In older systems this excess power would have been used to charge a bank of batteries that could be used in the evenings and any excess power beyond that would have been wasted.
With these newer systems this excess power that is sent to the local power utility actually generates a credit for the homeowner that they can use to pay for the power they’ll need to buy back in the evenings.
Because of this ability to utilize this excess power, many residential installations are being designed to actually generate much more power than is being used during the day. The thought is that this excess power will generate a large enough credit to completely offset the cost of power the home uses in the evenings.
This type of grid tie solar power system should balance out to eliminate the electricity bill completely if the system is sized correctly. With this type of grid tie solar system you are actually using the local utility as a storage place for the excess power you generate.
If you need to use some of it later in the evenings your inverter will simply connect your home back to the grid and the credits you generated during the day will pay for the power you use in the evenings.
In some areas of the country you can even be paid for the excess power you generate above your needs. This means if you install a grid tie solar power system that is large enough to compensate for your monthly energy needs and still have an excess of power, your local utility will send you a check each month.
Be sure to check on the regulations in your area before installing a grid tie solar power system that is larger than you need. Every power company and region of the country has a different policy on if they will compensate you for excess power. Even the areas that do offer compensation for this additional power may place limits on how much you can generate as a residential customer.
If you want to get a head start on learning how you can use grid tie solar power check out Green DIY Energy.