home solar power systems
There are two main forms of solar systems for residential use: the "grid-tie" home solar power system, and the "off-grid" or stand-alone home solar power system.
In a grid-tie home solar energy system, a home has solar cells. And the home is still connected to the local power grid. The home solar power system includes solar cells installed on or near a home that collect the sun's energy and convert it into DC electricity. Then the inverter converts the DC power into AC power, which can then be used directly in your green home.
If electricity produced by the solar cells is not used immediately in the home, it is returned to the power grid. When this happens your electricity meter literally spins backwards as you are passing energy to the grid. You are also building a credit on your power bill. This is called "net-metering". The benefit of the grid-tied home power energy system is that it does not include expensive batteries. These expensive batteries is installed in your home for the storage of power for stand-alone home solar power system.
The electricity grid acts as the storage system. Your home and the electricity grid exchange power as you need.
Off-grid or stand-alone home solar power systems are typically used in remote locations. In those remote areas standard grid-based power is not available. These off-grid or stand-alone home solar power systems are more expensive than grid-tie one, but do allow for complete electrical independence. These systems require deep-cycle batteries for storing the electricity as well as a charge controller. The charge controller is used to prevent the flow of electricity of the cells from over-charge the batteries.
For a solar system to work well, it needs an unobstructed view of the sun. In the US, typically the best orientation for solar panels is to the south as the sun is in the southern half of the sky (lower in the winter and higher in the summer).
For home solar power systems, solar panels can either be attached directly to a slanting roof, or bolted onto frames on flat roofs. If your roof is not a good option, then solar panels can also be mounted on the ground. They can either be placed on a fixed mount frame or on a "tracking mount" that follows the sun across the sky.
