Solar Power Kits For Home – Generate Electricity and Save Money

Solar power and other forms of renewable energy are gaining popularity for a couple of reasons. The first is that traditional ways to heat and light your home are getting more expensive. People are feeling this cost in their wallets and it is motivating them to look for alternatives. Solar power kits and other types of renewable energy systems offer an alternative.

The second reason that these types of systems are becoming popular is because of the environment. A renewable energy system is exactly that. If you use the Sun's energy or wind power, you will not deple it. It will not diminish the more people use it. Indeed, we are wasting the energy that can be gained from using the sun or harnessing the wind everyday that we do not use it. And using these types of systems does not damage the environment and promote global warming as much as burning carbon based fossil fuels.

Solar power kits can take a number of forms but principally they are about providing more heat or more electricity to the home.

You need physical warmth to keep the home warm and habitable. You need heat for water to take a shower or bath. And you need electricity to power many things in your home. You may cook using electricity, you may warm the house using electricity. You almost certainly provide light to the home using electricity.

Solar power kits for the home can provide hot water by passively heating water with thermal solar rays. This water is then passed to the home plumbing system. However, the most common form of solar power kit is the solar panel.

The solar panel is made up of a number of photo voltaic (PV) cells. PV cells turn photons or light energy from the Sun into direct current (DC). The principal behind it is that the photons cause an electron to be displaced in the silicon compound that makes up the PV cell. When the PV cells are linked up, this causes a current to flow. This current can be stored and used to power many common appliances. If it is converted to alternating current (AC), it can be used to power the appliances in the home that we take for granted, like lights, TV, cooker, fridge and many others.

Many people can set up a solar power system or a combination of systems but are always reliant on the Sun. This is one of the drawbacks of solar power and is another reason why it is always recommended to have a contingency plan should the sun not shine or the day is cloudy. Most people have the utility company as their contingency plan but if you really want to take renewable energy to heart you should think about wind power.

Developing a wind generator is easy to do in the suburban home as the natural resource, the wind, is likely to be there to some extent. If you install a solar powered system and a wind generator in your home then you have an energy generating solution come rain, wind or shine (so to speak). Of course, you should probably stay on the grid until you are sure that such systems can provide all your energy needs or until you become more experienced with renewable energy systems.