Solar Power House

August 18, 2010 by SolarInfo
Filed under Home Improvement

Jarrod Brake asked:

Everyone is talking about going green or becoming green, and as a result there is a renewed interest in solar power. You can build a solar power house or you can retrofit your current home with some solar power panels and some passive solar power.

Solar power works by trapping the rays of the sun and storing them or converting them into energy or heat. Think about a sidewalk that is exposed to direct sunshine on a hot summer's day. If you touch that sidewalk, it is very hot. You can even cook an egg on the sidewalk if it gets hot enough. That is an example of passive solar power. Passive solar homes have a way to collect the sun rays such as double glazed windows and then have a way to store and re-circulate the air through the house. Active solar power homes have large solar panel cells, pumps and heat exchanges.

Many solar powered homes use a combination of active and passive solar power. The sun's rays are trapped and then using photovoltaics technology, the rays are stored and converted to heat your home and provide electricity to run appliances. It is a good idea to make your home as energy efficient as possible before converting to solar power. That means purchasing appliances that are energy efficient and use low kilowatts to operate. Older appliances are usually not energy efficient and require more kilowatts to run. Depending upon where you live, you may be entitled to rebates and tax breaks when you purchase a new energy efficient appliance so you should look into this as a means of reducing your costs.

Large solar panel cells can store up the energy so that you will have enough of a supply to power your house at night when there is no sun or on days when it is cloudy or rainy and the sun never comes out. Because a solar power energy system costs a lot of money to install and get operational, you should make sure that you hire an architect to design your home. There are a lot of calculations that need to be made to ensure that you have enough solar power cells to run your home efficiently. Some areas of the country get less sun than others and your home must be built in a certain way in order to best capture the sun's rays. If your solar power house is not designed properly you will run into trouble and not be able to have enough electricity to run your appliances or heat your home on days when there is little sunshine. In addition, you want to select an architect who has experience in creating solar power houses because they know how to design one that is both attractive and functional.

If you think you cannot afford a solar power house at this time you can consider other options. Some people use solar power energy top heat their swimming pools. You can purchase a solar power heating system that was created for swimming pool specifically. You might decide to just install an inexpensive solar heating system to heat up your hot water heater for now. Once you see how it will save you money in the long haul and you see how well it works, you might decide to take the next step and turn your home into a solar power house.

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