Part 4 – Just How Does Solar Power Work?
If you’re thinking of using solar power for your home’s electricity, you might be curious as to how it works in the first place. Some of these facts will be obvious, and other parts not so obvious.
Basically, the sun contains a lot of energy that it brings to the Earth’s surface every single day. This energy is freely available, and fairly reliable. That means it just makes good sense to put this to use as your source of power as soon as possible!
You might be wondering why we don’t just all use solar power to begin with, if it is so cheap and easy to use. That’s because constructing the solar panels can be a difficult upfront cost to swallow. If this had been made the norm earlier, however, the chances are good the prices of solar panels would be cheaper, and they would be more readily available. Thankfully, if you have the right sources, you can construct the solar panels yourself and literally save thousands of dollars over time on your power bills.
Once you do have solar panels, they will collect the energy the sun puts out. Your solar power source will then convert the energy to give you a electricity. The panels that are used are called photovoltaic cells. These cells are conductors to ease the spread of the electricity.
The combination of the sun’s rays on the conductors causes a chemical reaction to take place. The energy is absorbed and the electrons are able to break free of their atoms to create electricity.
Don’t worry if this all sounds too complicated! It’s a good idea to have a basic understanding of how it works — but all you really need to know is that it does work. This is a far better method of powering your home than using fossil fuels and depending on the local power company!
The next step is making sure you have a good source to purchase solar panels, as well as step-by-step directions for the rest of the materials you will need. Don’t think that this will be too expensive for you to get started with — you can get started with less than $200 for a portable panel. Larger panels will obviously be more expensive, but the cost savings over long term makes it more than worth it.
There’s no doubt about it — the sun contains more than enough energy to go around. It’s time to harness the power of the sun and to make use of it for cheaper, better energy.
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