What are the Other Varied Kinds of PV Solar Generators?

January 28th, 2010 by Steve Evans

As soon as you have produced your monocrystalline solar panels. The next step is to put them into a system which can use all the electricity which has been produced. So you either feed the electricity to the grid, store it in batteries or power your appliances. Before you start anything though, have it fixed in your mind’s eye exactly what it is you want to end up with. Make sure you design a system that will satisfy all your energy requirements.

Portable Solar Power Generator

This is the simplest of all the systems. The system comprises of a solar panel, charge controller, battery and an inverter.

Remember that as you make or purchase additional solar panels, these can be added to the system at a later date. The solar panel produces DC current. This needs to be converted to an AC current which is the job of the inverter.

If you find yourself in the enviable position of having excess electricity, instead of wasting it, you can feed it to a battery bank. Do not use standard auto battery, use a deep cycle battery.

On-Grid Solar Power Generator

Are you tied to the national grid? If so then this is a very good system to use. Instead of storing the excess electricity in batteries, you feed it to the national grid. By sending electricity to the national grid, you can earn money because your electricity supplier is now paying you instead of you paying them.

Once you know how to do it, build a solar panel is very straight forward. Let’s say you build a solar panel a week and over a year you built 40 of them. You will be sending so much electricity back to the grid, that you can make a nice little income on-the-side to supplement all your other household bills.

Add a Battery Bank to Your Grid-Tied System

To cover all basis you may want a battery backup system integrated with you grid tied solar system. For example, if it is a cloudy day and you are using some DIY tools which demand a lot of electricity. The battery bank is a passive supply of electricity, which has been previously charged up with any unused electricity generated over the past couple of days.

Solar Power generation With Off Grid Houses

If you live in part of the world where you have no direct electricity to your home then having a battery bank may prove very beneficial. And by having a battery back-up you will not have wasted any power you may have generated and not used.

Batteries perform better when they are warm so it is wise to invest in a battery box and keep them in your garage. A battery box also doubles up as offering a safety feature, so kids or animals don’t get to close. Just imagine if your dog peed up against a battery, or perhaps not!

You may already have a generator to power your home. If you do, I suggest you connect this to your system as well, it can charge your batteries should they start to go flat.

Different Types of Solar Powered Systems For the Home