Residential Solar Power Systems
May 9, 2010 by admin
Filed under Solar Energy
Residential Solar Power Systems can be a wonderful addition to a rewarding home life experience. They can significantly reduce the cost of living by lowering the cost of power for heating, cooling, lighting, refrigeration, cooking and so on.
A properly designed house with a well planned and integrated solar power system can out perform standard house in cost of usage, maintenance, ecological impact and the plain old ‘cool’ factor.
Pretty much a dream life of the 60s, when properly integrated into a complimentary power efficient structure, it is now quite possible and less complicated to setup than a standard power grid system.
Residential solar power systems work most effectively when considered during the design stage of residential building construction. This is a far more effective way to implement the solar design into the home than trying to adapt it after the fact to an already completed structure.
A well thought out system is going to take into consideration the location of the building, the directions it is oriented within, and the materials it is constructed of. There are also the shapes of the internal rooms, angle of light entering the building through the windows, the amount of space to arrange solar panels, and the necessary plumbing requirements for solar water heaters to consider. Wiring for both 12 volt DC and 110 AC power requirements, inverter requirements, battery draw requirements and storage area, local building codes, local weather patterns, and owners association guidelines also need to be added to the long list of considerations.
Quite often, the buildings most suited for advanced solar applications are so new that they have yet to be considered or approved by local planning commissions or included in zoning laws. The best way to get the most from this sort of lifestyle is to get away from the highly regulated urban areas and into a more rural atmosphere. The key is research and more of it. Then it’s time to test, learn, grow, and implement residential solar power systems.