Solar Energy For Family House

Putting a few solar panels on the roof and living without electricity bills is the dream of many house builders. But the truth is that achieving complete self-sufficiency in electricity supply is not so easy. The performance of a home solar power plant is not constant, the energy must be stored somewhere and the performance of the photovoltaic panels must be very high.

Extreme variant - island power plant

Do you want to generate all your electricity at home? This is because there is no electrical connection in your neighborhood, or it is senselessly expensive to set up. Or you have a connection, but you suffer from frequent power outages. Or you are an enthusiast who loves nature and wants complete independence from central resources. At the same time, you are ready to sacrifice part of your comfort or a lot of money, usually both. "Extreme variant" means your power plant must be ready to supply enough electricity even in bad weather, which can typically take several weeks in winter. It follows:

To have a power plant oversized - you need significantly more panels, a more powerful inverter and a thorough design of the entire system. Your power plant must be able to charge the batteries during short winter days to survive long winter evenings and nights. At the same time, you need significantly larger and more expensive batteries to store electricity for a few grim days. This results in significantly higher purchase costs and, at the same time, means that you will have so much electricity in the summer that you will not know what to do with it. Therefore, you prefer option two, get more info.

To have a back-up gasoline / diesel power plant - rather than over- dimensioning the power plant and batteries because of the three gloomy winter months, you would rather get a power generator for these critical days. It costs more money (although it is significantly cheaper compared to oversizing the plant) and you have to buy and refuel it. Even if you can do without it for most of the year, you still try to operate it as little as possible in winter, because the combustion of gasoline is unecological and especially the electricity produced from the generator is the most expensive possible. Therefore, you proceed to the third step.

Be prepared to significantly reduce your consumption - a time of carefree use, where you install, forget about it and use your appliances at will will significantly shorten. The length of this “energy well-being” is usually proportional to the size of the power plant and batteries and hence to the initial investment. Live offgrid means that, except on clear summer days, you constantly monitor the production and charge of the batteries and adjust the consumption accordingly. It was ugly yesterday, so the batteries didn't charge much and it was raining again this morning? Either you turn on the generator, but it costs money, or in the morning you prefer to heat the water on the stove, coffee maker and toaster to taste, leave the carpet vacuuming at another time, as well as washing in the washing machine. Do you want to iron today? Check the weather forecast. Will you have enough electricity left to watch TV or work on your computer in the evening? Of course one can get used to such a regime, but it requires enthusiasm and greater will.

More worries and maintenance - the solar power plant is bigger and contains a lot of components. These require careful inspection and maintenance because you are dependent on them, and when they break down you have no other source of electricity. You will experience a blackout or a decrease in performance immediately. The good news, however, is that you can deal with or prevent these events - unlike users who only have power from the network. And since you have reduced your consumption to a minimum, any outages will make your decision much less disturbing than your neighbors used to supply.

An island power plant usually consists of 10 or more panels, a larger (and more expensive) battery storage and a more expensive inverter. At the same time, you are not connected to the mains. So the sun is your main source of electricity, which for sure is backed up by the generator. At the same time, dependence on such a resource leads you to a very careful analysis of your own consumption and to reduce it. Every other cloudy day, when you avoid using the power supply with reduced consumption, fills you with a good sense of energy independence and reduction of your own carbon footprint.