The Benefits of Home Solar Power Systems
Solar power is our planet’s most available energy source and with rising fuel costs and the environmental issues of using fossil fuels home solar power systems can provide clean renewable energy, increasing the value of your property and reducing your energy bills.
Whether you’re aim is to lower your impact on the environment or simply to save money a good home solar power system can provide a large percentage of your home’s annual hot water or electricity and reduce your household carbon footprint for 25+ years. Solar energy is usually used to provide water heating and generate electricity.
Solar water heating sytems use the sun’s free heat to warm your hot water. Solar panels called collectors are mounted to your roof or walls which heat your water. The water is then heated further by a conventional boiler or immersion heater so hot water is always available even when no solar energy is available.
Solar electricity systems use photovoltaic (PV) cells to convert the sunlight into electricity which can be used to power appliances and lighting. This reduces your carbon footprint and electricity bills as you are using less electricity generated by carbon burning power stations and if your have a surplus of electricity you can even sell it back to the electricity grid. If you’re worried about having no electricity at night time or on cloudy days you can still have your connection to the mains electricity or store your surplus electricity on sunny days in batteries to use later.
So solar power is well worth the investment and with the move towards encouraging us all to use more renewable energy sources you will probably find that there are grants, subsidies and low cost loans available to contribute towards the cost of purchasing and installing a system and once installed good home solar power systems should last for years and require very little maintenance.


