There is so much more to a solar energy system than simply the panels. It has multiple components involved in order to create the entire system, with many brands to choose from. All of these brands can offer unique benefits and often improve a system’s ability in order to perform better than expected. So, for you to understand the investment you are looking to make for your house, we’ve created this article.
Each project or home is different and the equipment used can vary from house to house due to a main factor like the roof. In general, here’s what you can expect from a solar system:
Solar panels
Basically solar panels are composed by photo-voltaic cells (known as PV) mounted in a framework for installation. As some of you know, solar panels use sunlight as a source of energy to generate direct current electricity (known as DC). So, a collection of PV modules is called a PV panel, and a system of PV panels is called an array/system.
Inverter
The inverter is a crucial part of any solar energy system. Basically, it guides energy, and that way it knows where to flow in order to convert it into alternating current energy (known as AC), so it can be used in your home.
The main objective of the inverter is to transform the DC electricity that the solar panels produce into 240V AC electricity, which is what powers everything in your home. As you can see, this device is a hard work piece of technology that works constantly throughout the lifetime of your solar system.
Main electrical panel
The electrical panel distributes AC electricity to your entire home. You probably know it by its common name, “Fuse Box.” It is like the switchboard for all electricity in your house. Basically, it receives the incoming power from the utility company and distributes it to each of the circuits that supply the various lights, outlets, appliances, and other electric devices in the house.
Utility Meter
The utility meter measures how much energy comes from and goes to the grid. So, when the sun is shining, you may get all of your energy from solar, but there are some factors like weather, winter, and nighttime that won’t allow the solar panels to generate as much electricity as they normally do during the day. So, you will still have to buy some energy the old-fashioned way (leveraging energy from the grid), unless you have a solar battery. Which allows you to save energy and to be used later.
Source: Gem energy