Residential Solar Panels

No matter where you reside, whether in a rural location, a suburb, or a city, you can benefit from using the sun’s energy for electricity and heat in your home.

As the technologies improve and more is understood about how to most effectively capture, store, and use solar energy, the costs to install residential solar panels onto your home are decreasing.

If you’ve been thinking about of adding solar panels to your home, this is a great time to seriously consider it. Both federal and local governments and even utility companies are offering attractive incentives and rebates for those who are willing to make the investment.

Residential solar panels are quickly becoming more popular as homeowners realize the benefits of solar energy.

No matter where you reside, whether in a rural location, a suburb, or a city, you can benefit from using the sun’s energy for electricity and heat in your home.

Your Home Solar Panel Choices

Currently, there are three types of home solar panel systems available for residential use:

1. Off Grid Solar Panel System – do you live in a remotely rural area or simply desire to go completely off grid?

   This type of solar panel system is a stand-alone system allowing you to use backup batteries to store unused energy. You can use the energy stored inside the batteries to use on those days that may not be as sunny.

   An off grid system is totally separate from any other power source, making it attractive for those who may have difficulty obtaining utilities or for those areas of the country where utilities are cost-prohibitive.

2. Grid Tie Solar Panel System – this is a supplemental system, which means that you still require power from your utility company at times, but by using these home solar panels, you’ll lower your monthly energy costs significantly.

   Grid tie systems are basic requiring solar panels and a solar power inverter. The inverter works to convert the DC energy the sun provides into the AC power that most lights and appliances inside the home require for power.

3. Grid Tie with Battery Backup Solar Panel System – this one can be used for on or off grid home solar panel systems. These solar panels independently produce their own power, but as a backup, there is a battery available for storing energy.

   Depending on how much energy the panels are capturing, you have the option of supplementing your power along with the electric company or providing everything you need to power your home.

   This is an excellent system for those times of power outages (which some areas of the country experience more often than others).

The manner in which you install your solar panels will depend on the size of your panel system, the availability of space, and possibly city ordinances that may restrict the installation of certain types of solar panel mounts for aesthetic reasons.

Solar panels can be mounted on a roof, the ground, or on a system of poles. Again, the size of your residential solar panels may very well dictate the installation location.

The cost of residential solar panels will vary greatly based on the size of the panels and the amount of power you require for your home.

The most affordable panel systems are the ones you create yourself from scratch or the DIY solar panel kits available online from any number of manufacturers. Due to the lower costs of these two types of solar panel systems, they’re the most popular with do-it-yourself homeowners!

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