Chapter 3-Solar panel system components

Solar panels -These come in different shapes and sizes(see chapter"types of solar panels")but they all do the same thing-turn sunlight into DC electricity.

Inverter-The inverter turns DC electricity from your solar panels into AC electricity.
Dc stands for Direct Current electricity.Grid power and your house appliance run on AC electricity.

So once the solar panels have made DC electricity this needs to be turned in AC with an inverter.There are many types of inverters.However,if you have a grid-tied system,you will need to have a true-sine wave inverter.

CHARGE CONTROLLER-This is only needed if you have batteries.A charge controller regulates the voltage and current coming from the solar panels going to the battery.They also stop your batteries from getting overcharged and a reverse flow from your batteries to your solar panels during the night.

NET METERING -This is an electric meter that can spin backwords.This allows you to sell power back to the grid.Sometimes power companies require you to install a separate meter foryour solar power system.This is because some meters are unable to run backwards.This is what your meter will do when you are producing more solar energy than you are using.

CIRCUIT BREAKER/DISCONNECT-This is a safety feature-it is used to disconnect your solar panels from your house electrical system and the power grid.This is necessary for maintenance work-both on your home and on the main power grid.For instance,when there is a power outage,you need to be able stop the solar power from flowing into the main power grid for the safety of the maintenance team.

NB.Off grid houses can be wired for DC power.This eliminates the need for an inverter(except for some appliances that aren't made to work with DC power.There aren't many DC sound systems for example.)The Advantage with keeping your power DC is that you won't lose power through converting it to AC.Typically,converting DC to AC will mean 6%power loss.