Driving down the street, you see houses on either side, nice places, clean and quiet. And then you see them, the large dark grey panels, positioned on the roof of someone’s house. What on earth are those? Well, they’re residential solar panels. They are economical way to save on electricity and save the environment.
The residential solar panels are made of pure silicon. When you remove the impurities from silicon, it makes a great transmitter of electrons. These plates of pure silicon have no positive or negative charge, and cannot generate electricity on their own. To make these residential solar panels, they combine pure silicon with other chemicals that do have a positive or negative charge. This process gives the solar panel their charge and makes them rechargeable.
Some of these charged chemicals are phosphorus and boron. Because of the amount of electrons in phosphorus, when it is combined with silicon, it will become negatively charged. To produce a positively charged plate, they combine silicon with boron. Then there are wires between these plates, which are sandwiched together, forming residential solar panels like you see on the houses.
After the panels are placed on the roof, the sunlight starts its work. The sun produces lots of energy particles, including photons. When negative side of the solar panel is angled just right, these photons pummel the silicon and phosphorus atoms. They knock off extra electrons, so that they can get trapped on the positive side to generate electricity. Just one solar cell doesn’t do too much, but when you get all the wires drawing from the plates, it can make enough electricity to power a small amp motor. Then, whatever electrons aren’t used, are returned to negative charged plate and whole process begins again, making them power your home with solar energy.
When choosing to place residential solar panels on roof, you must take some things into consideration. For instance, are there any trees, or other buildings that could block the sun? You have to have full sun to reap the benefits, as the sun is what causes the panels to build their charge. Also, the area where you plan to place the panels needs to face south to receive optimum sunlight.
For the times in the day when there is no sun, like at night or during a power outage, you will need a battery backup. You can get deep cycle batteries that charge during the day, while the sun is shining, and then uses the reserved power at night, when it is not. This insures that you have electricity even in periods of no sunlight.