Summer’s coming, and with it will come high air conditioning bills. Air conditioning costs are the enemy of homeowners everywhere, but there is a way to recoup that money. Building a solar-powered home can make a huge difference in your energy bills, and with Fresno’s sunshine, you’ll be saving money even in bright winter months. In addition, you can get a 30 percent tax credit for your energy efficiency.
Here’s how your solar home will work:
- Solar panels use photovoltaic (PV) cells in order to turn sunlight into electricity. You’ll need a sheet of these on an open surface of your roof.
- Next, you’ll need an inverter to turn the direct current electricity into the alternating current that you need in your wall sockets.
- Last, you’ll want a control system that can tell you how much electricity you are producing at any given time.
One of the key things to look at when researching solar home ideas is which type of inverter you are getting.There are two types. The first is a large central inverter that handles everything. A more efficient system uses micro-inverters, one at each PV panel. Here are some of the benefits of a micro-inverter system.
- There is much more direct current wire in a central system. Electricity is lost far more quickly over a direct current wire than the alternating current that micro-inverters will be using.
- When using a central system, shade from a branch or cloud on a small part of your panels can disrupt the electricity in other panels. Micro-inverters will only lose energy from the shaded part.
- Micro-inverters allow you to put solar panels on different parts of the roof — even facing different directions. Central systems restrict you to factory-sized sheets.
- Lastly, with micro-inverters, the system is expandable. Traditional String Inverters are sized to the array installed, and cannot be expanded without installing a second stand-alone solar array. Start with a small system that you can afford now to see the benefits immediately, and then expand the system to your desired size as funds come available!
Micro-inverters are a better option. That is what the solar experts at Donald P. Dick Air Conditioning recommend them. So if you’re interested in designing a solar home, or if you’d just like some questions answered, the professionals there are always glad to help.
Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information, click here to download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.
Donald P. Dick Air Conditioning services the greater Fresno area in California. To get started, check out our website.