Solar Panels - Help Cut Utility Bills And Your Home's CO2 Footprint

In one day, more water is produced by the melting of the Trotting Glacier than the population of New York City uses in one year; this glacier has receded 9 miles in just 5 years. Proof can be found in the ice core records that provide CO2 and temperature levels as long ago as 650,000 years. Each fume from a smoke stack and combustion engine output contributes to the seventy million tons of CO2 that people release into the air every day. Our only hope for reducing its impact is to make an effort to seriously cut our CO2 levels.

Most family houses spend around a 3rd of their energy budget on heating water for daily uses.

Gas or electricity purchased from utility companies is used to heat water for various purposes, including bathing and laundry. But the resources utilized in providing electricity and gas are non-renewable, and as more natural resources are consumed they are increasingly more difficult to find. This makes it hard for the typical household client with electric and water bills that keep on increasing at very high figures. As carbon-based fuels get harder and harder to locate and extract, this will only continue. For almost 100 years, a solar panel has been used to successfully heat up water.

Solar electricity water heating is presumably the simplest application of solar energy that we have today. It is just a matter of harnessing the thermal rays of the sun and applying it to water. Learn how to build a solar panel.

The solar panel is referred to as the flat plate collector and batch collector systems. Flat plate collectors are simply a chain of pipes that are placed in part of the home where there's direct daylight (sometimes a southward-facing and fitted to the roof). Water is passed through the pipes and is heated by the heat of the sun in contrast to any chemical chain reaction. The pipes are built to absorb the maximum heat from the sun.

A solar panel batch collector system is a water tank which has been modified to obtain the most from the sun's energy. Surfaces of black that absorb thermal energy are included. Close to the home, and in an area that receives a lot of direct sunlight, is where the tank is located. It is possible for the water obtained from either of these systems to be utilized in the house's regular plumbing system, for showers, dishwashing, cooking and watering the garden. Buying and installing each system will cost a lot of money but the upkeep cost is low and the system will last anywhere from ten to twenty-five years.

It could take 5 to 7 years for you to recoup your money on purchase and installation, depending upon the amount of hot water you use and how effective your house is in storing hot water. You would also be contributing to the reduction of the amount of greenhouse gases that enter the atmosphere. These are just some of the advantages and disadvantages of solar power. One of the most popular panels for generating electricity is the polycrystalline solar panel read more about this alternative energy source.