After years of development we have solar systems capable of generating electrical power or heating our homes and hot water. Free solar energy collection systems may seem very recent to most of us but enthusiastic people have been doing this for years.
They used to be a theory but now solar panels are a practical alternative energy source that can save you money on your energy bills. There are two main types of solar panel which can collect solar heat energy or generate electricity from sunlight.
By using a heat exchanger you can transfer energy collected by solar heat collectors to your hot water system or to heat your home. The more technical type of solar panels for your home are photovoltaic solar cell panels and these are able to absorb the sunlight and convert that energy into electricity
If you are a handyman, or woman, you should be able to construct a solar heat collector at home using various different materials. The usual way of using a solar collector is to transfer heat energy reflected from the sun onto a water pipe which connects to a heat exchanger
You can use an old heating radiator as the main element of your solar collector and connect that to your heating system. With a heat exchanger connected to the water supply from the radiator you can transfer the solar heat energy. You can use simple pipes and reflectors to collect more heat from the sun and various designs are used successfully
Photovoltaic cells provide the other type of solar panels for your home and they can be installed almost unseen on the roof of your home. When you need to connect electricity generating solar cell panels to your main wiring this should be done by an experienced and qualified electrical engineer who knows how solar energy works.
The installation of solar panels for your home should provide you many years of free solar energy. You should find your solar energy system is reliable but a routine check each year should find any faults before they become a big problem.
