Spin your meter backwards and get paid for the power you produce.
There is no better time to take advantage your Arizona solar tax incentives, want to learn more?
Even though solar panels may look like one solid piece of material, they’re actually made up of much smaller cells that are dedicated to absorbing light from the sun and converting it into electricity. They can be made from a wide range of different materials, although most are made from silicon.
Everyone knows that solar panels bring with them a host of benefits – but few understand exactly how they work. Doing so is important to fully understand the true value that this investment has to offer.
How Solar energy Is Produced: An Overview
When light from the sun enters the panels, those cells are activated – at which point they create a field. All electricity generated is then transferred to the edges of the solar panel into a specially designed type of wire.
That wire transfers the electricity into an inverter, which is what transitions it from direct current (or DC for short) into alternating current (or AC for short). The latter is the type of electricity that is used to power most buildings, with our homes being the most prominent example.
Once the inverter has been able to do its job, another wire is used to send that electricity directly into the electrical box in a home. This is the box, normally located in a utility closet or similar environment, that distributes electricity throughout the home as needed. If you’ve ever needed to change a fuse in your home, you know exactly where this box is.
Of course, even a modestly sized solar panel system will probably generate more electricity than your home could use in a day. At that point, you have two options available to you. The first involves sending that excess energy out of your home and back into the local electrical grid – essentially the reverse of what normally happens. This could literally cause your utility meter to run in reverse, which will save you a tremendous amount of money on your monthly bills.
The second option is to store that excess energy in a battery somewhere on your property, which allows you to use it at a later date. This would also mean that you would likely never have to worry about something like a power outage ever again.
If you’d like to learn even more about how solar energy is produced, or if you’d just like to discuss your own situation with an expert in a bit more detail, please don’t delay – contact us today.