Alternative Energy Battery Type 101
November 7, 2011
Practically all batteries used in alternative energy solar power backup systems are Lead-Acid type batteries. Even after over a century of use, they still offer the best price to power ratio.
ALL of the batteries commonly used in deep cycle applications are Lead-Acid. This includes the standard flooded (wet) batteries, gelled, and AGM (Absorbed Glass Mat). They all use the same chemistry, although the actual construction of the plates etc varies.
The lifespan of a deep cycle battery will vary considerably with how it is used, how it is maintained and charged, temperature, and other factors.
These are some typical expectations for batteries if used in deep cycle service.
Type of battery: Expected battery life in ‘deep-cycle’ mode
Starting: 3-12 months
Marine: 1-6 years
Golf cart: 2-7 years
Gelled deep cycle: 2-5 years
AGM deep cycle: 4-7 years
Starting batteries are commonly used to start and run engines. Engine starters need a very large starting current for a very short time. Starting batteries have a large number of thin plates for maximum surface area. The plates are composed of a Lead “sponge”, similar in appearance to a very fine foam sponge. This gives a very large surface area, but if deep cycled, this sponge will quickly be consumed and fall to the bottom of the cells. Automotive batteries will generally fail after 30-150 deep cycles if deep cycled, while they may last for thousands of cycles in normal starting use (2-5% discharge).
Deep cycle batteries are designed to be discharged down as much as 80% time after time, and have much thicker plates. The major difference between a true deep cycle battery and others is that the plates are SOLID Lead plates – not sponge. This gives less surface area, thus less “instant” power like starting batteries need. Although these an be cycled down to 20% charge, the best lifespan vs cost method is to keep the average cycle at about 50% discharge.
Golf cart batteries are quite popular for small systems and RV’s. The problem is that “golf cart” refers to a size of battery (commonly called GC-2, or T-105), not the type or construction – so the quality and construction of a golf car battery can vary considerably – ranging from the cheap off brand with thin plates up the true deep cycle brands, such as Crown, Deka, Trojan, etc. In general, you get what you pay for.
Marine batteries are usually a “hybrid”, and fall between the starting and deep-cycle batteries. In the hybrid, the plates may be composed of Lead sponge, but it is coarser and heavier than that used in starting batteries. It is often hard to tell what you are getting in a “marine” battery, but most are a hybrid.
Gelled deep cycle batteries, or “Gel Cells” contain acid that has been “gelled” by the addition of Silica Gel, turning the acid into a solid mass that looks like gooey Jell-O. The advantage of these batteries is that it is impossible to spill acid even if they are broken. However, there are several disadvantages (must be charged at a slower rate and lower voltage to prevent permanent damage, In hot climates, water loss can be enough over 2-4 years to cause premature battery failure).
AGM, or Absorbed Glass Mat deep cycle batteries have all the advantages (and then some) of gelled, with none of the disadvantages, and they can take much more abuse. Since all the acid is contained in the glass mats, they cannot spill, even if broken. This also means that since they are non-hazardous, the shipping costs are lower. In addition, since there is no liquid to freeze and expand, they are practically immune from freezing damage. Nearly all AGM batteries are “recombinant” – what that means is that the Oxygen and Hydrogen recombine INSIDE the battery. AGM’s will cost 2 to 3 times as much as flooded batteries of the same capacity. In many installations, where the batteries are set in an area where you don’t have to worry about fumes or leakage, a standard or industrial deep cycle is a better economic choice.
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How Does Solar Power Work?
October 22, 2011
Solar Energy: Keeping it simple
The Earth constantly basks in the Sun and is absorbing enough energy to satisfy the world’s power needs many times over.
So how do we turn the Sun’s energy into electricity? Well, the light from the sun contains energy. These particles of energy are called ‘photons’. These photons are created deep in the Sun by the fusion of atoms, and once they reach the sun’s surface, they shoot out in all directions into space. They take about 8 minutes to reach us here on Earth. You can feel them as they warm you when you stand in the sunlight.
When sunlight hits an object, that energy generally turns into heat. However, when sunlight hits certain materials, the energy turns into a flow of electricity instead. It’s kind of like turning on a water hose – imagine that the water in the hose is the flow of electricity.
Crystals made out of silicon will produce an electrical current (like the water flow in a hose) when exposed to sunlight. What happens is, the electrons that are in the silicon begin to ‘move’ when struck by light (instead of just staying mostly in place). Since the electrons move, we can harness that flow and direct it to useful things such as being converted to the energy we use in our homes, or perhaps to charge a bank of batteries.
In slightly more detail, a silicon atom contains electrons spinning around it’s nucleus. In a silicon crystal (of many silicon atoms), the bonds between the silicon atoms are made of electrons that are shared between all of the atoms of the crystal itself. When the light gets absorbed, one of the electrons that is in one of the bonds gets ‘excited’ up to a higher energy level and can move around more freely than when it was bound. That electron can then move around the crystal freely, and we can get a current. This is multiplied many times over since the crystals are made up of many atoms.
The Silicon Atom
The silicon atom has three shells (the three ellipses around the nucleus). As silicon atoms come close to one another they connect, latching onto the electrons in the outer shell of other atoms to form a silicon crystal.
Newer materials than silicon use smaller and cheaper crystals, such as copper-indium-gallium-selenide, that can be shaped into flexible films. One drawback though is this ‘thin-film’ solar technology is not as good as silicon at turning light into electricity.
Solar panels are made from these silicon semiconductor materials (and the newer thin-film materials). Solar panels come in a variety of sizes and electrical capabilities. This aids in the design of a wide variety of purposes and provides the flexibility to customize most any energy system.
Here is an example of a small solar panel
Instapark® 5W Mono-crystalline Solar Panel with 12V Solar Charge Controller
Here is an example of a large solar panel
Grape Solar CS-P-270-DJ 270 Watt Polycrystalline PV Solar Panel
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A Basic Solar Power System Description and Diagram
October 12, 2011Solar power systems vary widely in their power producing capacities, and the cost of implementation is directly proportional to that capacity.
Solar energy is not cheap. In fact, one could argue that from a cost savings point of view it is not very practical at all because it typically will take many, many years to reach the break-even point when considering the cost of your local utility electricity… I’m talking roughly 5 to 15 years in many instances depending on your usage.
However, despite the cost of solar power systems, for many folks it is a worthwhile investment for reasons other than saving money on your utility bill. If your property is far from the nearest road, it may actually cost less to have solar power than to pay to run electricity to your property. If you have an RV, or boat, solar power is a great way to have electricity present.
For many, simply having a very basic solar power system is reassurance that they will have some amount of limited power at the ready, just in case…
Without going into great detail, I thought that I would illustrate a very simple and basic system that could be assembled to provide enough power to operate some lights, a TV, a computer, enough to recharge power tools or other items… a 800 watt system (with caveats).
(1) Solar Panel (180 watt with MC4 connectors)
(1) Battery Charge Controller (15 amp, 225 watt – 12V)
(1) Battery (12 V, Sealed AGM, 55 AH)
(1) Power Inverter (12 VDC to 120 AC, 800 watt)
(2) Battery Cable Kit (4-AWG)
(1) Solar Array Cable (50 feet, MC4 ends – cut it in half)
With the components listed in the basic system above, while the sun is shining you could continuously run (consume) up to about 140 watts of power, or up to 800 watts for about half an hour if the battery is fully charged. Even when it’s cloudy, you will probably still have access to about 100 watts continuous.
When it is dark, and since we’ve included a battery in the system, you will have access to about 500 watts for one hour (or 100 watts for 5 hours, or 50 watts for 10 hours, etc.). The amount of available energy after dark assumes a maximum allowed 80% battery discharge (never go below 20% battery capacity!), and assumes we’re using the particular battery listed above (55 Amp hour, 12 volt), and assumes 5 hours per day of charging sunlight.
Note that if you get two identical batteries and wire them in parallel, you will double your night time capacity, provided that they get fully charged during the day time.
The price tag of the very-basic system above is nearly a thousand dollars, and as you can see, it’s not cheap to achieve the energy capacity listed in this example. If we assume that your local utility company charges say, 20 cents per kilowatt hour (per thousand watts of consumption in an hour), you would not break-even with the price until you’ve consumed 4,755 kilowatt hours (that’s 4 million and 755 thousand watts of power). That’s the same as running 100 watts of ‘something’ for 47,550 hours straight (or a bit more than 5 years).
I’m not trying to discourage you by any means! I’m just pointing out the facts. Again, there are lots of reasons to have solar energy systems other than for offsetting the cost of local electricity! Like… preparedness!
Here’s a sketch of how the very basic system that I’ve listed above, would be connected together.
A statement of caution… don’t attempt building your own solar energy system unless you have a basic understanding of what you’re doing. Maybe you know a friend who knows basic electricity… For example, if you don’t know what ‘ohms law’ is, then you probably shouldn’t be putting one of these together yourself. Designing the proper package involves a full understanding of power equations (P=IE), conversions, and other basic electronic understanding.
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This Post comes to you via Solar Power
May 19, 2011A real world example as to a benefit of having some sort of solar power system, is coming to you by way of this post.
As I was going through my morning routine of updating Modern Survival Blog and just as I was about to contemplate the next post, the power went out in the house, followed by that extraordinary silence while all appliances, fans, etc… cease to run.
I typically use my laptop for my work while the desktop PC’s churn away at other tasks. The only thing that was still running in the office was my laptop (although the internet connection vanished). Even though I knew I had several hours of laptop battery reserve, I shut it down in order to first obtain some information about the extent of the outage.
I went outside, checked the electrical main power meter (one of those new digital meters), and saw that the LCD display was blank. Next, wondering if the ‘big one’ hit – perhaps a CME or X-10 flare from the sun, or maybe the EMP was finally detonated 200 miles above in the atmosphere… turned on the portable AM/FM Shortwave Radio to discover all stations were up and running.
OK, just a local power outage. No need to head for the hills 
We have had a small size off-the-grid solar power system for several years now, one which generates about 1.2 kilowatts from 6 panels mounted on top of our shed out back, and simply augments our power from the grid. The panels feed into a ‘Outback’ charge controller which in turn keeps a bank of heavy duty batteries filled with energy – which feeds through an 3.6 kW ‘Outback’ inverter (enough for an upgrade with more panels) and delivers enough 24 hour power to run some appliances, lights, or whatever we need – so long as I monitor the load.
In any event, not wanting to waste the morning and delay further updates on M.S.B., all I had to do was run an extension cord from the nearest solar powered circuit over to the office. I plugged it in to main Power Conditioner that I use to feed the computers and internet stack (cable, routers, internet phone, etc…), and Voila! I’m up and running!
So the lesson is, despite the fact that solar systems are not cheap (depending of course on how elaborate and powerful you design it), the assurance of backup energy when you need it could be considered invaluable at times.
In this example, after having checked online at my power company provider website (PG&E), I see that a decent chunk of the town seems to be without power. Who knows how long it will be out… but my refrigerators, freezers, and essential items are still up and running.
Nice…
Update: 15 hours later, dark now in the neighborhood, still without power – 2 transformers blew out nearby (been lots of that in the news lately). Battery Bank holding up – lit some candles to fit in with the neighbors homes – don’t want to stand out like a sore thumb while our neighbors freezers full of food melt…
I wonder if they’re running low on transformers. It took quite a long time to get the two that they needed. Oh well… good thing for off-the-grid power sources.
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Best Survival Batteries
September 14, 2010Permalink
If it comes to a SHTF scenario, one that involves no power being available from the electrical grid, you will need to rely on alternative energy sources to power your electronic devices (unless an EMP has fried the devices – but that is another story…).
Two of the most important electronic survival tools in your arsenal should be the flashlight and the portable AM/FM Shortwave radio. The batteries that they use are very important and critical to providing power at the time of crisis and the ongoing period of time during the crisis.
The NiMH (Nickel Metal Hydride) rechargeable battery is an excellent choice for a survival situation where electronic devices us standard size batteries such as AA, AAA, C, D, or 9 volt.
There is a huge caveat to this recommendation however… don’t keep NiMH batteries installed in an electronic device, sitting on a shelf waiting for an emergency. Reason being, if you ever needed that electronic device in an emergency, chances are the batteries might be dead as a door nail when you grab it (unless the device is under constant trickle charge).
NiMH batteries will lose about 2% of their charge per day, just sitting on the shelf (or in the electronic device) at room temperature. This means that after one month they will have lost 60% of their energy and will be dead in less than 2 months. This is why I keep quality Alkaline (e.g. Duracell) batteries installed in the device at all times and I will only use NiMH for ongoing and regular device usage, such as after the emergency is already underway (or for non-emergency devices that are under constant usage in day-to-day life).
Update, there has been progress regarding the shelf life charge of NiMH batteries. Newer technology has enabled these batteries to retain a charge up to six times longer than the original NiMH battery design. Check here for a list of batteries with this newer technology.
Advantages of NiMH (Nickel Metal Hydride) rechargeable batteries over NiCD (Nickel Cadmium) rechargeable batteries
- NiMH batteries have 40% higher energy density (more energy is able to fit into the same size battery and therefore will power a device longer before a recharge is necessary)
- NiMH batteries are more environmentally friendly with less toxins than NiCD which uses Cadmium
- NiMH batteries have no apparent “memory”, unlike NiCD batteries which may exhibit a “memory” under certain conditions
- NiMH batteries are widely available
Cautions when using NiMH (Nickel Metal Hydride) rechargeable batteries
- Keep discharge rate below half of its rating otherwise its cycle life will be reduced (not an issue for normal electronics)
- Performance will be reduced if stored at high temperatures (store in cool place, like a freezer, and preferably at about a half charge level)
- Complicated charge algorithm (not an issue so long as you use professional designed smart charger)
- NiMH requires a regular full discharge to keep in best condition
- NiMH batteries will lose about 2% of their charge per day, just sitting on the shelf
Rechargeable batteries are rated in “mAh”, which means milliamp hours (how many thousandths of an Amp it will deliver for one hour). The higher the number, the longer it will last before a recharge is necessary. For example, a set of AA NiMH batteries rated at 2650 mAh will run my Sony ICF-SW7600GR portable shortwave radio for about 30 hours (the radio apparently draws about 80 mA – although I haven’t actually measured it). The age of the batteries (how many recharge cycles it has been through) will affect performance as well.
I recommend that you purchase extra batteries so that you always have at least one fresh set of alkaline and rechargeable batteries for each device. I keep lots of AA and AAA batteries on hand since many of my devices run on them, including most of my small portable LED flashlights.
I highly recommend that you research and find a solar battery charger for the NiMH style batteries. What you will probably need to do is to purchase two different items, a smart charger (for NiMH) that comes with a 12-volt car adapter for its power source, and a solar panel assembly that will output 12-volts (and comes with a mating 12-volt car adapter). Connect the two together and you have a working solar NiMH battery charger system. The majority of the cost will be in the solar panel assembly, and will depend on the charging power of the panel you choose. I’m actually considering designing one myself – we’ll see where it goes…
The bottom line here is to stock up on both Alkaline and NiMH batteries, properly sized for the electronic devices that you expect to use during a grid-down situation (store the NiMH in a freezer at half charge).
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The Four Essentials Of Off Grid Solar
May 27, 2010
An off-grid solar electric power system is an ideal prep for the modern survivalist in that it can partially or totally relinquish you from dependence upon other systems, which themselves are vulnerable to disruption or breakdown.
Off-grid systems also enable the ability to live away from the main stream, which opens the door to properties which may be more affordable than others that require connectivity to public systems. Even if living in suburbia, installing an off-grid system to be next to the existing grid system will provide you with a completely separate electrical circuit (separate outlets, etc… however you design it), reduce your dependency on the grid system, as well as provide a back-up means of electrical power during an outage or disaster situation.
One notation however, be aware that while your neighbors are all without electricity, it may be obvious that you still have yours and invite knocks on your door if the situation endures too long.
In fact, this will be true in all aspects for those that have prepared. If the down-time of a disaster becomes longer than the period of time that others are able to endure (those that have not prepared), you will surely begin to get people at your door looking for help and handouts. At this point, some serious judgment on your part will need to take place. Personally, I believe preppers should plan to keep some extra for charity in this situation, while at the same time not advertising your true storage. In most cases, giving to others will create beneficial good, which will come back to you in one way or another.
Back to off-grid solar power…
This summary is intended to provide a very high level overview. There is much more to it than just these basic elements, things such as circuit breakers, interconnecting cabling, safety considerations, and technical know-how.
Having said that, the following comprises the major parts of a typical off-grid system and can be split up into four areas, each with their own function and purpose as listed here in the correct order of their functions.
- Photovoltaic Solar Panels
- Charge Controller
- Battery Bank
- DC to AC Inverter
PV Solar Panels
The PV (PhotoVoltaic) solar panel is where it all begins. A typical solar panel is made up of an array of many small individual solar cells, made of crystalline silicone, each connected together to provide a usable amount of total power. Sunlight (photons) strike the crystalline silicone wafers, which convert that energy into electricity.
A typical individual solar panel that is used in an array of panels may contain enough individual cells to produce about 200 watts (there are lots of different sizes). The more solar panels, the more power you get. This is where the majority expense of the system resides. These days, a 200 watt solar panel is priced between $600 – $800.
Without getting into the detailed methods of calculating the number of panels required (which are different from calculating for a grid-tie system – one that is tied into the local utility grid), suffice it to say that most people are familiar with the term, ‘watts’ (light bulbs anyone?). A ‘watt’ is a unit of power.
Basically how this works is that you determine the wattage of an individual item that you would like to power, and multiply that number by the number of hours per day that it is running (the result is a unit of energy which is required to power that item – power times time). You do this for each item and add them all up to get a final number. You probably want enough power to run a refrigerator, maybe a separate freezer, a number of lights, along with enough left-over energy to occasionally run a washing machine, kitchen appliance, radio or TV, and a computer.
For example,
- Refrigerator (100 watts x 12 hours = 1,200 watts per day, also known as 1.2 kWh, or 1.2 kilowatt hours, which is the same as consuming 1,200 watts in one hour) In reality a refrigerator cycles on and off all day, so in this basic example I’m using 12 hours instead of 24.
- Chest Freezer (60 watts x 12 hours = 720 watts per day)
- Energy Efficient Light Bulbs (20 watts x 6 bulbs x 4 hours = 480 watts per day
This very simple example adds up to use 2,400 watts of energy in a given day, or 2.4 kWh. Lets add another 600 watts overhead for other items that may be operated throughout the day. This brings us to 3,000 watts of energy consumed throughout the day, or 3 kWh.
Now you need to discover the worst case scenario regarding the number of hours of ‘good’ sunlight that you will get per day in your geographical location. Lets say the worst case is during the heart of winter, with 4 hours of usable good sunlight to provide electrical charging capacity. This means that during those 4 hours, you will need to come up with 3,000 watts of energy. So, 3,000 divided by 4 hours equals 750 watts of solar panel power to absorb and convert 4 hours of solar energy into 3 kWh. This means we would need four 200 watt panels. Well, not exactly… this is a best-case scenario where your panels are tracking the sun and angled exactly right all the time, etc.. Lets say you don’t have a tracker and your panels are simply installed on the roof at some optimum fixed angle. In this example you may actually need 6 panels to be safe. You see how this works? A lot of this is about having a safety margin so you don’t run short.
Charge Controller
The charge controller is the electronic device that goes in between the solar panel array and the battery bank. It provides a proper amount of electrical charge to the batteries and is intelligent in that it automatically adjusts itself depending upon the current load on the system and the current charge of the batteries versus the amount of available power from the solar panels at any given moment (at least the better ones do this). A good charge controller will also perform maintenance functions to your batteries to help keep them in optimum condition and to prolong their life. The charge controller is not terribly expensive and is an essential component in the overall system.
Battery Bank
The battery bank is unique to the off-grid system. Since you do not use up all of your daily energy requirements during daylight hours, an off-grid system will store the energy that is collected over time during daylight into a bank of batteries to be used as energy later. The batteries used in solar power systems are manufactured specifically for the situation where lots of its energy is drawn off over a relatively long period of time, whereas a typical car battery draws off energy over a very short period of time when starting the engine. Solar designed batteries are a type of ‘deep cell’ battery with a rugged and heavy duty internal design.
An additional consideration is the number of backup days that you want to have energy in reserve, during times when the sun is covered by clouds during bad weather. It is important to have a few days reserve energy, which simply means having more batteries to store that energy. ‘Simply’ may not be the best word here, because these batteries are extremely heavy, require special considerations when connecting them into an array, and also require special considerations for their placement (environmental temperature, proper exhaust – depending on battery type, and safety).
Dc to AC Inverter
The Inverter is located at the last stage of the solar power system. It’s job is to convert the DC energy from your battery bank and solar panels, into AC energy that is used in the typical home. Without giving an electronics lesson, ‘DC’ refers to direct current, and ‘AC’ refers to alternating current. AC power is what is generated in utility power plants, and is what most all home appliances, etc.. are designed to handle and consume as energy. Therefore, you will need this inverter unless you have special appliances and lighting to handle DC power.
Today’s modern inverters can be very efficient, so hardly any power is lost during the conversion process assuming you’ve purchased a quality unit. There are cheap inverters out there which I caution against for several reasons, including the ability to handle short-term high current loads from motors and compressors starting up (refrigerators and freezers for example). The good units provide pure sine wave AC power and will not damage your appliances.
So to sum it up, an off-grid solar power system is a reassuring bit of insurance when you are already connected to the grid, and also provides options for living in remote areas without grid hook up. It is not inexpensive, and can also be very expensive if the system is large. I would never recommend money spent on this capability until and unless all debt is paid off and many other preps are in place first.
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Solar Energy, A Simple Alternative
May 22, 2010
Solar Energy Conversion
It all starts by using the energy from the sun and converting it’s energy to usable energy for us here on earth.
A single energy unit from the sun is called a photon (a particle that carries electromagnetic force). A photon particle released from the sun takes about 8 minutes to reach the earth.
Contained within each square meter of sunlight that reaches the earth’s upper atmosphere, there are about 1,400 watts of available energy (called power density, or the solar constant). This amount is reduced to about 1,000 watts per square meter by the time it reaches the surface of the earth, in entirely optimum conditions. Additional factors further reduce this number, such as atmospheric deflection and scatter, your geographical location, season, time of day, weather, and the efficiency of the solar energy system that you are using.
The trick is, to capture some of that remaining ‘free’ energy and convert it to something that we can use to assist our daily living.
Solar Energy Systems
There are different types of solar energy systems. When thinking of solar power, most people think of the solar panels often seen on rooftops that generate electricity (photovoltaic solar panels).
There are also solar panel systems that use heat absorption properties to heat water, providing hot water for homes or even for heating swimming pools.
Several large solar electric power generating systems have recently been built that direct the sun’s energy using a huge bank of mirrors, creating a powerful solar beam that focuses on to a boiler that produces steam, which in turn spins a turbine that generates electricity.
There are also a wide variety of solar oven cookers out there, which is a great way to take advantage of the sun’s energy and to eat delicious meals (slow solar cooking retains most all the moisture and nutrients of foods – and tastes great!).
We are very familiar with several of these systems here at the MSB homestead. We have built a small photovoltaic solar panel system that generates and stores electricity to be used day or night. It’s capacity is not quite large enough to satisfy our normal daily consumption, but it is an expandable system that can be beefed up later if we choose to. We also use a solar hot water system to heat the swimming pool to a comfortable temperature without having to use the natural gas heater. The third solar energy system that we use is (are) solar ovens, which we take advantage of during much of the year.
Solar Systems can be Simple
Solar systems, be it for electric power or other energy absorptive type systems, do not need to be large and overwhelming in order to be useful. I wonder how many people are scared away from solar because they think it needs to be large (or expensive) to serve their needs. The truth is, even small systems are useful, and can be a perfect energy solution to help sustain life and comfort during a short-term grid power loss or even during disaster. You really don’t need much to ‘survive’, although having a little more than minimum would be nice…
Probably the simplest and most affordable way to harness the sun’s energy is with a solar oven cooker. These can be built fairly easily and there are many plans and designs available on the Internet (and for sale by some manufacturers). If you are interested in solar energy, this is where I would start. Building a solar oven can be a fun and rewarding project. Even if building things aren’t your forte, buying and using one is also very rewarding, while saving money on electricity and having an emergency method of cooking food.
Building a small electric power generating system with photovoltaic solar panels does not have to be very expensive, although unfortunately they are not cheap either. A significant amount of money can be saved if you have the skills to plan, purchase, and install the system yourself. Most electric solar power systems can be expanded upon, so you can start small and add on later if you wish. Solar panels come in a wide range of power-generating sizes, and are priced accordingly. Some systems are designed to tie into the electric power grid and ‘back feed’ the electricity that you are not consuming. Other systems are stand-alone and are usually tied in with a battery storage bank to store and provide power when the sun is not generating electricity.
The point is, if you are interested in becoming less dependent upon external systems for your energy needs, consider solar. Do some Internet research and discover this alternative energy world and what it can do for you.
Using Solar is Common Sense
Utilizing the energy from the sun to our advantage is very much a common-sense solution for many of our needs and comforts. Historically there has not been much attention attributed to solar or alternative energy, for obvious reasons – Oil addiction. While knowing that modern civilization required huge amounts of energy to build itself and now sustain itself (and we’ve surely benefited from some of the outcome), we should not blind our eyes to what is around us every day – free energy for the taking. We encourage that you consider an alternative energy approach, even to just a fraction of your daily consumption. Once you start the process, you will surprise yourself by the self-sufficient feeling that you will get (even with a small simple system), and how it makes you feel. I can only describe it as a feeling where it just feels ‘right’.
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