| By :
Alec Deacon
There are four main elements for generating electricity with the help of solar power, which are used to provide 120 volt AC (alternative current) power on a daily basis. These elements are: the solar panels, a charge controller, a battery and the inverter. How do they work? Basically, what happens is that the sunlight strikes the photovoltaic solar panels which, in turn, transforms the light into power and charges the battery. But it's not over here, since you need to connect the power generated this way to the power-grid of your home. It's when the charge regulator enters the picture. It insures appropriate charging of the battery. After it's fully charged, the battery creates DC (direct current) which gets to the inverter. This one converts the direct current into alternative current, which is what electronic devices use to function. The thing is, most of the household appliances (fridges, TV's, PC's) can run on a simple portable solar generator system, and it's output is usually stated in watts. The panels can be wired in series or in parallel. In this way, you can increase the amount of power they generate. In the case of series wiring, the positive terminal of one panel is linked to the negative terminal of another. So the amount of volts you generate is equal to the sum of the two panels. However, the amperage will remain equal to the one of a single panel. In the case of parallel wiring, the positive terminals are linked to other positive terminals, while negative terminals are linked to other negative ones. In this case, the voltage is the one that stays the same, while the amperage represents the sum of the two panels' amperage. The charge controller is the component that monitors the battery's charge level. This is necessary in order to know when the battery needs to be charged, or when it is over-charged. Without such a device, the panel risks to malfunction and break-down because of overheating. As for the batteries you need to purchase in order to connect to your solar panel system, I would recommend deep cycle ones, which are designed to face hundreds of discharges and recharges. These batteries last between 20 hours and 100 hours. Calculate the type of battery you need depending on the amount of period in which your solar panel gets no sunlight (during the night). You can find all of the materials I described on homedepot or any other big electrical stores.
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