A Solar Photovoltaic (PV) panel utilises the sun as the energy to generate electricity. This type of electricity is called direct current (DC), which once generated needs to be converted to alternating current (AC) electricity by an inverter which is normally placed within the loft of the house.
The alternating current electricity is then connected to the consumer unit of the house. During the night the house will draw electricity from the National Grid and in the day the house will use a combination of the generated “Solar PV” electricity and the national grid. There is no setup required for this process, as it is done automatically, and consequently your electricity bills are reduced due to offsetting the electricity which is used from the grid.
If the “solar pv” electricity is not used at all or completely, this is then automatically fed back into national grid, which in turn is precipitated with a monetary incentive. Put simply, you get paid for the surplus energy from your home you put into the grid, and also not to be forgotten that this payment is on top of the money you save on your energy bills.
There are five main facets that will have an impact on the amount of energy your solar pv system will generate:
- The total size of the PV array
- The latitude of the Location
- Which direction the pv panels face; ideally the position would be of a southerly direction
- What slope the panels are mounted on
- Anything which shades the panels.
Contact us to enquire further into solar pv installation via our Renewable energy Technology enquiry form.
