Solar Options

Energy prices are on the rise. Pollution and global warming are international concerns. Solar power for homes is a way to address these challenges.

A win/ win solution: As energy prices go up, the value of your solar investment will go up. In addition, current State and Federal incentive programs allow homeowners to get back as much as 65% of the fully installed system cost. With increasing international concern about carbon and other heat trapping gas emissions, solar produces energy with zero emissions and uses no fuel.  Even a small solar energy system will reduce your carbon footprint by the equivalent of planting an acre of trees every year. A less known fact is that conventional power generation requires large amounts of water in order to cool steam used to turn generator turbines.  The average US household consumes over 1000 gallons of water per month indirectly from their electricity use.

Electricity:

Solar electricity works exactly the same as the electricity you buy from your utility company, if you didn't see the solar panels for your home, you'd never notice any difference - except lower electric bills. Here's how PV solar works.

Solar electricity is generated by an array of solar modules installed on your roof or on the ground. When sunlight falls on the solar modules, a DC electrical current is fed into an inverter that changes it to standard AC electricity at the voltage your house uses.

Solar electricity has been in use for more than 50 years and is proven to be highly dependable. Unlike other methods used to generate electricity, PV solar has no moving parts to wear out. PV modules come with a 25-year limited warranty on power output. As experienced solar panel installers, we have some 30 year old modules still performing well.

In our climate the only maintenance is to accelerate snow shedding, though on arrays at a 40 degree angle it generally clears itself.  A PV system is sized based on your budget, area available for the array and energy usage. PV modules consist of solar cells which are made from semiconductor materials that convert sunlight directly to electricity. PV modules have no moving parts and unlike conventional back-up generators there’s no need for annual maintenance or periodic start ups and no fuel costs. The types of systems include:

• Battery charging systems where solar energy is stored for use at any time. PV modules are connected to a charge controller then to a battery bank which can power DC loads directly. Isolated lighting systems are examples where it might be more expensive to run AC wires for a modest amount of power.
• Utility Grid interconnected systems which are the most common send excess PV electricity not used by the home back to the grid. PV modules are connected to a grid-tie inverter which connects to the main breaker panel. These systems incorporate safety switches that shut off the power to the grid if there is a power failure. Another option is to incorporate a battery bank to provide power during a blackout for specific circuits contained in a separate sub panel.

Water Heating:

A Solar Water Heating system captures the suns heat energy and transfers it to a storage tank to be used as needed. The systems are simple, reliable and because the energy is stored on site, the more hot water you use the faster the system will pay for itself. Since the sun produces the most energy in the summer months, we recommend solar water heating a year round requirement over active solar space heating. Here's how solar hot water systems work.

A Solar Water Heating system is sized based on your hot water usage. The size and number of collectors and the storage tanks are adjusted to each situation; we have designed systems for couples, large families, restaurants and factories.

The system components consist of the collectors which resemble skylights. We use high efficiency, flat plate collectors which are more cost effective, reliable and durable than evacuated tube collectors. A flat plate collector is an insulated aluminum box with a tempered glass surface to allow the sun’s rays to heat the specially treated flat plate with copper tubing attached. The collectors are connected to a storage tank by a closed pipe loop that contains non-toxic antifreeze, which is necessary in our climate. The heated antifreeze is automatically circulated to exchange the heat to the domestic water via a heat exchanger. Other components include a controller to operate the circulator pump, an expansion tank and valves.