Ponder These Options Before You Buy Solar Panel Kits

For numerous years, the only types of solar panels commercially offered have been crystalline solar panels put in a rectangular casing and placed on a roof. This is why most people, when they consider solar power for their house, think of this as their single choice. Below are a few new advancements in solar power and mounting options you may have never heard of before.

Thin Film Solar Panels - Boy Is This Skinny!

Picture the solar panel you have in a solar calculator. That is a thin film solar panel. Thin film solar panels are used extensively in satellites. Thin film technology is currently being expanded into residential and industrial use and was named one of the greatest inventions of 2008 by TIME magazine.

Thin film solar panels are flexible, nothing like polysilicon cells found in conventional crystalline solar panels. These thin film solar panels are being called as second generation solar power technology.

Thin film solar panels are more resilient to frozen rain, dust, and so on. If a portion of a crystalline solar panel is damaged, the entire solar panel will stop working whereas a thin film solar panel will go on functioning.

Thin film panels can also be flexible and tailored to various surfaces. They can be applied in places conventional crystalline solar panels cannot be mounted on top of. I have even witnessed a thin film panel sewed against a coat that powered a MP3 player.

The draw back to thin film panels is that they do not take in as much energy because they are so thin. These panels are not nearly as efficient as traditional photovoltaic panels but they cost less. Thin film solar panels are printed onto the rolled backing, eliminating many of the high energy and chemical intensive processes that are typical in conventional PV manufacturing.

Thin film solar panels are low wattage and require more room than conventional solar panels and they are more prone to degradation. In order to counter several of these competitive disadvantages they have against conventional solar panels, manufacturers offer better warranties for thin film panels.

The largest thin film solar photovoltaic (PV) project in the United States is the Blythe plant located 200 miles east of Los Angeles, California. The 21-megawatt solar power plant uses thin film solar cells created out of cadmium telluride. At full power, the plant will create enough electricity to power an estimated 17,000 homes.

Now let’s examine traditional solar panels and some of the mounting options that are offered you might have not heard of before.

Mounting Options For Traditional Solar Panels - It’s All About the Mount

Solar panel mounts are available in three main types: pole mounts, roof-ground mounts, and flush mounts. Using these mounts, you can fix your solar panel on your roof, onto an RV, on top of or against the side of a pole, or even install them as a free-standing unit.

Pole Mounts - No This Is Not Something Santa Claus Uses For His Sleigh

Pole mounts, specially top-of-pole, have been popular for a long time. Top-of-pole mounts are essentially a steel or aluminum frame and rail structure bolted or welded to a big casing that sets on top of a pole with set-bolts to keep it stationary. Side-of-pole mounts are usually used when you must mount to the side of a telephone pole or communications tower. Tracking mounts are similar to top-of-pole mounts, but they also have a system of automatically aiming the mount to follow the sun.

Top of pole mounts (including sun trackers) are one of the simplest mounts to set up. They basically only need one steel pole set in the ground (normally in concrete), and the mount slips onto the top of the pole. Most common sizes use a 2-inch to 8-inch pole, usually around 11 to 13 feet in length. They can go higher if you need to get the panel up higher to get out of shading from nearby vegetation.

Popular Roof-Ground Mounts

Roof-ground systems can be mounted onto a roof or ground without a great deal of reworking in setup. They are usually created from stainless steel in a grid-like system of supports. Roof-mounted panels for smaller systems are the easiest to install, using tiny flush-mount brackets which lift up the panels to the most excellent position for solar collection.

Ground mounts, as the name implies, are solar panel mounts that are installed on the ground (as opposed to a pole mount or roof mount). They have supporting, variable legs which allow you to optimize their upright orientation for solar exposure. Ground mounting systems usually involve plenty of steel supports, concrete foundations, and galvanized footings, that can be challenging, when you are attempting to keep your system low cost. Ground mounted systems call for structural strength to avoid load bearing failure.

Even though module mounting systems are obtainable for ground and roof installation, roof mount installation is the most popular and cost effective method. The roof mounted panels are attached to a mounting system normally consisting of an aluminum or steel support structure which attaches the panels to the roof.

The Low Down On Flush Mounts

Flush Mounts are economical and straightforward to install - these are ideal for single panel installations and smaller solar arrays. Flush mounts are put onto a level surface such as a rooftop, the top of a boat, or the top of a recreational vehicle and are not used for ground installations. These mounts act to separate the solar panel from the mounting surface and permit airflow to go underneath and lower the temperature of the solar panel for smooth operation. Flush Mounts are typically used with small solar arrays on roof tops and RVs, because the structural design of a flush mount cannot hold big solar panels.

Lots of options exist in the ever changing world of solar power technology. To learn how to calculate the number of solar panels you need for your home and other solar power secrets they don’t want you to know about, go to purchase solar panel kits

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