How Do Solar Panels Work?

So, you’ve heard about these solar panels and you’ve seen them popping up on people’s houses around town but you wonder – why bother? How do they even work? What’s in it for me?

Here’s the deal, people are buying solar panels because they work: They work to power your home; they work to help the environment; they work to save you money. These panels do all of this while sitting pretty up there on your rooftop, just doing their thing.

But how do solar panels work?

Solar panels work by having a system built into them that gathers the sun’s light and turns that light energy into electricity which can be used to power anything electrical in your home. It does this at an atomic level: that’s rocket science, literally. In fact, NASA is the organisation that took hold of the creation in its first form and helped to develop it into what you see used on rooftops today.

If you want to get technical about how solar panels work, you will have to understand how the cells are constructed in the first place. Each of the cells in a solar panel is made from two pieces of semi-conductive materials – usually silicon -, one positive and one negative, that, when combined in the right way, generates an electric field. This field is what interacts with the atoms that make up the sun’s light and separates the electrons from the photons. The moving electrons conduct DC electricity, which is then converted into AC electricity by the solar inverter that comes with the system.

The solar inverter converts the electricity so that it is compatible with the AC power used in your home. You can use this power to run everything on the main phase of your house and to then store any excess solar power in batteries or send out to the grid where you can get paid a feed-in tariff from your energy retailer.

If you’re worried about how much energy you’ll get through this process and what it takes to install solar panels, don’t be. The Solaray Team can help you size up a system based on your energy usage, and provide performance estimates so that you know what to expect to generate across the year.

With smart solar systems installed by Solaray, full online monitoring is included. Once the system is configured, we will provide you with a login that allows you to monitor the electricity produced by your system across the day. This will help you manage your electricity consumption so that you can maximise the benefit of the system.

The solar power that is generated is fed into your home and you will use this first (before buying any power from the grid). This is how solar power directly reduces your power bill. If your usage is larger than the amount of power being generated by the solar system, you will automatically top up your supply with power from the grid.

Here’s the great part of your deal with the energy company, you can get paid for any extra energy you produce. That’s even after your system has automatically stored any excess energy in batteries for later use. Also, the government provides an incentive on the purchase price of solar panels for choosing an eco-friendly alternative to traditional grid power, which is more money in your pocket.

Now that you know how solar panels work AND that they are a great financial investment, let’s move onto the next step in our solar panel journey.

Installing something this intricate must be labour intensive and time-consuming, not to mention complex! 

Solaray makes the installation of your solar system quick and easy. All of the paperwork is done for you and once the go-ahead is given, your project application is given to the relevant energy distributor to assess and approve (which could take up to two weeks for larger systems). After that, you’ll have your system installation date booked within 2-4 weeks, weather permitting, and normally takes just the one day to complete, depending on size and complexity. All you have to do is be there on the installation date to sign a few forms and learn a thing or two about your new, wise investment.

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