According to the new US President-elect Barack Obama, there will be 25% or one fourth of assured alternative electricity (to be made available) in the United States by 2025. And we can already see the early indications in this. The current trend in the country already displays a vivid picture of the big demand for alternative electricity through the use of solar panels. A recent study conducted by a group of experts has confirmed that in most cities/ towns in the US there are around 10,000 private homes that have residential solar panels installed in them while more than 200,000 housing blocks have solar energy related gears that generate power on a regular basis.

Residential Solar Panels


Although there are solar panels galore in many US cities and suburbs, each manufacturer claiming extraordinary feature for his/her product, none can guarantee what will happen when the panels get covered with snow during a blizzard. Of course, solar panels are mostly fitted on sloping rooftops but heavy snowing can affect their functioning at least for some daylight hours. Thus, you need to know where to install residential solar panels so that it can receive the sunlight and also get the protection.

But a residential solar panel alone cannot give you the desired result. You also need an inverter for transforming the DC current generated by the residential solar panel to be converted to 120 volt AC current before it ca be of any use in US homes. Then there are the battery banks to ensure availability of power during night.

However, to obtain uninterrupted current in terms of 24-hour supply, residential solar panels may be grid-tied all the while. This not only ensures availability of electricity when the sun goes down but also paves the way to supply any surplus power to the grid as and when the situation so arises. This is one way of balancing the cost.

Also to be considered when installing residential solar panel as to the best direction at which optimum electricity can be generated by the panel. This may require a little bit of research in terms of monitoring climatic condition of a particular site. For instance, morning fog in the San Francisco-area locations suggests that solar panels will best operate there during mid-afternoon hours. Also, eliminating phantom loads like plugged-in but powered down TVs or computers help better utilization of residential solar panels.

There are simply too many alternative energy incentives. The local governments offer many such plans, plus solar power is also environmentally clean. And of course, by installing solar panels for your home, you can reduce your electricity bills drastically. So go ahead and go solar – but first get informed as to the best place in the home to set it up, know how to install and wire the system and also learn about the safety precautions.