Things to do before buy a solar panel

Today, in many parts of the world have been doing GO GREEN movement, the movement in favor of saving the environment and the earth from global warming. GO GREEN movement includes many things such as the movement to plant a thousand trees, reducing the use of fossil fuels, to use products that are environmentally friendly.

Including the use of solar panels or solar cells as a power source for lighting on the highway. As I see it on vacation yesterday, I visited one of the city's vacation place in Batu, Malang, East Java named Eco Green Park. As its name suggests the theme of the tour is GO GREEN, where almost all the goods used for attraction are hires environmentally friendly power sources except some of the rides that require a large power supply, of course.

In this place I found a unique effort in order to brighten GO GREEN, every street light that was there taking power source from solar panels. It really inspired me to use one or more at home as a source of electric power by using solar panels. In order to save some electricity payments, avoid the house of darkness due to power outages were also environmentally friendly!

In this post I will provide an explanation as how to buy a solar panel to power the lights in the house.

To buy solar panels, here are some things to be noticed:

Determining the type of panel

Before buying it would be nice if we knew what kind of solar panels that we needed. The solar panels are commonly used for home-scale there are two types, the type of amorphous and crystalline type.

Type Amorphous solar panels are cheap but have poor absorption. This solar panel type is not recommended because even though it has a life time of 10 years, the resulting voltage will drop by 20% of the initial voltage after 5 years of usage time.

Type Crystalline more expensive than the Amorphous type, but well worth the price, quality Crystalline have better life time of 25 years and a voltage drop of only 5% after 10 years of usage. Cristalline type Panel is a panel that is often used to meet the needs of home-scale electrical power. Crystalline solar panels have several types such as mono-and polycrystalline. In order to facilitate the choosing, here are the advantages and disadvantages of Mono-and Polycrystaline:

Monocrystalline

1. Monocrystalline silicon (mono-Si)

#Advantages:

Mono-Si having solar absorption efficiency the greatest because it is made of the best silicon (effective absorption of up to 20% of the solar energy received).

Mono-Si produces an electrical voltage (output) more than the other panels.

Mono-Si is more durable, typically companies provide a 10 year warranty for this type of mono-Si. And the life time of up to 25 years.

#Disadvantages:

Mono-Si will work more efficiently in warm weather, very hot weather can reduce the life time of the solar panels, but it is not a big problem.

Mono-Si has the most expensive among the other solar panels.

2. Polycrystalline silicon (p-Si)

#Advantages :

Polycristalline

Because the manufacture of p-Si is likely to be simpler and cheaper, the price p-Si is also cheaper than the mono-Si.

P-Si are more tolerant of heat than mono-Si thus suitable for use in Indonesia, which has a hot temperature of climate.

#Disadvantages:

P-Si-efficiency solar absorbing 13-16% of solar power. This is lower than the mono-Si which have efficiencies up to 20% because it has a lower level of purity silicon.

To match the voltage of electricity mono-Si (output), we must install more panels of p-Si.

Two types of crystalline solar panel that is commonly used for home-scale electricity, both have advantages and disadvantages, in my opinion both are well but still the choice is yours... : D

Fair price

If you chose to buy a package with solar panel installation, make sure that the price offered is a fair price. If you get a price below the market standard, it would be better if the you check the type of solar panels are offered, the completeness of the components, warranty, and features offered. This is intended to ensure that the goods  had offered to you at a fair price, not suspecting the goods at a cheap price.

Check warranty

Before you bought a solar panel, check the warranty. Why? Solar panels are devices that we need in the long term, not just 2 or 3 years. If it can be up to 25 years, therefore make sure that you bought solar panels have a warranty period that is long enough to ensure the panel is durable.

Check solar panel certification

Certification of solar panel shows the type of testing that has been performed on the solar panel. It is very useful for you as a buyer to be sure that the solar panel is a good to be bought, tested and proven to function well.

Thus are some important things to do before we buy solar panels for electric power in our homes. in addition to be source of electric power to the lights in the house, you could also use it for other needs such as TV, fridge etc.. And of course adjust the power you need by the number of solar panels and an electric voltage is generated. You can buy and install your own solar panels or purchase from solar panels dealer to get a package of solar panel installation at your house.

Good luck and keep doing efforts to GO GREEN by consuming of goods that are environmentally friendly ...