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Clean Wisconsin provides easy tips on how to stay Green during the holidays
Kermit the Frog might think it's only natural to be green during
the holiday season, and maybe you can too by making a couple of
easy changes to reduce spending and waste. For many people the
holidays signify stress and over-spending. This year...
Global Dumbing?
I am beginning to wonder if scientists have been getting it all round. All this time, people have been worried about the Ozone, a giant asteroid, or some breakout of a bio-hazardous agent by a terrorist organization being the doom of mankind. We...
Guide to Choosing A Sleeping Bag
Guide to Choosing a Sleeping Bag
There are many types of sleeping bags available. Things you will
need to consider when deciding on what sleeping bag to buy:
1. What is the temperature and climate where you camp going to
be like?
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The Top 10 Benefits of Spiritual Environmental Design
What would your life be like if you were surrounded by "feel good" people, places, and things so that your spirit really gets the chance to soar? This top ten, taken from CoachVille's Personal Environments Community at...
Thirty positive actions for a sustainable Earth
There are many ways we can use our human energy to lighten the load on natural resources and tread lightly on our home planet. Check how many of these you do already: 1. Recycle and re-use Wherever possible, separate waste into compost material,...
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Photovoltaic Panels - Harvest the Sun Light
There is a lot of energy in sunlight and that energy can be
converted to electricity with photovoltaic panels. These panels
are made up of several photovoltaic cells which are constructed
of treated silicon which creates an electrical charge when
exposed to sunshine.
Each photovoltaic cell produces just a small amount of
electricity, so they are wired together into panels to provide
enough current for common household appliances.
Photovoltaic cells come in three basic varieties.
Monocrystalline are the most efficient but also the most
expensive. They consist of a single crystal cut from an ingot of
silicon.
Polycrystalline are the most common and slightly less efficient
than monocrystalline. The silicon they are made from have
several small crystals.
Amorphous cells are made by spreading the silicon on another
material like stainless steel. These cells are cheap to produce
but produce significantly less power than the other two types.
This means that photovoltaic panels must be larger to produce
the same amount of electricity.
Monocrystalline panels are slightly more efficient in low light
conditions, but the difference is not significant. When choosing
photovoltaic panels the most
significant factor is the amount of
available space. If you have lots of room you can install
amorphous panels for less money.
As mentioned above, individual photovoltaic cells are wired
together into panels which can produce more electricity. The
panels themselves can be wired together in parallel or in series
to produce a variety of currents suitable for almost any use.
The panels and arrays produce Direct Current (DC) power so it
must be converted to Alternating Current (AC) for most purposes.
This is accomplished with an inverter.
The AC current from the inverter can be used to power most
household appliances. It can also be connected to the breaker
box from the utility company so that solar electricity can act
as a backup system to regular power supplies. The advantage of
using both systems is that if there is any excess electricity
produced by the sun it is fed back into the grid for a credit
against the homeowner's electricity bill.
About the author:
Hans is author of
http://www.alternative-energy-guide.com/ come and
profit from our energ
y saving knowledge
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