Solar Energy
Solar energy technology can further reduce your carbon footprint, help you reduce monthly energy costs and increase the resale value of your home.
Benefits of Home Solar Power Systems
We recommend making your home energy efficient before installing solar-generating and thermal systems. This will help you determine how many solar panels you’ll need for maximum cost-savings and energy savings.
Installing solar technology in your home can help you reduce your monthly energy costs by generating your own electricity and/or hot water. Solar technology not only can help you save money on your costs, it may also increase the resale value of your home according to a study by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Beyond the benefit to your wallet, installing solar means you can generate power and hot water that can help cover your energy usage, reduce your carbon footprint and help California reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.
How They Work
Solar power systems work by harnessing the power of the sun’s rays and turning it into electricity or hot water. In solar electricity, particles of sunlight, called photons, are captured by the solar panels and turned into electrons, or direct current (DC). The electrons are then routed through an inverter to convert the DC power into alternating current (AC) power, which is the type of power found in your wall outlet. In solar water heating, a pump circulates a heat transfer liquid to the roof and solar collectors absorb the sun’s thermal energy and heat the transfer liquid. The transfer liquid enters a heat exchanger, warming the tank; hot water then flows from the storage tank to your existing water heater to provide backup heating when needed.