Vol 2 Issue 1 January 2018

What IS solar power – What does it DO?

Right – Solar power is just that, its electricity generated by the sunlight striking a Solar Panel, and agitating photons to produce DC electrical power. Solar panels today although only between 17 and 21% efficient, are very effective at doing this.

There are a number of ways of harnessing this power, all different but with the exact same purpose- to generate useful 220 Volt AC power.

Let’s look at the various options here and over the next few weeks we will describe each option in greater detail:

Standby Power Supply

This is an inverter and battery power supply, which is permanently

coupled to Eskom or Municipal Grid power supply, and essential items remain plugged into this inverter permanently. The inverter ensures the battery is maintained at all times and is ready to assume its duty to supply the inverter with power at a moment’s notice.

Solar Assisted Standby power

The inverter is identical to the standby power supply above, but its battery is charged by grid and solar power. This is a good choice where power failures are frequent and or of long duration - Little risk of running out of power.

OFF GRID POWER

This is the buzz phrase all over the world, and its growing exponentially. Off Grid means you rely entirely on your own power generation, which, if correctly sized and installed, gives you 100% run time, no power failures. All electrical equipment will last longer as inverter power, being electronically created is absolutely clean power without power surges or “Ripples” which are brief high or very low voltage pulses generated by other users on the grid power line.