Back up Solar Power

Back up alternative energy

Interest in Back up Solar Power has been steadily increasing particularly in locations where energy conservation regulations exist that trigger regular brownouts and blackouts.

Emergency Solar Power Solutions

California, in the midst of it's energy crisis, is enforcing laws and strict regulations promoting the conservation of energy and further legislation is expected.

While solar continues to struggle as a mainstream solution, backup solar power has come to play an important role in energy production. Especially in areas where daily power consumption can exceed production and energy reduction laws are in place and firmly enforced, the need for a backup energy power source such as solar energy increases.

If the power grid is supplying energy to medical equipment and sensitive electronics it may be vital to your health or livelihood to maintain an uninterrupted energy stream.

During peak hours of energy usage, a process called load shedding is required, meaning that all but the most pertinent of energy consumption must be reduced. Much of this is done via daylighting using the light produced from the sun to shut off unnecessary lighting within a building via a signal to a photocell. Reducing energy consumption of lighting also reduces excess heat produced by hot lights, reducing energy consumption of cooling systems.

However, even with such regulations, there continue to be rolling brownouts and blackouts in many heavily populated areas of California.

In order to prevent the complete loss of power during such times, many residences and commercial buildings have begun installing backup solar power devices that will maintain pertinent lights and other sensitive equipment.

Solar Energy to the Rescue

Other areas, primarily in the US, are heading toward the same situation as California and finding solar power a viable solution.

By installing solar panels to meet the needs of the particular building size, as well as an emergency transfer switch that, upon loss of power, reroutes electricity from the solar power source rather than the mainstream power. When a brownout occurs, the switch intelligently flips and allows power to continue flowing from the backup energy power.

Solar panels can be installed on the roofs of most buildings, meaning there is no need for special locations or reservation of property upon which to install the backup power source.

Large population centers across the world are seriously considering such an alternative, especially in Germany, where the leading research on the use of solar energy is occurring.

A back up solar power system requires the following components:

Solar Panels ~ How many watts you need will vary greatly depending on what you expect to power during a blackout and a number of other variables.
Inverter ~ The inverter converts the DC power to your AC, household power
Batteries ~ 2 deep cycle batteries will store energy so that you can use it even when the sun isn't shining. The more batteries you add the greater the storage capacity.
Charge Controller ~ The charge control prevents the batteries from being over or under charged and damaged.
Hardware ~ A sundry supply of wires and hardware will round out your back up solar power system.