Stand Alone Solar Systems

Stand alone solar systems are ideal for rural areas where there is no power or where to get mains power to the site is going to be too expensive. Having a stand alone system connected to your house, office or farm may be the best thing you will ever do. From the initial costing of the system its practically free power from there. Can you imagine having power all the time and not having to pay on going costs to keep it provided. Basically the way we look at it is like a new car, Most people would go out and spend $30,000-40,000 on a new car which in 5 years its value will have dropped by at least half. Where as you can go and purchase a solar power system for roughly the same money (depending on your power demand) and in 5 years the system will be well on the way for paying for itself (with the rebates available at this point in time it may have already paid for itself) and inturn saving you money as you don't have the monthly expenditure as you do with mains power.

How a Stand Alone Solar System Works:

With Stand alone power there is a number of basic components that go together to make up the system.

1. Power Generator-This is the panels which collect the suns energy-the first stage of the process.

2.Power Back-up- In most cases there will be certain times when you may not have got enough sun during the week to power everything you need, in this case we opt for a generator of some sort. Most installations use either a diesel or petrol generator as their back up supply.

3.Control Equipment- There is a number of control equipment needed for a stand alone system to operate, you will need invertors to convert the power from DC to AC, regulation equipment to limit the flow of power, plus your standard meters and controllers so you can know how much solar power is being generated.

4.Batteries- Stand alone power systems use numerous deep cycle batteries in conjunction with each other to give you a power storage facility.

5.Wiring- All stand alone systems are installed with a heavier thickness of wire then as normal power, this is done in turn to keep the voltage fluctuations and energy loss to a bare minimum.

6.Home Design-If building a new home from scratch and want to power it with solar there is several design factors that you should take in too mind. You should try and keep the number of large electrical equipment to a minimum or minimum usage of these & you should opt for installing low voltage/high efficiency lighting. Staying by these guidelines may mean you wont need as big as system to be installed which once again will save you MONEY.

When all these basic components come together you get a SOLAR HOME a house which is a self sufficient and costs basically nothing (other then the odd generator start-up) to run or too live in.

Break Down Of a Solar House

Inland solar has access to all the materials to create you, your own solar house. Using products available from B.P Solar, R.F Industries, and many solar hot water companies we have a range to suit your needs.

1. Solar Panels- What generates the power

2. Generator-Back up power when not enough energy to power the house.

3. Control Equipment-Meters, Regulator, Invertors

4. Batteries Storage-Where the power is kept for usage

5. Solar Hot Water-These do not generate electricity and are purely for heating your water.

If you were to use an electric hot water it would amount to excess power consumption and the need to start the back-up generator too often for it to be economical.