How Do Solar Panels Work in Texas?

Researching how do solar panels work on a house? The answer is actually simpler than you might think. Solar panels work by converting sunlight into electricity through the photovoltaic effect. The solar cells in the panel are made up of layers of silicon that absorb photons from the sun and release electrons, which can then be harnessed to generate an electrical current. The generated electricity from your solar panels is used to power your home, and store energy in your solar panel batteries. Because of how effective solar panels are at generating clean energy, they are becoming the most preferred way of powering homes all across Texas!

What is Solar Power?

Solar energy is produced from the sun and converted into renewable energy every single day. Solar panels contain several plates, solar cells, and wires that capture the suns electrical current and convert it into electricity. This means as long as the sun is shining you have free renewable energy! Every panel functions relatively the same with slight differences between each brand. We install over 10 different brands of solar panels, based around your specific needs. To learn more about solar panel installations in Texas, click here.

How do Solar Panels Work to generate electricity?

Solar Panels convert the energy from the sun into renewable clean energy to power your home. The good news is, if you live in Texas and you are reading this… Then you should get plenty of sunlight to power your home.

Solar panels are usually manufactured out of materials called monocrystalline silicon, and polycrystalline silicon. When the sunlight hits the panels the semiconductive materials, (monocrystalline & polycrystalline silicon) it releases electrons from the silicon atoms. The negatively charged electrons are then dawn to the cell’s positively charged side.

These electrons create a photovoltaic effect. The energy is then transferred into the inverters to convert the DC (Direct Current) into AC (Alternating Current). This process makes the energy usable for your home.

We make sure that when we are building your solar panel system, that we pick the best solar panels, inverters, and batteries to power your house.

The majority of the homes we install solar panels on in Houston, Dallas, or Austin usually generate more electricity than their overall electrical loads require. When this happens, that extra energy can be sent into the electric grid through your utility meter. The utility meter can track how much electricity you export to the grid and how much electricity you import.

How do solar panels perform at night?

This is one of the most popular questions we receive from homeowners. The answer simply put, it no. Solar Panels need direct access to the sun to produce enough power to fulfill your energy load. Don’t worry, this does not mean you will lose power when the sun goes down.

Every job we install in Texas is a grid-tied system. Meaning, power is imported from your utility provide to service your electrical needs when the sun goes down. Luckily, Texas does 1:1 net metering. Which allows surplus energy from your system to offset the expense of your nighttime electricity usage.

When you switch to solar energy to power your home, you use power generated by your solar panels rather than electricity from the utility company. Reducing the amount of electricity, you have to pay for. As a result, your meter will show significantly less consumption and save you money by not paying the utility provider for that electricity.

Most homes in Texas have smart meters that track your home’s actual electrical consumption. Your local utility provider receives real time usage data from smart meters for invoicing.

How do solar panels reduce the electric bill?

Solar panels with net metering allow you to feed excess electricity generated by your solar panels back into the grid and receive credits on your electric bill. When your solar panels produce more electricity than you need, the excess power is sent back to the grid and credited to your account. When your solar panels don’t produce enough electricity to meet your needs, you can draw power from the grid using your credits.

This means that your electric bill will be reduced, as you will only be charged for the net amount of electricity you use from the grid. Net metering policies vary by location, so it’s important to check with your utility company to see if they offer net metering and how it works in your area.

If you live in Houston, Dallas, or Fort Worth and want to learn more about installing solar panels on your house, Click Here.