Solar energy

Solar Photovoltaic panels (known as Solar PV for short) convert the energy from sunlight into electricity which you can use in your house. Any electricity produced that you don’t use goes straight back into the National Grid for the rest of us to use (don’t worry though you get paid for it either way).

The sunnier it is the more electricity your panels will produce, giving you something especially nice to think about on those sunny summer days. Importantly though the panels will still produce lots of electricity even if it’s cloudy and overcast. This means that over the course of a year we have a pretty good idea of how much electricity your system will produce.

How does it work?

In addition to the solar panels the other main bit to your system will be an ‘Inverter’.

This is a clever little box of electrical tricks that converts the DC (direct current) electricity from your panels into AC (alternating current) electricity that you can use in your house. It’s the brains of the system.

When we design your system we work hard to make sure that we match an inverter to your system as precisely as possible.  For this reason we aren’t tied to using any one type of inverter but will use a range of different inverters depending on the type and number of panels that we recommend for your roof. This is really important if you are to get the best out of your system.

The other thing is the ‘meter’. This is just like your existing meter but instead of telling you how much you will have to pay will show you how much electricity you are producing and therefore how much you will earn.

That’s it in a nutshell.

If you are the sort of person who wants to know more about the technical stuff then have a look at our Technical Briefing (not for the fainthearted!) written by our very own Dr Chris Jardine. If that doesn’t answer your question then please do give us a call – we love getting difficult questions (and answering them).