A household can marry solar power and traditional electricity for a more efficient, dynamic power system. Understanding how solar panels work with electricity can help you learn which solar power system could be right for you and how to use both types together for maximum energy savings.
When the sun is rising, the photovoltaic (PV) cells begin generating an electrical current. This initiates a signal to the overall power system that electricity from the panels is available. Electricity produced by the solar panels will almost always take priority over grid-sourced electricity.
Your system will connect to a net energy meter that stores and calculates all the electricity your solar panels produce. If you don’t use solar energy at the same time as your solar panels produce it, the energy will return to the electrical grid through the net meter.
If you need more energy than your panels produce one day – say, if it’s cloudy out – you will source the electricity from the grid through the meter as you normally would. Your home is connected to both sources of electricity – solar panels and the traditional grid. Your primary source of energy will be photovoltaic.
Electricity produced by the solar panels will almost always take priority over grid-sourced electricity. However, if more power is required above and beyond what can be produced by the solar power generation system, electricity from the grid will be used. Keep in mind this only pertains to ‘grid-tied’ solar systems—not ‘off-grid’ ones.
But, that doesn’t mean that the solar-generated power stored throughout the day simply disappears. If there is electricity stored in the capacitors mentioned above, that electricity can be used during the evening and nighttime hours, saving the system owner extra money, as evenings tend to be ‘primetime’ energy usage windows.
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