Invest in Home Solar Systems
Many people in South Africa are making use of home solar panels to generate power.
For example, in Alexandra Township in Johannesburg, as is the case with many low-cost housing developments these houses are being fitted with solar panels for hot water geysers.
These might seem to be expensive to install at first, but they can and will save you a lot of expense in the long-term.
The internal working parts of power inverters and UPS, inverts the incoming DC voltage into sinewave waves – but due to the complexity of these parts, the result would be that investing in power inverters could prove to be a costly exercise.
Sine waves have been re-created to save costs; modified sinewave inverters as well as UPS systems simply switch from the DC supply between positive and negative poles to offer you a simulated sinewave wave.
Modified sinewave inverters and UPS systems are inexpensive to manufacture but could be very costly if these are installed into the wrong equipment.
Anything with a high inrush or high speed control or equipment with sensitive data should be connected to the correct power inverters to avoid damage.
It is imperative to take special note that certain UPS systems – most particularly the 600 VA which falls under the desk-type UPS systems, are included in the modified sinewave categories. Because computers only run off power inverters for short periods of time when power outages occur, they are far less likely to be damaged from modified wave forms.
For those that don’t know the difference – there are certain distinct advantages of pure sine wave power inverters over modified sine wave power inverters.
We make use of energy every single day of our lives and in every single aspect in a modern world. In South Africa electricity supply is barely keeping up with the pace and demand, and coal-fired power stations are experiencing issues plus they cause pollution in an already-polluted world.
But there is hope on the horizon, such as using and installing home solar systems, making use of the abundant sunshine we are so lucky to have.
The sun is a significant font of energy without which no life would be possible on Earth. The energy from the sun can be used to generate electricity in a more sustainable and pollutant-free process – more so than coal-fired power stations that are at present generating most of our energy.
But heating water through the use of solar power is certainly not new to man. The ancient Greeks, for example, were building houses in ways that the sun could heat them during cold winter months.
Solar or photovoltaic cells are specifically designed to capture the rays of the sun and directly convert them into electricity. Furthermore, solar cells have been used for many decades to provide power to satellites, too.
A solar cell consists of two thin plates made of a semi-conductive material such as silicon with a layer of chemicals on their surface and when sunlight falls on the cells, electrons are released from the silicon and they move over the layer of chemicals, generating an electric current.
South Africa has among the highest levels of sunshine in the world, but very little has been done to use its power to generate electricity. This is obviously cause for concern as scientists believe solar energy could become the only alternative when Earth’s fossil fuels are exhausted.
It has been predicted that more than 2.5 % of the world’s electricity needs will be provided by solar energy by 2015.
Installing home solar systems this summer is perhaps one of the most logical ways forward.
