To make understanding solar energy easy, we have made a guide called “Explain Like I’m 5” (ELI5), in which we’ll examine clean energy to help everyone understand it.
Solar Batteries
The excess energy created by your solar panels is stored in solar batteries. This stored energy is used when your home consumes more electricity than the solar panels can provide. In short, solar panels push electricity into the battery, while the battery pushes electricity into your home. Solar batteries are sturdy and can be charged countless times. They generally have a long lifespan.
The Working
Imagine two buckets. One is full of water while the other is empty. Connecting those two buckets will decrease the water level in the bucket with the water until both buckets have roughly the same amount of water in them. In a solar battery, that water is replaced by electrons and chemicals.
The negative side of the battery contains chemicals rich in electrons. Since electrons are negative charge carriers, their majority causes that side to become negative, and their minority causes the other side to become positive.
Connecting both sides, we get a flow of electrons known as electricity. This flow of electrons is used to transfer electricity from the solar panels to the battery and then to your home.
Regular Batteries vs Solar Batteries
Regular batteries are smaller than solar batteries. This is mainly due to power consumption since solar batteries are used in energy-hungry appliances and devices like refrigerators and TVs. Solar batteries resemble high-tech rechargeable batteries used in electric vehicles or smartphones. They can be recharged many times without losing significant power or capacity.
Your home needs AC electricity which is electrons moving back and forth. However, your solar battery generates electricity in DC, where electrons move in one direction only. To convert this DC to AC electricity, the battery is hooked up to an inverter which converts the current.
Reasons To Get A Solar Battery
The main reasons you should get a solar battery are:
- Helping the environment by creating less greenhouse gas emissions with decreased reliance on fossil fuels and more dependence on renewable solar energy.
- Lower electricity bills since most power would be from a solar battery rather than the utility grid.
- You can use more of the electricity your solar energy system creates.
- Excess power can be diverted to the solar battery for an energy backup, especially in power outages.