Product Description

The Solar Electricity Handbook is a straightforward, practical guide to using electric solar panels.

Assuming no previous knowledge of solar panels, the book explains how solar panels work, how they can be used and explains the steps you need to take to successfully design and install a solar electric system from scratch using photovoltaic solar panels.

Accompanying this book is a solar resource website containing lots of useful information, lists of suppliers and on-line solar energy calculators that will simplify the cost analysis and design processes.Why buy the Solar Electricity Handbook?

* The Handbook is a simple, practical guide to using electric photovoltaic panels.
* The book is suitable for enthusiastic novices and professionals.
* Clear examples, diagrams and example projects are given to demonstrate the true capabilities of these systems.
* The Handbook is updated yearly, providing a up-to-date reference for anyone planning to use electric photovoltaic technology.
* It is the most comprehensive book on solar electric systems available today.
* It is backed up by the most powerful online calculator tools available, to make your design and calculations as straightforward as possible.
* With comprehensive detail in the book for both North America and Europe, the Handbook provides you with information that is relevant to you and your project.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15675 in Books
• Published on: 2009-05-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 150 pages

From the Back Cover
Solar electricity is a wonderful concept - take free power from the sun and use it to power electrical equipment. No ongoing electricity bills, no reliance on an electrical socket - 'free' energy that doesn't harm the planet.

Of course, the reality is a little different from that. Yet generating electricity from sunlight alone is a powerful resource with applications and benefits throughout the world.

But how does it work? What is it suitable for? What are the limitations? How much does it cost? How do I install it? This internet linked book answers all these questions and shows you how you can use the power of the sun to generate electricity yourself.

The web site that accompanies this book includes on-line solar calculators and tools to simplify your solar electricity installation, ensuring building your solar electric system is as straightforward and succesful as possible.

Now is the time to get on board with this exciting technology. Whether you simply want to learn the basics of how solar electricity works or if you are planning to install your own solar electric system, then this handbook will provide you with everything you need to know.

About the Author
Michael Boxwell has designed and installed a number of solar electric systems over a number of years. Specialising in off grid electric applications, Michael has designed photovoltaic electric systems for projects as diverse as powering on-street vending machines to charging electric vehicles.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
93 million miles from Earth, our Sun is 333,000 times the size of our planet. It has a diameter of 865,000 miles, a surface temperature of 5,600°c and a core temperature of 15,000,000°c.

Directly or indirectly, our sun provides all the power we need to exist and supports all life forms. The sun drives our climate and our weather. Without it our world would be a frozen wasteland of ice-covered rock.

Solar electricity is a wonderful concept - taking power from the sun and using it to power electrical equipment is a terrific idea. No ongoing electricity bills, no reliance on an electrical socket - `free' energy that doesn't harm the planet!

Of course, the reality is a little different from that. Yet generating electricity from sunlight alone is a powerful resource with applications and benefits throughout the world.

But how does it work? What is it suitable for? What are the limitations? How much does it cost? How do I install it? This book answers all these questions and shows you how you can use the power of the sun to generate electricity yourself.

Along the way I will also expose a few myths and show where solar power may only be part of the solution - and although undoubtedly there are some significant environmental benefits of solar electricity, I will also be talking about where its environmental credentials have been oversold.
If you simply want to gain an understanding about how solar electricity works then this handbook will provide you with everything you need to know.

If you are planning to install your own solar electric system, this handbook is a comprehensive source of information which will help you understand solar electric power and a practical guide to projects you can undertake yourself.

If you are planning your own solar installation, it will help if you have some basic DIY skills. Whilst I also include a chapter that explains the basics of electricity, a familiarity with wiring is also of benefit - and essential if you are planning a larger project such as powering a house with solar power.

I will keep the descriptions as straightforward as possible. There is some maths and science which is essential to allow you to plan a solar electric installation, but none of it is complex, and there are plenty of short cuts which I'll cover which are invaluable in keeping things simple.

The book includes a number of example projects that are useful to show how solar electricity can be used. These range from the very straightforward - providing electrical light for an allotment shed or garage, to fitting a solar panel to the roof of a caravan or boat, through to installing photovoltaic solar panels to a house.
I also show some rather more unusual examples, such as discussing the possibilities for solar electric motorbikes and cars - showing what can be achieved using solar electricity alone with a little ingenuity and determination.
Throughout the book, I have used one main example throughout - providing solar electricity for a holiday home which does not have access to mains electricity. I've created this example to show the issues and pitfalls that you may encounter along the way. It is based on real life issues and practical experience.

There is a web site that accompanies this book, with lots of useful and up to the minute information, lists of suppliers and on-line solar energy calculators that will simplify the cost analysis and design processes.

Customer Reviews

Outstanding!
THIS BOOK IS A "MUST BUY" FOR ANYONE INTERESTED IN SOLAR ELECTRICITY!

There are quite a few books around on this subject, but none come close to this one. Many are written solely for the US market, but this one covers US, Canada, UK and Europe very effectively. The author presents the theory in a practical, easy to understand way, and also suggests methods of determining your own requirements for a solar project. There is a supporting website with calculators that help you to work out the optimum solar solution for your needs, and clear down to earth practical dos nad don'ts.

I've looked at a considerable number of books on this subject. This is the best I've seen so far.

My thoughts about the book
With so many books about solar power around, I was not sure if I had picked the right one when it arrived in the post.

But on spending a weekend reading the book and understanding everything it tells you. I can say its one of the easiest books to get hold of for an introduction and help and guidance in the design of your system.

With its internet links and tables and watt usage for the majority of items in your home, it makes calculating the watt usage a breeze.

I can recommend this book to anyone who is thinking about using solar power in their home.

At last. A high quality, detailed, book on solar electricity.
This book is unbiased about solar electricity. It informs you about what solar electricity is good for and what it's not. It also correctly sets your expectations of what you can achieve, and the cost benefit.

It starts off explaining all the terminology you will encounter and differences between them, such as Solar Power, Solar Energy, Solar Heating, Grid-tied solar electric systems, Wind power, etc. To give you an example, here is the sort of information you get: Because a grid-tied solar electric system becomes part of the national grid, the system will switch off in the event of a power cut. It does this to stop any electricity flowing back into the grid - which could be fatal for engineers working on repairing the fault. The author also explains whether to grid-tie, or not to grid-tie.

As you may be designing and installing your own system, it covers in detail all the formulae and for calculating power, volts, current, resistance and watts.

It covers what kind of batteries to use, what controllers and inverters do.

As part of any design process you need to calculate the amount of solar energy available, surveying your site, calculating the amount of energy you need, sizing the solar electric system, component selection and costing. Once again, this book covers all the above in detail, from caravans to boats, from simple lighting to full on household fridges and TV's. It has tables of the amount of power required, the average hours of use and the watt hours energy of most common devices you would use solar electricity for. There is an appendix for this too covering a great many devices from laptops to fish tanks.

There is more to surveying your site than you think. I've learnt a great deal here. It covers in great detail about where to position your solar array, it covers roof mounting, ground mounting, pole mounting, the suns path, checking for obstacles, cabling, etc.

I didn't know this but there are many different types of solar panels. It explains what each of them are, what they cost and which is best. It also covers brands from BP to Sharp, and also includes information on second-hand solar panels.

I've mentioned before the book covers batteries and inverters, but there are excellent chapters on them covering how you should wire them, balancing the batteries, what brands to use, what power rating to use, and even what cables to use. There are clear diagrams on how not to wire your system and how to wire it correctly. Ie, if you put your earth on the wrong end of a series it shortens the life of the battery and means they end up out of balance. There are formulae for calculating the cable thickness you will need and covers where you should position your batteries.

Another chapter I found interesting was troubleshooting. It covers what the common faults are, too much load or maybe even insufficient power generation, etc. All the information is here.

Calculating solar energy can be tricky as it depends on where in the world you live, and what month it is. Well, there is a large appendix covering Latitude and sun height for USA (detailing all the states), UK (detailing all the major towns), Ireland. The author has supplied a website where you can obtain all of these charts and more on-line, which also include Canada and mainland Europe.

Another chapter (again quite large) covers the solar insolation values of USA, UK, etc. for every month of the year. You will need this information when designing your system.

This book also explains how to live off the national grid together.

The final "must have" is that the author has created a website that allows you put your project details in (devices, what voltage, what watts, hour of use), cable lengths, where you live in the world, tick what months you plan on using the system, how long you want the batteries to support you (battery holdover). It calculates this and provides you with an 11 page detailed report, including how much the estimated cost would be.

I actually contact the author (Mike Boxwell) about my own project which is how to cool a large conservatory during the day, and keep it warm at night. My house is open plan and the conservatory is part of my living space. It's boiling through the day and quite cold at night. I was thinking about powering the air-con from solar panels, but was scratching my head about the night time. Mike told me all about building a ground heat source instead. A large dug out area in the conservatory floor, filled with crushed glass, then covered back over with the flooring. A small £30 - £60 solar panel to drive a small fan which drives hot air from my conservatory into the crushed glass which stores up the heat. The crushed glass is cold during the day so it gives out cool air into the conservatory. At night, the fan stops as the solar panel stops generating electricity due to no sunlight. By this time the crushed glass is hot, so it gives this energy back into the conservatory keeping it lovely and warm. Mike Boxwell is a genius.

Honestly, this is a fabulous book with a wealth of information, real world examples, and detailed how-to's with diagrams so you can do it yourself.