San Diego Residential Solar

So how does the residential installation of a solar energy system work? Here are the basic steps that go into turning the Sun’s power into clean, usable energy for your home.

1. First, solar modules made up of several photovoltaic cells are mounted on the roof of your home, where they then covert sunlight into direct current (DC) power.

2. This DC power gets sent to an inverter, which in turn converts the DC current into Alternating Current (AC) power, the same as the kind that gets sent from your utility company’s power grid.

3. The AC power then travels to your home’s breaker box (or service panel), which houses your property’s electrical fuses. From the breaker box, power is distributed as needed throughout your home. 

4. A utility meter is also installed in your home. When your solar energy system produces excess power, it flows into the utility grid through the utility meter. This causes the meter to run backwards, and each time this happens you gain a credit with the utility company.

The utility grid, in turn, provides you with power whenever you needed it, regardless of whether your energy demand exceeds your solar production or not.

The net metering legislation says that utility companies have to credit customers for their excess power that’s put into the grid at the same rate they would have been charged at the time for power used. This means that you will be credited at peak rates for power that you feed into the utility grid at peak hours.