ABC of photovoltaics
Azimuth - heading of a solar panel towards the sun. North = 0 degrees, East = 90 degrees, South = 180 degrees, West = 270 degrees.
Cleaning - opninons about cleaning differ. I personally inspect and clean my own panels once a year.
Clouds, overcast - photovoltaic panels produce electricity (though far less than in full sunshine) even when the sky is covered.
CO2 - carbon dioxide, greenhouse gas. 1 square meter of photovoltaic panel saves emission of approximately 40 kilograms of carbon dioxide per year.
Efficiency - number indicating which fraction of the energy supplied by the sun is converted into electricity. Common solar panels have an efficiency of approximately 15%. The rest of the energy is (unfortunately) converted into heat. Solar panels can become pretty hot (65 degrees Centigrade is not uncommon).
Electricity meter - when the photovoltaic panels produce more electricity than is consumed by the appliances in your home, this meter runs reversely. If your electricity meter is a modern electronic type, you will need a second meter to gauge the amount of electricity pushed back into the utility power grid.
EPA (Energie Prestatie Advies) - Advice after an analysis of the energy-efficiency of a particular home, with suggestions of possible measures to save (more) energy.
Grid-connected - photovoltaic system connected via an inverter to the utility's local power grid.
Inclination - angle between the plane of a solar panel and the horizon.
Insolation - amount of solar radiation received on a particular area in a set period of time.
Island Protection - built-in protection in the inverter against grid power blackout - the inverter switches off automatically.
Inverter - electronic device that converts direct 20V solar panel electrical current urrent into alternating 220-230V current.
kW - kilowatt = 1000 watts - unit of power. 1000 kilowatts = 1 megawatt, 1000 megawatts = 1 gigawatt, 1000 gigawatts = 1 terawatt.
kWh - kilowatt-hour: amount of labor generated by 1 Watt during 1 hour.
Life expectance - of solar panels: an estimated 25 years
Monitoring - monitoring produced electrcity is best done with a production meter or with a data logger. These devices are expensive. You can also monitor the main electricity meter of your home (especially on a sunny day). Keeping track of your home's electricity consumption only makes sense when you have been doing this for some years.
Off-grid system - autonomous system consisting of photovoltaic panels, control/charging unit and batteries.'
PV - photovoltaic.
Seasons - photovoltaic panels produce best in the spring and summer, and least in the fall and winter. Whenever they catch sunshine, they generate electricity, even in the middle of winter.
Solar heater - device designed to heat air or a fluid (e.g water) by means of transferring energy from sunshine into the heating medium. A survey of solar heaters can be found at http://www.diydata.com/
Solar cell - smallest unit of phovoltaic electrcity generator. A solar panel consists of a number of colar cells.
Solar collector - device that converts sunshine into heat. Solar cookers and solar heaters are examples of solar collectors.
Standalone system - autonomous system consisting of photovoltaic panels, control/charging unit and batteries. Also named 'off-grid'
String - a number of serially connected photovoltaic panels.
Winter - even in winter, solar panels can produce a lot of electricity. See for instance Bill and Mary Lord's solar home in Maine, USA
Winter care - don't worry, solar panels are solid state - there's no water that may freeze.
Wp - Watt-peak - maximum power output of a 1 square meter solar panel at 25 degrees centigrade. This unit of output is devised to compare the performances of various types and makes of solar panels. A 100 Wp panel is supposed to produce 100W. In real life a solar panel performes less. Use as a rule of thumb 80% of the Wp value.
Yield simulator - computerprogram written with the prupose to predict the amount of kWh your panels in your situation will produce. See www.ecn.nl/solar/yield/ or www.volker-quaschning.de/software/pvertrag/index.html.
