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Solar Shingles - Save money, save the planet Solar shingles are an exciting new technology that replace existing roof shingles with solar shingle photovoltaic cells that convert the sun's light into electricity for use in your home. Solar shingles can save you money and help save the planet. Solar shingles generate no hydrocarbons. Solar shingles can reduce or eliminate your home use of electricity produced by CO2 producing power plants. And the energy source for solar shingles, the sun, is free!
Solar shingles look like conventional shingles and, besides generating electricity and keeping the look of your house, they protect the roof from rain and weather just like the old fashion kind of shingle. Solar shingles can save you tons of money in energy costs. In some cases, solar shingles can generate more electricity than you need that can be sold back to the power company. Initial costs are higher than solar panals, but many believe that the aesthetics more than make up for it.
Solar shingles are the result of the great advances made in solar cell technology in the past few years. Most solar shingles are about 12 inches wide and are laid in an overlapping pattern either grouped together in one area of the roof, mixed in with asphault shingles in a patchwork pattern, or covering the entire roof. The solar shingles are connected to each other and then either into an inverter that converts the electric current into usable AC, or into a battery for storage to use after dark or on cloudy days. If a battery system is not used then the excess electricity the solar shingles produce goes directly into the power grid where it is sold to the local power company.
Solar shingles are more expensive to install than larger solar panels. However, when you take into account the savings on the roofing tiles that the solar shingles replace and the tremendous savings in energy costs, it can reduce the impact of the up-front costs.
So, the next time you need a new roof on your house or you are planning to build a new one, consider solar shingles.
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