The Great White North Goes Solar

Maybe you have some over the border family members seeking to go solar.  This article can explore some of the costs from the other countries perspective, informing you of your own pricing for a solar worldview. With electricity rates expected to increase distinctly over the next few years, Manitobans face a decision, incorporate the added energy costs or decrease the amount of energy they pull from the grid. Those who take the secondary route can either reduce their electricity needs or produce. Both options will save money in the long term, but require upfront investments of time, power, and yes, cash.

Manitoba has an aggregate of 1,293 hours of sunlight per year, making it the third-sunniest region in the country, detailed by Solar Panel Power Canada. The fantastic response to Manitoba Hydro's solar panel rebate program exhibited a healthy appetite for solar in Manitoba, but along with the initial expenses comes a host of unfamiliar terms, numbers and technical questions that can prove overwhelming. To assist in making the learning curve a little less steep, CBC News has put together this example to answer some common questions for those interested about how they can soak up the sun and lower their hydro bill.

What's In A Panel

With no moving components, the process by which photovoltaic panels turn sunlight into electricity can seem somewhat puzzling, but it's not magic.
Within the cells of the panel is a layer of silicon, and that's what gives the panel its dark color. Sunlight particles (photons) excite the electrons of the silicon atoms. Electrodes inside the cells accumulate the electricity and pump it out in direct current (DC).

Manitoba Solar Bust Coming?

The DC from the panels is then tapped to an inverter, which transforms it into alternating current (AC) power to be used by household devices.
Manitoba Hydro has a bi-directional metering plan, which means that when the output of the panels exceeds the power needs of the home, that power is then sent back into the grid and credited to the homeowner's statement.

Kilowatt-Hour

To estimate out how big your solar panel array demands to be, you need to know how much energy you use in a year. The kilowatt-hour is the most popular billing unit for power delivered to consumers. To determine kilowatt-hours, take the wattage of any household appliance, multiply that by how many hours you believe it's used, and divide that by 1,000.

This home is heated on 2 hair dryers' worth of power in winter, and presently it's easier to have a home like it. So if you utilize a 100-watt light bulb for 10 hours, you've applied 1 kWh of electricity. Conversely, a 10 kW system will generate 10,000 kWh of power per year.

Study your electricity bill and add up how many kilowatt-hours of power you used in the last year, divide that by the average amount of sunlight hours you get in a year, in Manitoba, that's 1,293, and you have the capacity of the solar system you demand to take care of all your power needs.

Want to save and be guided by experts? Go to HahaSmart.com and try our price checker tool. It tells you how much solar power you need and how much you can save on your energy bills each month.

Please visit our solar blog to find out more about the benefits of going solar.