Basic Solar Components & How They Work - Solar Panels, Inverter, Batteries, & More Explained (Ep. 2)

Introduction to Solar Power Systems

a solar power system is comprised of three main components technically there is more but we will get into that in today's video we want to break down the three main components give you a quick analogy and a demonstration to help you fully understand what those components are how they function and how they all work together to create a solar power system so what is up you guys welcome back to the lab this is the second video in a very short little series playlist that we're putting together for you guys to help you understand the basics of solar we want you guys to be able to understand the terms and Concepts as well as be able to appropriately SI and choose a system or power station that actually fits your needs so let's get into it

Core Components of a Solar Power System

Solar Panels: Capturing the Sun's Energy

First main component is a solar panel now this obviously is a very tiny solar panel but the solar panel's job is to capture the energy from the Sun and turn it into a usable electricity in most cases it's going to turn it into DC or direct current which we explained in the last video and solar panels are measured in watts so this tiny guy right here for example is a 25 W solar panel and all solar panels on the back will have some sort of cabling that comes off of the panel and has some fittings on it that you're able to then run to your battery bank or your inverter and solar panels even though they all look the same actually come in a ton of different shapes and sizes so like I said this is a 25 W panel you can get 100 W panels 200 WT panels 400 WT panels the end of the day they all do the exact same job and what you're trying to focus on is how many watts you are getting from the total amount of panels that you have the first and most important component on a solar power system is the solar panel

Batteries: Storing Your Power

The second main component of a solar power system is your battery so this for example is a 12vt 2,636 wat hour battery all batteries are also measured in wat hours and they store the direct current that your solar panels have produced inside of them now you don't technically need batteries for a solar power system you could be running a system where you're selling the energy back to the utility company but in our opinion systems without batteries just don't make sense batteries like solar panels come in a ton of different shapes and sizes and size ratings so this is a small little 12vt 2,600 W battery right here these are bigger 48v 5,000 W batteries these fit nicely into a system that they call a server rack which is just how you stack them all up these would take up more of a foot print on the floor there's a ton of different options and sizes and voltages for Batteries but for the most part you just need to be focused on what the capacity is and once you find a kit that suits your needs you can figure out different battery types if you need to

Inverters: Converting DC to AC

and the final main component for a power system is your inverter so inverters again come in all different shapes and sizes this is what a more typical solar power inverter is going to look like and the inverter actually plays a role twice we said initially that the solar panels produce DC current that comes down and gets stored in your batteries most of the time that current passes through your inverter and your inverter will have a built-in charge controller that monitors and makes sure that all the voltages and everything going into the batteries are stable so you don't blow stuff up but the main point of your inverter is to take that DC power that has been stored in your batteries take it into the inverter switch it over to AC which you can then use to power all of your stuff and this is responsible for the conversion process and again this is more of like a traditional off- grid style one but there's also things like this that you guys might see on a boat or you might even have a tiny version of this that plugs into a 12vt socket in your car and you use it to charge your laptop on a road trip and again as you can see clearly these are measured in watts like everything else in a solar power system and the main thing that you need to focus on when you're looking at inverters is the wattage how much does it output which will tell you how much stuff you can run off of it and the solar input is also a key component to that how much solar power can it actually allow into it and monitor to send to the batteries

Integrated Solutions and System Demonstration

Portable Power Stations: All-in-One Power

and you might also be looking at a unit like this which is a portable power station this literally combines the battery and the inverter and makes it super easy and maneuverable to use these offer a ton of value in different aspects like they have all the ports and plugs and everything already built ready into the front of them most of them come with some sort of Light which is nice if you're moving around and taking this thing with you and they almost all come somewhere with a solar power input so you can still plug a solar panel directly into this so everything that you're learning also applies to these smaller portable power stations even the bigger portable power stations but to make it all make sense we're going to break it down into individual components because you can't actually see the inverter or the batteries inside of this thing

A Real-World Solar System Setup

And so to give you guys just a quick visual of an actual system this is just a simple solar power system that we have mounted up to hopefully help you guys understand just a little bit better and you can see the main components right away we have our inverter mounted up on the wall we have our batteries sitting right here we obviously need to get them inside of a proper rack and the solar panels are outside so right here you guys can see behind the compressor it's kind of awkward you can see these cables coming in from outside these are our solar power cables they're bringing the wattage from on the roof down into the house they run through this which is basically a safety switch now the power is running through these into the inverter now it's not so I can touch them and I won't get electrocuted that runs up into the bottom of the inverter the inverter processes the information it has a built-in solar charge controller sends the power out through these cables this is just a glorified version of a bus bar sends it into the batteries right here where the power is then stored all that this is doing is giving us the ability to basically have multiple connections coming off of these batteries without having to have a bunch of different leads bolted onto the the battery terminals themselves it just keeps it a little bit cleaner you can see right here these are AC plugs they come out from the AC port on the inverter so this is a 3000 W inverter and it's spitting out a cable right here that goes down to some plugs we have access to 3,000 WTS of power right there and when we're using those it's just going to be pulling power back from these batteries through the cables up into the inverter converting it to AC because up until this point it's been DC power converting it to AC and then spitting it out down here so we can charge drill batteries that's all we've been doing so far and like that it's very very simple this inverter also has the option for AC in so this is a cord that runs down over to here and if I plug this guy right here into the wall you end up putting 120 volts of power from the wall through this cable through the inverter it inverts it from AC to DC because now we're putting AC in and then it sends it over to the batteries for storage

Understanding Your Power Needs: An Analogy

The Bank Account Analogy

so an analogy that we like to use to make this make sense is literally just your bank account your bank account is like your battery Bank your paycheck is like your solar input and your spending habits are like your inverter and so to put numbers to this say you had $2,000 in your bank account that's equivalent to your battery bank and if you have A500 watt inverter or a $1,500 spending habit every 2 weeks you know that for the next 2 weeks you're going to spend about 1,500 bucks you're going to have 500 left and that's good news because every 2 weeks your solar panels produce another $2,000 paycheck right into your bank account and you're good to go and just like everybody's financial situation being completely different everybody's solar kit could be completely different you could have a tiny amount of solar but you get paid every single day or you could have a massive solar array that gives you a huge paycheck but you live somewhere like we do where you might go 3 weeks in the winter without getting a paycheck at all so what you need to make sure is that that battery bank or your checking account has enough money in it and your spending habits are good enough that you're always is going to have enough money in your bank to go do whatever you want while you're waiting for that next paycheck to come from your solar panels

Additional Components for Your Solar Setup

Charge Controllers

And like I said at the beginning there is just a few extra components that are not necessarily main components but are worth noting cuz you're probably going to see them in other people's videos or in descriptions for kits or products that you're looking at and the first one is a charge controller now this is kind of becoming a little more obsolete as a lot of inverters like this one on the wall and the MPP one that I already showed you guys has a charge controller built directly into it so the solar comes from the panel through the inverter to the batteries you don't have to worry about it but what this does here is it takes all of the wonky voltage that's coming out of your solar panels because as the sun comes in and out behind clouds your panels are producing more and less voltage this takes it Smooths it all out and sends it to your batteries and makes sure that there's not going to be any overloading or anything like that you're not going to blow your battery Bank up and that is his main job like I said most inverters nowadays have a solar charge controller built in but if not that is one extra component that you might be seeing

Power Distributors (Bus Bars)

You also might be seeing something like this which is a distributor or even a bigger version like this links distributor right here uh you may also know this as a bus bar and what this does is it basically just makes it so that you don't have to have a bunch of connections on your batteries so what you can do with a bus bar like this is you can run positive wire from your battery to one post which then because they're all on the same piece of metal right here gives power to all of these posts so you could have your battery coming in and then you could have from this post going out to your inverter from this post goes to another inverter and from this post goes to your charge controller so they all get power and it's all very clean and easy to understand and you could just take one off at a time something like that similarly to how if you look at this system right here there's some Open Spaces because we don't have it completely jammed up but if we wanted to expand that system we can do so without having to add a bunch of connections and wires directly to the terminal on the battery

PV Array Isolators: Safety First

You also might see a PV array isolator and basically what that is is just a switch we have one right here and that switch has your solar coming in from the roof and then it runs over to your inverter and that switch basically just disconnects those wires which makes it safe to work on your system so if I was actually going to do any kind of servicing or rewiring of this inverter behind me I would just kill the switch which disconnects the power and now any live power that's coming from the panels on my roof which are producing voltage in the sun isn't going to the rest of the wiring and it's safe for me to touch it and change it and do all that kind of stuff

Conclusion

And so that is it that is the fundament and the main components of a solar power system and how all the components work together I hope this video made sense and I hope it helped some of you guys if it did make sure you share it with some friends and help some more people understand some technology that can actually help to better all of our Lives otherwise I will catch you guys in the next one thank you guys so much for watching peace out then stay charged

Solar Services: Technical Specifications

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the three main components of a solar power system?

The three main components are solar panels, batteries, and an inverter. Solar panels capture energy from the sun and convert it into DC electricity, batteries store this DC power, and the inverter converts the stored DC power into AC power, which is what most household appliances use.

Do I always need batteries for a solar power system?

Technically, you don't always need batteries if your solar power system is designed to sell excess energy back to the utility company (grid-tied system). However, for off-grid systems or for maximizing self-consumption and having power during outages, batteries are crucial for storing energy for use when the sun isn't shining.

What is the purpose of an inverter in a solar power system?

The main purpose of an inverter is to convert the direct current (DC) electricity generated by solar panels and stored in batteries into alternating current (AC) electricity. AC power is the standard used by most homes and businesses. Many modern inverters also have a built-in charge controller that monitors and stabilizes the voltage going into the batteries.