How do solar panels work?
From sunlight to the socket: how solar panels work, what the inverter does, and how you use or feed back the power you generate.
Solar panels capture sunlight and turn it into direct current. An inverter converts that into the alternating current your home runs on. What you don't use right away goes to the grid or into a home battery.
From sunlight to electricity
A solar panel contains silicon cells. Sunlight knocks electrons loose in those cells, and that produces direct current (DC). The more light there is, the more power. Direct sun gives the highest output, but even under cloud and diffuse light the generation simply keeps going.
So you don't need a heatwave. Bright but cool spring weather often gives a great result, because the cells work slightly more efficiently at lower temperatures.
The inverter does the heavy lifting
Your home and the grid run on alternating current (AC), while your roof produces direct current (DC). The inverter converts one into the other so you can use the energy at home or feed it back. Without this box a full roof is useless: the whole system stands or falls with a reliable inverter.
There are different types, from a central string inverter to a micro-inverter per module, such as Enphase. Which fits depends on your roof, the number of modules and any shading.
Self-use, feed-in and storage
If you generate more than you use during the day, the surplus goes back to the grid. In the evening and at night you draw electricity from your energy supplier again. How that exchange is settled falls under the net metering scheme, which is being phased out step by step over the coming years.
If you want to use more of your own generation instead of feeding it back, a home battery helps. It stores the daytime surplus for the evening, exactly when your usage peaks.
What determines how much you generate
Output depends mostly on your roof orientation, the tilt, shading and the wattage of your system. A module with more watt-peak produces more under the same conditions. A south-facing roof yields the most per year, while east-west spreads output more evenly across the day. How that converts into kilowatt-hours per year is on the yield page.
How we mount it on your roof
Our fitters attach panels on tiled roofs with hook systems, on flat roofs with ballast or on bitumen with suitable fixings. The cable runs neatly through the roof penetration to the inverter in the fuse box or garage.
In apartment blocks we check in advance whether the owners' association agrees and where the connection may go. Shade from a chimney or dormer decides whether we propose string or micro-inverters. After installation, usually within three weeks of agreeing, you see your output straight away in your inverter app.
Frequently asked questions
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