For those not conversant with the parlance of this subject. The system basically produces a large DC supply from solar panels; these connect directly into a unit that converts it into AC mains that supplies your house (and/or the grid). Its that simple: no batteries (giving off dangerous hydrogen) and virtually no maintenance costs.

The array depicted on the left consist of solar panels (or modules) that are guaranteed to produce 80% of their electricity capacity even after 25 years. Each panel can produce 158 Watts, rating the whole array at 1.58kW

To get the most output from the panels it is desirable to angle them so as to present the maximum area to the brightest part of the sky. EPS has developed a wall mounting system (that in itself is difficult to find) and an angling system©  that allows any choice of angle from the vertical position to the (almost) horizontal position to be selected either manually or automatically.

The Unit that Converts the Solar Electricity to Mains

It's a popular myth that the sun has to be shining directly onto the panels to produce any useable electricity; this is NOT the case; all that is required is daylight.

 

The unit on the left - actually an SMA Sunny Boy 1700E - accepts any DC voltage (above a certain minimum) and converts it to mains electricity for you. It also does a number of other clever things like choosing the MPP - Maximum Power Point transfer by searching for the output voltage with highest output power. Also with the addition of a small module, the unit may be connected to your PC! Here you can observe the performance of the array and even control it. Our demonstation system has this facility. An on-line example of this is in SMA's own facility in Germany.