The first time i came to know about Solar Energy was after watching the movie “Race the Sun”. It was a story about low- income and under achieving Hawaiian students encouraged by their teacher to join the Solar Car race. In the movie, a car shaped like a cockroach and covered with solar panels used the sun’s rays as an alternative energy source to run the car.

Solar energy is the energy produced by sun’s light and heat. Solar energy is not only a free source of energy, but its also unlimited in supply. There are no air and water pollution caused about by using solar energy. But there is still some impacts on the environment although indirect.

The use of solar power for homes for daylight systems are also being used to maximize the energy released by the sun. This system is used to supply internal illumination by replacing the non-natural lighting. The different types of Daylight system include Sawtooth roofs, Light Shelfs, Skylights and Light Tubes. Daylight systems when they are properly implemented can reduce lighting-related energy consumption by 25 percent.

The light from the sun can be converted into solar thermal technologies, and can be used for the purpose of heating water, space heating, space cooling and process heat generation. Solar energy can also be used to distil water and make saline or brackish water potable or drinkable.

Photovoltaics or PV is the method used to convert sunlight into electricity. PV has been mainly used to power small and medium-sized things like a calculator powered by a single solar cell. There are homes powered by photovoltaics. Using solar energy for water and space heating is the most widely use application of solar energy. While ventilation and solar air heating is also growing in popularity.

Solar energy efficiency with all its benefits has some limitations. Its disadvantage being that it does not work during night time. The cost of setting up solar stations is expensive, but the benefit of using solar energy when accumulated is so much more.

When we refer to solar energy for home use, we are differentiating it from the solar power used by commercial enterprises or the electricity derived from solar power which can be purchased by customers. When you think about residential solar power, there are two possible types that are solar power that is ‘off grid’ and that which is known as ‘grid tied,’ or which is also known as net metering.

Off Grid

Off-grid solar energy refers to that power not related to an electric utility or its grid. Solar energy such as this does not involve residential power lines or the batteries required to store electricity for those times when the sun not available. In the daytime however, the photovoltaic array can store the excess energy in the batteries which is then turned into electricity and given off into the system through the batteries.

In the off grid type of residential solar power systems, there is also need to have a generator which is useful when there is no sunshine as it helps in charging up the batteries rather than use the power from the sun.

Grid Tied

The second kind of solar energy is a net metering system or grid tied, and this type will have power lines connected to a utility company’s electrical system and it does not require batteries for storage. The presence of sunlight causes the electricity meter to spin backwards until darkness descends; and, then, the meter will spin in the forward direction because of a need to fulfill solar energy requirements. This form of residential solar power is administered in a manner quite different from one electric utility company to another with each using its own set of rules and regulations.

There is a lot to recommend using residential solar power in either form since it is a means to get energy that is not only long term, but which is also renewable, and with it, you don’t have to depend any longer on your utility company, and you are also not dependent on foreign governments, and best of all, you don’t need to pay for it. There no doubts that residential solar power is the way to go.

I have understood from experience that locating a leak in a flat roof can be somewhat difficult and expensive.  In our home it took 3 different roofers, making multiple visits, to identify the point in our flat roof that a leak was coming from.  The reason why identifying leaks in flat roofs is difficult is that very often the point where the leak shows in the ceiling below can be quite different from the point at which the leak is occurring in the flat roof itself. 

The most obvious places to look for leaks on flat roofs are flashing or joints or seals of any kind.  Now, flashings are used at the point at which the roof joins adjacent non-roofing material such as brickwork.  As an example above our kitchen extension we have a parapet wall at one edge of the roof and flashing closes the gap between the roof and the wall. 

As reported at flat roof company, a capable roofer will first examine such flashings to isolate gaps through which water could maybe pass. Flashings are typically made of a metal material like lead. 

It is also usually a problem to test for leaks on a flat roof in the way you would on other types of roofs. The reason is because it could take hours for water to trickle down to the ceiling below from the moment you poured it on a suspect area on the roof. This means that in reality it’s very hard to test and track multiple suspect places.  This is covered in more detail at the epdm flat roof web page.

The key to effective flat roof leak repair is to know in upfront the areas most likely to be vulnerable. The best test alas is to carry out the work to close suspect gaps and then wait to see if the leak persists. Hence flat roof repair depends greatly on the intelligence, honesty and experience of the roofer you hire.