There's never been an improved time for you to consider a more sustainable substitute for your energy consumption.

When you install a solar photovoltaic panel (PV) system in your home the Government backed Feed-in-Tariff (FiT) could earn and save you up to £1,600 per year for the next 25 years, tax-free and index linked! Furthermore you'll be reducing your Carbon footprint by approximately 1700 kg of carbon per year.

From April 2011, the Feed-in-Tariff scheme gives you up to 43.3p per kWh of electricity produced although you may use it within the home. Any electricity not used could be sold back to the grid and enable you to get an additional 3p per kWh.

Here's what sort of photovoltaic solar panel (PV) grid-tied installation works within your home:

Firstly you have to install an array of photovoltaic solar panels either in your roof or attached to the ground. The optimum orientation to your photovoltaic solar panels is South, however, roofs facing East and West will still create a considerable amount of electricity. The amount of panels you should install depends on space available, your budget and also you current electricity consumption.

You're photovoltaic solar panels will produce electricity in DC (Direct Current), so you'll need an inverter to transform this current into AC (Alternating electric current) at 230V enabling the electricity to use within your home.

When you have generated your electricity and converted it to AC it passes via a Generation (or FiT) meter which tells you how much electricity you've generated from your photovoltaic solar panels. It is readings out of this meter that you'll pass in your electricity supplier to say your Feed-in-Tariff payments.

Following the electricity passes from the Generation meter it connects to the grid via a dedicated fuse in your consumer unit (fuseboard). Came from here it can travel by 50 percent directions. If you're at home and are consuming electricity (watching the TV for example) anything you're currently generating will probably be used to power your appliances. A further bonus of using the electricity you generate is always that you're not having to import and purchase electricity from your supplier. This could be worth an extra 13p saving (depending on your electricity supplier's tariff).

If you are not at home and/or are generating greater than you're consuming then any excess electricity is exported out of your home to the grid network where you're get paid an additional 3p per kWh (at current rates). If you do not have an export meter fitted by your electricity supplier it will be assumed that 50% of all things you generate is exported. This can be another incentive to use as much of what you generate inside home as you can. This often simply requires changing some of your habits inside home so that you operate some of your more electricity hungry appliances (washers, dishwashers) during sunlight hours rather than in the evenings.

Just thought you may be interested in reading this guide: photovoltaic solar panels and solar panel rebate.

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