What do solar panels run off of? (ex. lumens, watts, ect.?)?

Question

the input unit - not the output.

Obviously they run off of energy - but in what units is the energy.

Answer 1

the input energy if a solar panel is sunlight, called INSOLANCE and generally measured as WATTS PER SQUARE METER.

this is a suprisingly high number, i once read that the peak insolance in Las Vegas was 7,000 watts per square meter.

if you google solar insolance (which is redundant since the SOL in insolance is the sun, but necessary since google thinks you are misspelling insolEnce) you will find maps and charts to the average total daily solar energy flux (in Kilowatt-Hours) for the USA.

Harnessing solar power can begin as simply and cheaply as buying a clothesline.

Answer 2

There is something called the photovoltaic effect. Light energy (photons) knock electrons off of certain atoms, and the electrons form a current which can be tapped off and used to charge batteries or run other equipment.

Any individual photon will have a certain energy level, expressed in a unit called electron-volts. Photons are quantized, that is, they come in standard sizes, standard energy levels. When the sun fuses two hydrogen atoms together to make a helium atom, the photon that is given off should have the same amount of energy each time. (Hmm. That makes me wonder how sunlight can contain different colors, but skip that for now-- we know that sunlight DOES contain different colors.)

The electrons in silicon solar cells can only absorb certain photons, ones with shorter wavelengths (or, higher electron-volt levels.) They can't absorb red photons to produce electricity, they just make the silicon hot, but the blue ones have enough energy to knock electrons loose and cause a current flow.

So, I think the input unit you are looking for is electron volts.

Answer 3

Solar panels work by capturing the sun's energy onto sliicon wafers. The sun's energy excites electrons in the silicon which travel through circuits to charge batteries.

Check out:
http://www.igreenbuild.com/_coreModules/content/contentDisplay.aspx?contentID=1273

Answer 4

Solar panels run off of the sun - they are a silicon based set of chips or "waffles" that absord sunlight and convert the energy of it into electricity, measured in watts.

Answer 5

Build Home Solar Power : http://Solar.eudko.com/?ISM

Answer 6

photovoltaic cells convert light energy (photons) into electrical energy (volts)
it depends how you want to measure the light energy
eg do you want total energy or energy per area
the answer is probably lumens, lux or something related
suggest a search for photovoltaics

Answer 7

The sun

Answer 8

run of energy emitted from the sun