(KERO) — Some of you may be wondering will having solar panels help with power grid issues? And perhaps, how well do solar panels do in the summer?
According to a report from ABC News on a really hot day, you'll actually produce less power because the solar panel gets too hot. The heat from the sun actually degrades the efficiency of the panel. ABC says that the perfect weather conditions for solar panels are strong sunlight combined with cold temperatures.
Some good things that solar panels do for a home are that they can actually help to cool a home. In a home without solar panels, the sunlight will directly hit the roof causing the interior of the home to get hotter. But with solar panels on the roof, they will absorb the sunlight first meaning that not as much of the sunlight’s energy reaches the home’s roof and eventually the inside of the home will not heat up as much.
You may be wondering if having solar panels and a backup battery for your whole home may be a better option during the summer, especially if a power outage were to happen due to the heat.
A database called Green Tech Media reports that solar panels can help with lower energy bills but those backup batteries won't necessarily help during a nighttime power outage.
During an outage, most backup batteries won't have enough energy to run large appliances .and instead will only be useful for things like lights, phone chargers, and tvs. Those batteries can only run pool pumps for 60 minutes and a central AC unit for 30 minutes.
So It still might be better to have a gas-powered generator as a backup over a battery.
