Follow The Money Efficiency

You can lower the overall up front cost of a,

... solar power system significantly,

... by improving your Efficiency, of the following areas.

Your Power Consumption Efficiency:

If you had to choose a 75 watt incandescent over a 15 watt fluorescent,

... both of which are a similar brightness,

... you would have to spend an additional 120 to 240 on solar panels,

... to produce enough power for the incandescent light bulb,

... over each fluorescent.

Your Battery Efficiency:

Lead-acid batteries are 50% to 80% efficient, and

... lithium-ion batteries are 80% to 99% efficient.

Example: If a battery is 80% efficient then you get back,

... 80% of the solar power that you supplied to it, the other

... 20% is lost as heat.

Your Solar Panel Efficiency:

The lower the efficiency of a solar technology,

... the less electricity it will generate.

Total Area Efficiency is defined as the performance of,

... an entire (normal) solar panel that consists of multiple solar cells.

Solar panels reflect some light away from solar cells, and

... they can even trap some heat,

... which worsens solar cell efficiency.

The amount of solar power your system generates,

... is also dependent on how much DIRECT Sunlight they receive,

... which can be increased by tracking.

02-09-2015 Source: Follow the Money: Efficiency