For now the only way to use solar electricity in your home is to equip your house with solar panes. They are usually mounted on platforms on your roof with the ability to change position in order to gather the sun rays for as long as possible. And as for now we have to mount solar panels additionally to our home, maybe in the near future we‘ll be able to buy our houses already equipped with them. And not in the way they are now, but as a simple cover to the roof. You’re probably imagining some shiny mirror like roof already, but actually for the past year the National Institute of Standards and Technology has tested photovoltaic roofing products on roofs in Maryland that look just like ordinary tiles, slates, and probably the most popular shingles. All those roofing materials have photo-voltaic cells on them, but those cells are surrounded by inactive area so they cane be secured the normal old fashioned way ““ with hammer and a nail. For that period, that the tests were conducted, the results are rather encouraging ““ the solar power efficiency varied from 6 to about 16 percent. There still are some things to be smoothened – the major one being that those shingle based solar energy collectors are positioned in one place and not moving like the normal solar power panels, which can cause loss of sunlight. But with the quick development of this industry we‘re thinking that the solution for this problem, and any other you can think of, will be found very soon. There‘s one sure thing ““ when that happens those solar roof materials will change the house building for good…+|+