To fully replace your electrical bill with solar energy, you need to get enough solar panels to create that power. Homeowners often wonder how many panels they need to replicate the power they get with normal electric systems, and with the varying amounts of sun in different areas and properties it can be difficult to estimate.
What your home will need is primarily determined by where you live and how many kilowatt hours (kWh) you use. With our help, you’ll learn how many panels your house will need.
What Is a Kilowatt Hour?
The most common form of measuring energy for electrical power in a building is a kilowatt hour. This is the number of kilowatts of energy that are produced or used in an hour. Since one kilowatt is 1,000 watts of power, you can determine how much you need from your current electrical bills.
If you take the number given to you in your electric bills (usually given in an annual or monthly figure) and convert it to daily or hourly usage, you can see your average hourly electricity use. This can let you see how much energy you need to get from solar panels in a given hour.
How Does My Location Affect Solar Energy?
The region where you live will also affect your solar needs. Sunnier areas like the Southeast U.S. or California will be able to receive more sunlight than places in the Northeast or Pacific Northwest. These are things that your solar provider will consider when deciding on how much you need at home.
What Is an Estimate for My House?
With a standard 250-watt solar panel system and an average household usage of 11,000 kWh of energy a year, we can calculate around how many panels you need for an average home. This puts daily usage at around 30 kWh, and with only five optimal hours of daily peak sunlight, your system needs to be able to reap 6kW of energy in an hour. Now we can look at the standard 250-watt panels, which are only 0.25 kilowatts based off of conversion. Dividing the 6kW minimum by the 0.25 kW panels means that this house needs 24 solar panels to meet 100% of their energy desires.
Keep in mind that this is a very rough estimate that does not take into consideration location factors or shade but gives you a formula to derive a more personal estimate.
Solar Installation in Central Florida
It is crucial to make sure that you get enough solar energy for your home so that you can continue to supply all of your needs. At PES Solar, we will help you determine the requirements of your property and assemble the best plan to tackle your energy overhaul. Contact us today for your free quote!
