How many solar panels does it take to power a house? Solar power can be an amazing addition to your home that can add to your property value and save you money in energy costs.
However, as with anything that’s likely to save you a lot of money in the long-run, the upfront cost can be high depending on how many solar panels you need to power your home. To help you decide if they’re right for you, it’s essential that you work out how many solar panels you’ll need to power your home in 2020 to ensure you generate enough energy.
Solar solutions are a brilliant way to save energy, whether you need to generate electricity, heat your pool or make sure you have enough hot water throughout your home. Ask yourself these questions before deciding how many solar panels to invest in for your home.
How Will You Use Solar Energy?
One of the crucial first questions to ask when thinking about how many solar panels you’ll need is how you’ll use solar energy. This depends on your needs. Do you just want to use a solar pool heating system? Do you want to use solar panels to generate electricity for your home? Or do you want to do both?
First things first, consider the size of your home and the amount of energy you currently use. A good way to do this is by looking at your utility bills from recent months and calculating your monthly energy usage in kWh. If you’re not sure how to do that, take a look at this quick and easy resource to help you learn how to read your energy bill.
When you look at these bills, you’ll see how much solar power is required to offset your desired amount of usage. Your usage and needs will vary depending on a few factors such as:
- How large your home is
- How many people reside there
- How much energy you use on a day-to-day basis
Discovering how much energy you’ll need in 2020 will help you understand how many solar panels you’ll need. As a guide, when working out your watt usage from your utility bills, an average home in the U.S uses around 900 kWh per month, which works out as 30 kWh per day. Taking into consideration whether you are over the average or under the average watt usage can help you decide how many solar panels you will need.
Are You Located in a Solar-Friendly Area?
It sounds obvious to say that solar panels will work differently in different locations, but many people who are new to the world of solar energy are surprised to discover this. Solar panels don’t always work at 100 percent efficiency since they depend on sunlight.
This means that where you live, and even how much sunlight your specific garden area gets, can alter how solar panels perform.
Working out the peak hours of sunlight throughout 2020 for your area will help you purchase the right amount of solar panels to power your home. If you live in a state that gets less sunshine, you will need more solar panels than if you lived in a sunnier state.
You can also use the NREL’s PVWatts calculator to estimate the performance of any photovoltaic system you install. The calculator will show you an estimate of a range of kWh generated per year based on your zip code. From there, you can compare annual solar production to your usage.
How Many Solar Panels Do I Need to Power a House?
There’s no correct answer to this as it really depends on the size of your home, how much energy you use, and how efficient your solar panels are in your space. On average, the residential solar panels that you’ll be looking at will be around 65 inches by 39 inches, with a depth between 1.4-1.8 inches.
As a general rule, every square foot of roof space generates 15 watts of solar energy when they are working at full efficiency. This means that the average home will need around 30+ solar panels to power their home in 2020.
However, the truth is that there’s no correct number of solar panels that will power a house since each home has different requirements. If you want to make sure you are investing in the most efficient solar panels for your home, it’s essential to work with a reputable solar solution provider.
Find Out How Many Solar Panels You Need to Power a House
