How many solar panels you need to power your home?

Residential solar panels are a considerable investment for most homeowners. If you are considering to use solar energy, you may have many questions about it, including how many solar panels you need to power your home.

Generally speaking, the average solar system in a household consists of 12-24pc solar panels, but the exact number you need depends on various factors, including where you live, how much energy you typically use, and how much power your panels can provide.

It may seem like a lot of consideration, but when you decompose it, it's very simple. Let's take a look at the three key factors that determine how many solar panels you need to power your house, as well as examples of how to calculate the system size.

Understanding the average annual, monthly, and daily electricity usage is the key to estimating the number of solar panels you need. The amount of energy used may vary greatly, depending on the number of people in your home, as well as the number and frequency of appliances you own.

Check last year's energy bill to find out how much electricity you have used in all four seasons (note: in kilowatt hours). Once you have this number, you will know how much solar energy you need to generate to meet your needs.

A single solar panel can generate a certain amount of energy, depending on the conditions of your home (including how much sunlight you receive and the amount of shadow covering the roof). This number is called rated power, in watts, and the typical solar panel produces power between 400 and 600 watts. For example, you may purchase a solar panel with a nominal output power of 450W. You need to multiply the wattage of the panel by the number of hours of sunlight you receive per day to understand how much energy it will generate.

If you don't have much space, you may need to invest in solar panels with higher rated power, as they can generate more energy for each panel.

Your physical location is a key factor affecting the efficiency of household solar panels. With more sunlight, each of your solar panels will generate more electricity. For our calculations, we assume that you have four hours of sunlight per day.

Of course, the location of your home is not something you can change. In short, when your solar panels are able to absorb as much sunlight as possible, they will operate at their maximum capacity.

Considering these variables, we can roughly estimate the number of home solar panels you need. In this example, we will use the average annual energy consumption, solar panel wattage, and sunshine hours we mentioned earlier.

Assuming your property receives four hours of sunlight every day, and you purchase 325W solar panels. In this case, each solar panel can generate 1300 watt hours (or 1.3 kilowatt hours) per day. Assuming your energy usage meets the average level of 29 kilowatt hours per day, you need 23pc 325 watt solar panels to provide sufficient electricity for your home.