Calculate Your Solar Panel Needs

If you re following along at home here s the calculation so far so you can plug your own numbers in.

Calculate your solar panel needs.

Calculate your daily kwh usage. The first step is calculating the kilowatts needed. This takes into consideration the cheaper glass or plexiglass used in diy panels heating of the panels and lack of expensive electronics. Next you can estimate your average daily kwh usage by dividing your monthly usage by 30.

Do not panic we will raise these numbers later. Calculating the number of solar panels needed to power your entire home involves determining your daily energy requirements finding the daily peak sunlight hours for your location and then dividing your overall needed watts by the watt rating for the solar panels you choose. You calculate how many solar panels you may need by dividing the maximum hourly solar energy system output by the wattage output of one single panel. Once you know the peak sun hours estimating the number of solar panels needed for 1 000 kwh is simple.

So the average american home in the average american city needs 6 62 kw of solar panels installed. For example if your solar panel is rated at 100 watts figure on about 30 watts output. You must simply divide the average daily kwh by the peak sun hours assuming a 30 day month an electricity generation of 1 000 kwh is equivalent to 33 33 kwh per day. For now calculate 30 of your homemade solar panel s rating.

Calculate solar panel costs for your home determine your average monthly electricity usage. The number of solar panels of the size used in the calculation will theoretically meet that energy demand during a sunny day.