What Is The Standard Sizes Of Solar Panels

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You're here because you've heard the benefits of residential solar panels. Namely, lowered energy bills and decreased carbon footprints. You know the basics of how solar free energy systems piece of work – they convert sunlight into electricity for your domicile. Are y'all wondering how many solar panels will be enough to ability your habitation? And if you take enough space to brand it worth it? Read on and we'll discuss everything you lot need to know about the size of solar panels, how many y'all'll need, and what type of power product you tin expect.

What Size Solar Energy System Do I Need?

Kickoff off, you'll need to evaluate how much energy yous typically consume in a given calendar month. Knowing this volition help you summate how big of a residential solar energy organization you'll need to install. Keep in listen that your energy consumption will fluctuate given the time of year and where you lot live. You're going to apply up a lot more energy during hot summertime months and during the expressionless of winter when your air-conditioning unit and your heater are likely running non-stop, compared to in the fall and spring when the outside temperatures are more than mild and don't warrant every bit much electricity to run your heating and cooling units.

energy meter

The average household in the U.s. consumes nigh eleven,000kWh of electricity per year. And the average size of solar energy systems installed in most homes is 5kW. To pause it down a little further, ane kilowatt hour (kWh) is equal to 1000 watts of power used in one 60 minutes. You'll need to get together data from your utility bills over the last twelvemonth, and most utility companies will calculate your average automatically if y'all ask, to determine what your average monthly/yearly rate of energy consumption is. This will inform how many solar panels you'll demand to install in your home to equip your energy needs.

How Many Solar Panels Volition I Demand?

In general, if nosotros're going on the national average of xi,000 kWh of electricity used annually, and use 250 watt solar panels, nosotros can estimate that the average dwelling house will need about 28 to 34 panels to generate plenty solar energy to ability the home.

How big are these solar panels? Physically speaking, the panels are about 65 inches by 39 inches for residential installations and they weigh about 40 pounds per panel. Solar panels used for commercial sites are a piddling bigger, just that's because commercial buildings are normally larger and can contain the size of the panels. Residential panels are smaller in size and weight because they are mainly designed for a domicile roof, which would demand to be able to deport the weight and size of the panels themselves.

single solar panel

Each panel will typically contain about 60 solar cells. These solar cells are what catechumen the sunlight into direct current electricity. The photons from the sun react with electrons released in the solar cells to generate electricity. Something called an inverter, which is part of your solar system, will and so take this direct current electricity and convert it into alternate electric current electricity, the type of electricity needed to power your home appliances.

Most standard solar panels are between 230 and 275 watts. As stated to a higher place, based on the average amount of energy consumption per year and the standard solar panel wattage, this equates to about 28 to 34 concrete solar panels that will need to exist installed at your house. Just because this is how many panels you'd need to embrace 100% of your energy consumption, this does not mean how many panels you lot'll be able to physically install. To summate this, you'll demand to know the size of your roof. If the most standard size solar panels are 17.5 square feet, and you have most 385 square anxiety of roof to install solar panels that will maximize the sunlight consumption, y'all tin can fit about 22 panels on your roof.

panels on roof

Simply, look. This won't cover 100% of the energy your home consumes. That's okay. Nigh all residential abode solar energy organization owners are still connected to the grid. And it'southward for this purpose. When you do non have enough energy converted from your solar panels to power your home, y'all can draw from the grid to power your habitation. In this way, you'll only pay the utility visitor for the small amount of power you used from the grid, instead of needing 100% of it from the grid. The other great thing nearly solar systems is that if yous produce more than solar energy than you can consume in a given twenty-four hour period, that excess is given dorsum to the grid and the utility company will give you credit (read: coin off your utility bill) for feeding your solar energy into the grid. Essentially, you tin can nevertheless come upward with a $0 free energy neb if what you return to the filigree is more than the corporeality you have from it.

How Much Energy Volition My Solar Panels Produce?

The key to answering this question is based on a number of factors, namely where y'all live and the fourth dimension of the year. If you live in a land with high rates of sunshine (remember California, Arizona) and then you'll be able to generate a lot more energy from your solar panels compared to someone living in Seattle.

sunlight

In addition to this, the fourth dimension of year volition have a big affect on how much energy is produced. This is because when days are shorter in the winter, the corporeality of sunlight yous have access to volition be less than in the summertime when the days are longer.
Other factors that can affect the amount of energy your solar panels will produce are related to the positioning of your dwelling house. If you live in a actually shaded lot, then your panels volition not be able to produce equally much power as someone who lives in the middle of a wide open field with no copse in sight. The key is figuring out what is the best positioning for your solar panels given your mural, the gradient of your roof, and the position of your house.

shade tree

For an example, if you install 22 265-watt solar panels on your roof, you lot'll generate about 5.83kW of electricity, leading to product of 6,366 kWh per yr. What's that mean dollar-wise? Based on average utility rates, expect your price savings to be over $700 that yr! Multiply that over the life of the system and yous'll understand why and then many people are going solar! In an average of 5 short years, you'll enjoy a 100% return on investment and at to the lowest degree 20+ more years of pure savings.