Hi There!
Do you ever feel like you finished a sentence mid thought?
That is what I feel like I did with my last posting, and I very much apologize!!
I started to tell you how many solar panels you might need, but never really finished with the full picture. Or I guess I am saying I could have given a fuller picture, with a few more details. I am not the best at details. I like broad strokes.
First of all, about finding out how much power you need. Before you can use your average daily wattage demands to figure out how many solar panels you would need as I recommended here, you need to know how to figure out your daily wattage use! Now, I am not thinking that most people could not figure this out, but we all have days, and maybe it didn’t jump out at you. One of the BEST ways to figure out your daily wattage use, would be to add up your utility bills for a year. After adding these up, divide 12, and then divide by 30. There I go being me again. OR you could divide by 365 : ).
If you don’t keep all of your utility bills, which is a good idea at any rate, then you may have to use what you have. If your bills tell you last years and this years on the same bill, you might add all of them up, divide by the number of months (including the ones you added from the last years total), and then divide by thirty. This is what I had to do, since I don’t have all of them at my fingertips.
So, if you figure out that your average daily kw usage is 30, how many solar panels will you then need? Based on the formula I had given, if I had an average of 30kw per day, I would need a solar panel system of 7KW, or 7000 watts. That’s a lot of solar panelage. And of course, that would be to pretty much go “off grid”. Not necessary in the beginning to be sure.
To be more precise will take more precise calculations and formulas. The basics include the first item we discussed, determining how much sunshine you get in a day. I presented to you the solar power calculator in this post here, and hopefully that will give you a pretty good idea. I will be posting some other calculators as well, just to give you a more rounded perspective. But that won’t be tomorrow… Well, maybe. One never can tell. But, depending on how much sunshine you get, this will play a huge part in how many solar panels you need. The formula given on the other page that I had linked to for the wattage formula, is almost based on a 5 hour day of sunlight hitting the solar panel.
Some other items that would need to be considered are the exact location of the panel(s), and their angle(s). These things are so important, because that is going to determine how much power the panel actually absorbs and then is able to release for your electricity needs. This can be complicated, and you could hire an installer to help you figure it out, or you might be able to determine how to calculate it from one of the do it yourself guides that are on the internet.
As I mentioned before, one great thing about them is that you can go as slowly or as quickly as you like. Start with one, and see how it alleviates some stress on your bill, and then add as you see fit. If you want and can, you can even store power in a battery for later use.
Hope this helps! If you have any questions, please ASK! If I don’t know the answer, I am extremely resourceful and will get it for you… or at least will do all I can to try.
For a fabulous education on solar panels, please check out altE by going here. If you scroll down the page a bit you will find some useful information such as: What shapes, sizes and types of solar panels there are; how long do they last, what else will you need, etc.
Until next time,
Let the sunshine in!!!
Lauren
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