When You Are Considering Installing Solar Energy Panels On Your Home, Probably The First 2 Questions You Will Wonder About Are… “What Is The Price Of A Solar Panel?”… And… “How Many Will I Need?”
Typically most people think that the square-footage of their house will play an important part in the cost of their residential solar power system, but in fact, to the surprise of most people it means absolutely nothing!
In fact, the most important things are …
- Where you are in the world
- How much sun you get per day
- How much power you use
- How much (if any) rebates and tax incentives you will get.
Where you are affects how much yearly average sun you get. Solar panels make power from the sun, so no sun, no power. In the US that can vary from a yearly average of about 4 to 6 hours per day. You will usually get more in summer, less in winter. How much sun you get also depends on where the panels are, how much - if any - shade they might get during the day, and what angle and direction you can mount them at. To work best, solar panels should be aimed South, and tilted at around 15 to 40 degrees (again, depending on where you are).
A solar electric panel, often called a PV panel can come in 2 types of devices that collect energy from the sun:
- Firstly a solar photovoltaic module that uses solar cells to convert light from the sun into electricity
- Secondly a Solar thermal collector that uses the sun’s energy to heat water or another fluid such as oil or antifreeze.
How much power you use each month is the main variable. To find out, look at your electric bill. Someplace on there it tells you how many kilowatt hours you used for the month, and often gives a daily average. It will also tell you how much you are paying. To get the TRUE cost, divide your bill amount by how many KWH you used.
How to figure the cost for 100% solar power.
The first thing you need to do is to take number of KWH shown on your bill. Divide that by 30. That gives you your average daily usage. So if you use 900 KWH, that is 30 KWH per day.
Secondly, take that number. Divide it by the number of full sun hours you get per day on a yearly average. Multiply it by 1.15. That will give you a pretty close estimate of how many watts of solar panel you need. So if you get 5 hours per day, divide 30 by 5 - that gives you 6 KW, or 6000 watts. Multiply that by 1.15, which gives you 6900 watts of solar panel needed.
When you take into consideration that the average installed cost of solar electric if you do it yourself is around $7 per watt, or $9 if you have it installed by a licensed contractor. That includes the cost of the panels, inverters, wire, mounts, and other hardware. It does NOT include anything else you might need to pay for, like inspections or extra watt meters by the electric company. So that system will cost you around $48,300. A battery based system will cost around 20-30% more.
How to make your own home made solar panels
Making your own homemade solar panels are not as hard as you think. There are many plans out there that can teach you how to do this inexpensively.
Residential solar power system
A typical residential solar power system comprises photovoltaic panels, batteries, controller, and inverter.
We consume fossil fuels at a greater rate than we have ever had over the past 50 years. That demand is fueled by the increase of cars on the street, the number of planes that take to the air and the number of homes that need electricity.
Countries On The Helm Of Solar Energy Technology
The US is not a leading user of solar energy for a very obvious reason: they can still afford to buy fossil fuels from the international market.
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