How Many Solar Panels Do I Need For My Home?

From stoves to scooters, almost everything is electric these days. Integrating solar panels into your home is a fantastic way to take control of your power needs while helping the environment. It can also save you money!

Keep reading below for a guide on how to calculate just how many solar panels you need for your home.

Solar Panels For My Home

How Many Do You Need? Use The Solar Panels Equation

The official equation to figure out how many panels is easy! Just take your home’s hourly energy usage and multiply it by peak sunlight divided by your panel’s wattage.

This may seem rather abstract compared to your usual set equation, but each of these variables plays a key role in establishing your specific power need. Your power need dictates the number of solar panels necessary for your home or property.

The Breakdown

Having some specific information about your home is vital in calculating the number of panels you need based on your location. Poor planning can mean not having enough power or so much that it’s being wasted. Wasted power means you are wasting your money.

Your Consumption Number

You can contact your current energy provider for your home’s daily power needs. If they can’t provide your daily usage, you can calculate it based on your monthly usage divided by 30. Remember that this number doesn’t have to be exact, as a range will allow you to factor in any fluctuations in your usage.

The different seasons will also bring different numbers into your energy consumption mix. If you have electric air conditioning your energy needs will increase with the temperature. If you tend to travel more, you may not need as many solar panels as a similar home in the area.

Sunlight Measurement

For most regions in the United States, your peak sunlight data can be found online. If you are having difficulty finding your peak sunlight measurement by yourself, reach out to your local news meteorologist. They may have access to more data than you can find on your own.

Know that the more you can pinpoint that data to your location, the better your equation results will be. Someone in Rochester, New York will have vastly different power needs from someone in Syracuse — just 2 hours away.

And finding solar panels in Charlotte can be hard. You need to research online, going through websites like this: https://blueravensolar.com/north-carolina/charlotte/.

If your area is prone to unpredictable weather, you may also need to get a longer timeframe than those in more moderate climates.

Solar Panels For My Home

Solar Panel Specifics

Lastly, knowing the wattage of the panel you are looking at is key to determining what you need. Each panel will have a different amount of wattage that it produces per day. There is quite a difference between the older 150 wat pannels and the modern 300 wat panels when it comes to space and cost.

Working closely with your solar panel provider can help alleviate the guesswork when it comes to figuring out which panels you should look at. Getting a good range on most productive versus most affordable can help pin down the wattage number you should use for your calculation.

Next Steps

Once you have plugged in your numbers you should have the exact amount of solar panels you need for your home. Take that information to your local solar panel provider to start the installation process.

Your electric future is in your hands. And if you want to learn more about installing solar panels, just keep reading here!