Greetings Energy Hero's!
Dan the Solar Man here from Carbon Recall!
So, you have made the decision to go solar, but not quite sure how big of a system you will need.
You’re in luck! This week, we dive into the sizing process, including the calculations and some new terminology that will make you an expert!
Before we get started, you will need a copy of your latest electric bill. Ideally, this bill will show you two pieces of key information needed for this process. The first should be a bar graph showing your last 12 months of electric consumption, by kilowatt hour, kWh. This will show you what your peak electric consumption throughout the year is, as well as the second piece of information, which is your average monthly kWh consumption.
The first step in sizing your system is determining how many kWh you need to compensate for in a 30-day period. If you have the money, you could target the peak, but it is much more cost-effective to target the average. In this example, let’s use 1,000 kWh as our target.
Targeting 1,000 kWh means you need to produce 33,330 watts per 24-hour period.
The next step is to determine how many watts you need to produce within a single Solar Hour. For this example, a Solar Hour is what Solar Panel Manufacturers use to rate how much energy a solar panel can produce. Depending on your geographic location, there should be between 4-5 Solar Hours received within a 24-hour period.
Let’s assume your location receives 4 Solar Hours on average. This means that to target 1,000 kWh per month, you need to produce 8,332 watts per solar hour.
The last step is to figure out how many panels you will need in order to achieve this target watts per solar hour. We prefer the 430 watt Mission Solar Panels, which means we would need 19.37 panels, rounded up to 20, in order to produce your monthly target of 1,000 kWh per month.
Ready to see what a system for your home would cost? Get in touch with us today for a free, no-obligation, quote & energy assessment.
Carbon Recall York
Daniel@CarbonRecallYork.com
803-306-6380 (NET0)
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