Energy Per Square Foot Of Solar Panel
Sizing a solar panel system to your home s electric usage can be done by taking look at your energy bills over a year.
Energy per square foot of solar panel. For a 300 watt solar panel with dimensions 64 inches x 39 inches 1 61 meters squared or 17 31 square feet the peak instantaneous electricity production per square foot at stc is 14 58 watts per square foot. How many solar panels do i need for 1 000 kwh per month. For the sake of example if you are getting 5 hours of direct sunlight per day in a sunny state like california you can calculate your solar panel output this way. How to calculate your own solar panel estimate.
Before purchasing a solar energy system for your home an important step is finding out how many solar panels you need. To put that into perspective a typical household uses about 897 kwh per month. A common size solar panel array is usually around 5kw and takes up around 400 square feet of space. 5 hours x 290 watts an example wattage of a premium solar panel 1 450 watts hours or roughly 1 5 kilowatt hours kwh.
The cost of solar panels to power your house are 4 to 10 per square foot. However most installers estimate solar costs by the amount of energy needed at 2 53 to 3 15 per watt before any tax credits or incentives. For those wondering how we estimated those numbers for energy consumption and required number of solar panels here s the breakdown. That translates to just over 15 watts per square foot.
Below are cost estimates based on home size. The exact number changes depending on the specifications of the chosen panel model as well as the sunshine available at the project site. Thus the output for each solar panel in your array would. While this does not sound like very much square feet do add up pretty quickly.
To understand how much solar power is produced per square foot it s helpful to know what solar panels are made of. The average sized solar panel takes up an area of 17 6 square feet and produces 265 watts under direct sunlight. 1 our maxeon solar cell technology combines a strong copper backing with ultra pure silicon and a light trapping glass surface that ultimately makes our panels 30. An array of this size can produce an average of 350 850 kwh of ac energy per month.
Energy information administration in 2018 the average monthly electricity consumption for a home in the united states was 914 kwh per month or about 30 5 kwh per day and 11 000 kwh per year. But every home is unique and could use more or less power than the average home. The first is to look at the peak possible instantaneous solar power production per square foot for a particular solar panel. How much energy does a solar panel produce.
Solar panel systems are measured in terms of kw. For instance if you have a panel that puts out 265 watts and is 65 4 by 39 inches in size the energy produced per square foot would be around 15 watts. How many solar panels are needed to power an average house. According to the u s.
Sunpower solar panels are the most efficient you can buy.