A neat article on Solar

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How Many Solar Panels Do You Actually Need?

Apr 28th, 2009

by Lauren.

Hi Again!
photo credit: montereypubliclibrary

Yesterday we talked briefly about the importance of determining your location’s ability to sustain solar and wind power for your home house, or business. I trust you found the solar calculator tool to be helpful. I will be posting some other solar calculators as well very shortly.

Today we are going to talk about how you determine what your solar panel needs actually are.

One question that comes up quite frequently when mapping out your plan to build your own solar panel energy is, how many solar panels would or do you need?

Well, this will depend on a few factors. The main factors are your average electrical usage, roof angle, shading problems, climate, and of course other potential factors.

The formula to figure out the size of array you would need is to multiply your average daily demand in killowatt-hours by .25. This will give you the approximate size of solar panel array that is needed to meet your electrical requirements.

Some other factors to consider are how much you want to go off grid. And, are you wanting to go off grid all at once, or ease into it?

One great thing is that you don’t have to build your solar panel system to meet your entire electrical demands all at once. When you use a book like Earth4Energy or Home Made Energy you are able to take the plans, and build your solar panels one at a time, building them as you need them or as you are able. Even when you start with one, it is the start to saving some electricity, and it is even portable so that you can take it with you when you go camping, or just want to get out of the city for a while but desire to take your laptop with you.

You might wonder if there is any value in pursuing building your own solar panels, if they aren’t going to take you off the grid right away. I say, yes and amen, it is! Imagine cutting your electric bill by 25%? How about even 40-50%? And then when you have a battery backup, and earth4energy shows you where you might even obtain free batteries, you can experience uninterrupted power to critical during power outages for days or weeks.

A solar panel energy system is unlikely to wipe out all other sources of electricity right off the bat. Even those that are professionally installed will not take you from electrical dependency to zero dependency in a moment. They can, but they are extremely expensive. But, that is where government and city incentives come in. But that is for another day.

So, there you have an idea of how to determine what your starting point for building your own solar panel energy would be.