How many solar panels?

7 March 2009 No Comment

The number of solar panels to power a home is a common question, and there is no easy answer. Typically, you would need to know how much sunshine you get in your area, and how much power you need for your home.

Before looking into this, you should concern yourself with reducing your homes electricity usage first. For example, using energy saving lightbulbs, or LED downlights, not leaving devices on standby, not leaving unused computers switched on and making sure energy saving features are enabled etc.

Generally speaking; the average size of a solar system that powers an entire house generates about 2,000 watts. This isnt a huge amount and is only enough to power about 30 light bulbs. In order to generate this much power, it would require a solar system that is about 20-25 feet wide, by 10-12 feet tall.

There is quite a lot of panels to make up this system so the initial cost would be quite large; however panels last up to 20-25 years so they wouldnt need replacing anytime soon. Also bear in mind that as solar panels have no moving parts there is no "wear and tear" on them, and they hardly ever break.

Where possible, you may also want to look into a small wind turbine in your back garden if you are in a suitable location which will reduce your requirement on solar energy (and on having so many panels).

You can however get the following solar panels cheaply at the moment