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If you’re considering moving to a home solar power generation system, you’ll need to determine how many solar panels you need If you’re only looking to replace a portion of the power you currently buy from the local utility, then any number will help. Those who would like to eliminate their electricity bills completely, though, will want to be precise in terms of how many solar panels they install.

One thing you’ll need to do is to figure out the amount of electricity you use in your home per day. You can do this by gathering up as many of your monthly electricity bills as possible. (You may be able to see your old bills online through your utility company as well.) Use these bills to see how many kilowatt-hours (kWh) you use on a monthly basis. Divide this figure by 30, and you’ll have a figure for your average daily electricity usage in kWh.

Another important variable pertaining to solar power systems is insolation. Insolation refers to the amount of usable sunlight the panels will receive in a given area. Solar panels only produce power when they are struck directly by sunlight. The sunlight also needs to be of a certain intensity. The angle and intensity with which solar panels are exposed to sunlight on a particular surface will vary over the course of a year. It even varies just over the course of one day. Insolation figures reflect the average sunlight exposure for a given area. You can find insolation maps online. Then, divide the necessary kWh of electricity from the first step by the insolation value to get the power capacity you’ll require from your system.

There’s one more factor to consider. Although the latest systems are much more efficient than earlier ones, with any power system, there is always a certain amount of power lost during conversion. The common rule of thumb in this respect is to act as though you’re getting a loss of 25% (although you’re probably getting much less than that) just to be sure. Multiply the figure from the previous step by 1.25 to get the amount of power, including loss, that you’ll need. Now you can see how many kWh of energy you need, adjusted for insolation and efficiency.

So, to determine how many solar panels you’ll need, divide that last figure by the output in kilowatt hours of your solar panel of choice.

One of the foremost questions a homeowner faces when deciding on whether to install a home solar power system is, “How many solar panels do I need?” If you want to know the answer to this question, head on to How Many Solar Panels Do I Need?

If you want to build your own solar panel, visit Build Solar Panel. You might also be interested in a mini course on how to build your own solar power system. Visit Solar Power Calculator to sign-up for a 6 part mini course.

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