The Numbers Behind Solar Panel Prices
So you’d like to convert to solar energy. Naturally, most people considering this project want to know “How Much?” Consumers often make the mistake of thinking the expense is related to their home’s size, but that is probably the least significant factor in determining solar panel prices. Granted, a bigger house will have more roof space and will often use more power, but those generalities aside, the square footage isn’t a big consideration.
More important is your geographic location, the amount of direct sunlight you receive on your southern exposure, how much power you use and how much of that electricty you want to replace with solar energy. These factors all contribute to determine the number of panels needed and therefore impact the price.
Also, different panels have diferent efficency ratings (i.e. they are {capable of producing|able to produce} more or less {power|energy|electricity} per panel). So as you can start to see you must first know how many panels you need before individual solar panel prices are a concern.
We prefer the do it yourself method to get the best Solar Panel prices.
Having said all that, figure on approximately $9 per watt for new, professionally installed solar panels. There are a few simple steps to identify the number of watts you will need. Start by finding the total killowatt hours on your monthly electric bill and divide by thirty to get the daily kilowatts. Next, estimate your locations total hours of direct sunlight each day - just come up with an average figure because direct sunlight varies based on the time of year.
To get the amount of power you will need to generate during the direct sunlight hours, divide the daily kilowatts by the daily direct sunlight hours estimate. Finish by multiplying the result by 1,000 in order to convert the kilowatts back to watts.
As an example: If you use 1,000 KWH per month, divided by 30, you use 33.33 KWHs per day. If you get 5 hours of direct sunlight per day, you need to collect 6.66 Kilowatts per direct sunlight hour throughout the day (33.33 daily kilowatts divided by 5 hours = 6.66 kilowatts needed per hour). Multiply the resulting 6.66 by 1.2 to properly size your system and to account for fluctuations in direct sunlight and you get 7.99 Kilowatts needed each day while the sun is shining (6.66 * 1.2). Finally, multiply this result by 1,000 to convert back to watts and you get 7,990 watts per day. So replacing 1,000 KWHs per month of electricity will require that you can generate 7,990 watts during peak hours. At $9 per watt, it will cost approximately $72,000. Now here’s the catch. Even though you are creating enough energy during the peak sunlight hours to power your house for the entire day, you still have to power your home after the sun goes down. You can do this in one of two ways. Don’t forget that although you are producing 7.99 kilowatts per hour during the peak hours, you are consuming only about 1.4 kilowatts per hour throughout the day.
First, you can collect the extra energy you produce during the day in batteries and run your home on that battery power when the sun isn’t shining. Batteries will increase your costs by another 25%. You also have the option of selling back to the power company any excess power you generate during those peak hours. You would then run your home on public electricty for the remainder of the day. This method offsets the electricity you purchase against that which you sell back. Either way, you can see that solar panel prices are only a portion of the total cost for solar powering your home.
If this seems confusing, read through it a couple times and it will start to make sense-honest. On our site we specialize in do it yourself solar and wind power, where you can save thousands of the cost. We have many articles related to solar panel prices, homemade solar planning, construction and installation.
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