How to Determine How Many Solar Panels You Need
- 1). Look at your monthly energy bill statement to see how many watts of power you use daily. If your energy bill doesn't have information about daily energy use, you can use an online calculator (a list of calculators is linked in the resources) to perform a quick calculation. (See Reference 1) The average household uses 24,000 watts every day. (See Reference 2)
- 2). Calculate the average amount of sun you get every day. Make sure to calculate the average over the course of the year, not the average of the current season. In the resources at the end of this article, you will find some online calculators that can help you with this. (See Reference 1) The average household gets six peak sunlight hours every day. (See Reference 2)
- 3). Divide the watts you use each day by the amount of sunlight you get every day. The result is the number of watts you'll need to generate every hour. The average household will need to produce 4,000 watts per hour (24,000/6).
- 4). Choose solar panels based on your tastes and needs. Solar panels are rated in watts, and panels with more watts tend to be larger. If you need to produce 4,000 watts per hour, you may select eight 500 watt panels, forty 100 watt panels or any other combination, as long as the number of panels times the number of watts equals the amount of power you need to produce. (See Reference 1)
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