Solar Panel Installation Companies in Las Vegas
Are you considering a solar panel install in Las Vegas and don’t know how many solar panels you need? Figuring out the exact number of solar panels you need for your home will depend, to a large extent, on what your goals are. Depending on whether you’re looking to maximize the return on your investment, reduce your carbon footprint, or just save money, the right number of panels will be different. Most people just want a combination of a reduced impact on the environment and money savings.
Solar Panel Installation
In order to calculate the number of solar panels you need, there are a few things you should first find out:
- How much energy does your household consume?
- How much surface area is available on your roof for solar panel installation?
- What is the peak sunlight and overall climate in your area?
- What is the relative efficiency of the solar panels, as well as their wattage?
- Is net metering available for the PV (photovoltaic cells)?
The best way to answer all of these questions is to get a qualified expert to give your home a solar evaluation and determine your solar power needs. However, if you want to get a good idea of how the considerations work, read on.
Should you have solar panels installed – much energy does your household consume?
To determine the average energy needs of your home, start by looking at your utility bills. Use this to get your home’s hourly energy needs. You can then multiply that figure by the number of peak sunlight hours and divide by the expected panel wattage. A low wattage should be about 150W while a high wattage should be 370W. This should give you a proper range. As an example, it takes between 17 and 42 panels to generate 11,000 kWh/year. Other factors that will figure in are the amount of sunlight your roof receives, the size of your roof, and battery storage.
How many watts does your energy system use?
So how, exactly, do you figure your consumption in watts? Start by looking at your electricity bill, looking for something along the lines of “Kilowatt Hours (kWh) used). You should also take note of the time period for the bill, which is usually about 30 days. Alternatively, you can look for the start and end meter readings and subtract the start reading from the end reading for the period.
To get your daily average, divide the kWh figure for the month by 30 or for the year by 365. You can then divide again by 24 to get an hourly consumption rate.
Just for reference, the average US home uses about 900 kWh per month, so yours could be more or less than this, but within an order of magnitude.
Your average usage will be the basis on which you will calculate your solar power needs, assuming you want your solar panels to meet 100% of your needs.
How many hours of peak sunlight do you get in your area that could affect the solar panel install?
How many hours of peak sunlight your area gets will have a large impact on how much energy your solar panel will output, even if it has a large wattage capacity to begin with. If you live in a sunny area, you should be in luck, while living in an area with mostly cloudy or worse weather leaves you at a disadvantage.
Take your hourly usage from above and multiply it by 1000 to convert it from kWh to watts. Then divide it by the average number of peak sunlight hours in your local area. This will give you an estimate of how much power your solar panels need to produce per hour.
How does solar panel efficiency factor in?
The quality of the solar panels you get also makes a difference. Not all solar panels are created equally. Photovoltaic cells, which are the most commonly used solar panels in residences, have outputs ranging from 150 watts to about 370 watts per panel. This depends on the efficiency and size of the panels. You should therefore consider the expected efficiency of the solar panels you are installing when calculating your energy needs. The same considerations should be made for size.
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