Using Solar Panel to Power Your Entire House


 

Introduction

Today many people are looking for alternative ways to power their home and reduce the energy consumption they need from their electric company. Some people use wind turbine to power some of their appliances but for this to work the homeowner must live in a place where they are a lot of wind in order to take advantage of wind power, so they turn to solar power because no matter where one lives, there will always be sunlight but the question is how many solar panels to power a house? because everyone can use solar power to power almost anything but to know how many solar panels it would take to power the entire house is a challenge.

Why Use Solar Panels

Using solar panel not only save money but it is also environmental friendly as well because it does not leave behind a lot of carbon footprint and if everyone starts using solar panel it would help our planet and slow down climate change. According to the article titled "Benefits of Renewable Energy Use" "human activity is overloading our atmosphere with carbon dioxide and other global warming emissions. These gases act like a blanket, trapping heat. The result is a web of significant and harmful impact" (n.d) so it is necessary to use solar power and less burning of fossil fuel. Today both wind and solar energy are the best alternative way for people to use energy but people rely on solar more because it is much more reliable than wind since wind are not everywhere and solar can everywhere so it is best to use solar power over wind power when possible.

Number of Solar Panels

The number of solar panels for powering a home can vary because the amount of electricity used by people can go up and down every day so to know the exact number of the solar panel they would need to power the entire house can be difficult. According to the article titled "How Many Solar Panels are Needed for a 2000 Square Foot Home?" if we have both people A and B and they are both living in a 2000 square foot home, but person A is working long hours and spend the evening out with his friend while and his monthly bill is only 40 dollars a month while the person B has kids in the house and the kids spend a lot of time on the TV, computer and video games, the electric bill for person B will be much higher than person A. Even though both live in a house that is the same size the amount of energy they use will be completely different from each other.

Determining Power Usage

In conclusion to know how many solar panels are required to power a house, one would need to look at his or her past utility bill and multiply the household energy per hour by the peak sunlight hours for your area and divide that by the panel's wattage to find out the result. One must also need to find out how much sunlight is hitting the roof every hour to find out the exact number of solar panels needed. According to the article titled "How Many Solar Panels Do You Need", "you would need to know how much energy your household is using, the surface area of the roof, the climate, and peak sunlight in the area, the wattage and relative efficiency of the photovoltaic panel you are considering and whether the net metering is available". (n.d) The best way to estimate the amount of solar panels needed to power the entire house is to consult a professional that will perform a complete home evaluation that will determine how much solar panel is needed for that particular house.

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