How many solar panels are needed to power an average house.
Average kwh per square foot solar panel.
The average sized solar panel takes up an area of 17 6 square feet and produces 265 watts under direct sunlight.
A typical american home will need 14 36 solar panels to cover their power bill and at least 227 square feet of rooftop space to accommodate the solar panels.
However keep in mind that there are many factors at play here so this is really only a rough estimate.
For the sake of example if you are getting 5 hours of direct sunlight per day in a sunny state like california you can calculate your solar panel output this way.
However most installers estimate solar costs by the amount of energy needed at 2 53 to 3 15 per watt before any tax credits or incentives.
Said differently the average american household consumes just under 11 000 kwh per year.
This size of solar panel layout will only take about 350 400 sq.
Given 1kw of panels produces 1642 kwh per year in ca and 1kw of panels takes up 68 42 square feet solar panels installed in california on average produce 23 99 kwh kilowatt hours per square foot per year.
On average a normal household will use around 37 kwh per day.
The cost of solar panels to power your house are 4 to 10 per square foot.
Ft so most homeowners will have more than enough room for solar panels.
So if you have solar panels that each produce 1 kwh of power per day you would need a full 37 solar panels to fully power your home.
But at 20 watts per square foot a system rated to produce 2 kilowatts would cover roughly 150 square feet while a 3kw system would take up about 225 square feet.
The national average cost of a solar panel is around 2 98 watt.
In order to find a range for number of solar panels we compared arizona and maine s solar panel production ratios 1 31 and 1 61 the highest and lowest in the u s.
The amount of energy that solar panels can absorb and then produce is measured in kilowatts kw.
The amount of energy your home uses over a certain timeframe say a month is measured in kilowatt hours kwh.
5 hours x 290 watts an example wattage of a premium solar panel 1 450 watts hours or roughly 1 5 kilowatt hours kwh.
Below are cost estimates based on home size.
And the average solar power system needed is a 5 kilowatt system.