The first step to answering the question “how many solar panels are needed to power my home?” is to assess your goals.

Why are you going solar? Are you looking to minimize your environmental impact? Are you trying to save some money on your utility bills? Are you trying to do a bit of both?

Once you’ve clarified your motivations for transitioning to solar power, you’ll also need to know the following information in order to calculate how many solar panels you’ll need for your home: how much energy your household consumes on average; your roof’s usable surface area; the peak sunlight in your area; the efficiency and wattage of the solar panels you are considering; and if net metering is available to you.

To determine the average energy requirement for your home, reference your past utility bills. On utility bills, average usage typically appears as “Kilowatt Hours (or kWh) used”. Average daily energy use is the target daily average for you to calculate your solar power needs. Note time period represented too; this usually appears as 30 days. Make sure you have both daily and hourly usage. If your bill doesn’t show the daily average, divide the monthly or annual average by 30 or 365 respectively. Divide again by 24 to figure out the hourly average. For reference, the average U.S. home consumes 900 kWh per month, meaning 30 kWh a day or 1.25 kWh per hour.

Related: The Commercial Uses For Solar Process Heating

Remember solar panels don’t work at 100% efficiency 24/7. Weather is one factor that affects efficiency. Hence why solar power experts recommend giving yourself a cushion of 25% for the daily average to make sure all your energy needs are met.

Peak sunlight hours based on where you live directly impacts how much energy your solar power system produces. Luckily, Santa Clarita is a prime area for harnessing sunlight all year. You can visit the Renewable Resource Data Center for specific sunlight information though. To get the amount your energy panels need to produce per hour, start by multiplying hourly usage by 1,000. This converts hourly power generation to watts. Then, divide your average wattage requirement per hour by the number of daily peak sunlight hours for Santa Clarita. As a sample, a home that requires 900 kWh per month in an area that gets about 5 hours of peak sunlight hours a day will need 6,250 watts.

Make sure when opting for solar panels, go with an efficient option because the more efficient a solar panel is, the more wattage or power it generates. This means that you’ll need to install fewer solar panels on your roof to meet your energy needs.

Roof size and shape also make a difference. Having a larger roof area will allow you to purchase larger panels at a lower cost per panel to achieve your target energy output. If your roof is smaller, unusually shaped, or extremely shaded, going with fewer but higher efficiency panels may be a more viable option. Solar experts will further need to check out your roof’s architecture and the sun angle among other variables to see how to physically arrange the correct number of panels needed to power your home.

Net metering is something else to look into when assessing how many solar panels you need for your home. Net metering is how your electric company gives you credit for producing excess solar energy when the sun is shining and then how it allows you to use those credits when using a conventional power grid in the evening if your home doesn’t have a solar battery storage unit.

If you want to find out how many solar panels you need to power your home without doing all the calculations on your own, contact your local Santa Clarita Valley solar experts. Pick My Solar is a free, online platform to compare solar offers from the best solar offers. Their competitive market place automatically finds the Santa Clarita community the best deals, saving them valuable time and money. Visit their website at www.pickmysolar.com.

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